Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

this is my first post ever so bear with me please.
sorry if i broken any rules.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qrxs9W

im aiming for fallout 4 quality games.

i read on this site that the best motherboard.
for the i5-3570K is the asrock z87.

but i cant find it in stock.

or is the ASRock - Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard good?

any help would be appreciated.
thank you in advanced.

Don't build that system. If you really read that the 3570K was the best, you're reading something that's incredibly out of date. They don't even make that chip anymore it's so out of date.

Thankfully, that means that more modern hardware can do an even better job of running Dolphin, so in pretty much all cases, you can make do with any reasonable latest-generation hardware.

However, your aim for Fallout 4 quality games is a little ambiguous. Fallout 4 itself isn't very well optimised and so has much higher hardware demands than other games that look much better. If you mean that you want emulated games run via Dolphin to look that good, then you might have issues, as while you can increase the internal resolution, use custom textures, and run post-processing shaders, the way lighting and materials work can't be changed, and that's also a massive contributor to how good a game looks.

i should have been more specific.

id like to be able >to< run fallout 4 grade games but dont have to.
but i want to be able to run gamecube and wii games at least at native as long as its playable. and maybe wii u.but thats a long shot.

would you have any suggestions?

A much better build for you: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/TWxs9W

7th gen overclock-able i5-7600K
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO cooler (one of the best coolers)
Z270 motherboard for overclocking
Crucial M.2 SSD 525GB
2TB HDD
8 GB DDR4 RAM
Nvidia GTX 1060

Get some extra fans if you like.
There really isn't a need to have a 1TB SSD, as its way cheaper to get a 500 GB M.2 and a big HDD for storage.
Plus a better GPU.
And saves you a couple hundred $$$

You're massively overpaying for previous generation CPU/Motherboard, which are slower than the newest stuff (Pretty much any 7 or 8th series CPU is faster, and any AMD Ryzen will be faster - AVOID AND NON-RYZEN AMD CPUS!)

Here's 2 example builds, I consider them "About equivalent", but they have different strengths. If you *just* want single thread performance (which both dolphin and fallout 4 prefer - but you'll likely be GPU limited most of the time on fallout4 anyway), go for Intel instead of AMD CPUs.

Similarly, the graphics cards (nvidia 1060 6gb and radeon 580 8gb) are pretty much the same, and can be switched based on which is cheaper wherever you are. Try to avoid the 3gb 1060 though, as it's actually a slower GPU not just less memory, and the 580 8gb has faster memory than the 4gb, so it tends to be a little faster too.

Also, a 1tb SSD likely isn't needed right now - I have a "fast" 512gb ssd for windows & "the current games I'm playing", and a big 3tb "slow" HDD for long-term storage, where performance isn't as important.

Build1:
AMD Ryzen 1600 (slightly slower single thread, 6 cores instead of 4 for the intel one - some games prefer this, some prefer single cores).
The ryzen comes with a stock cooler that isn't too bad, and can probably cope with (small) overclocks too. Not that ryzen overclocks well
AMD Radeon Rx480
16gb ddr4 (not the fastest in the world, it's unlikely you'll get the full 3000mhz speed out of ryzen, but a boost from the "default" 2133 to 2400 or so can make a big difference to ryzen)
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Pb786X
$1073.29 according to pcpartpicker

Build2:
Intel 7600k (Faster single threaded performance than the ryzen, but only 4 cores instead of 6)
Decent cooler (probably a fair bit of overclocking headroom)
NVidia geforce 1060 6gb
Everything else the same as above
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/nkVwRG
$1112.79 according to pcpartpicker

Both should be faster than the one you linked (better CPU *and* GPU), and noticably cheaper too - what's not to lilke?

wow!
thanks for that.

ok i know that the GPU does not do much for base emulation
but any recommendation.

and which do most of you prefer?
hard disc drives or solid state drive
i know the pros and cons of both
but it'd be nice to know


edit:anything important about those SATA ports

(11-01-2017, 01:15 PM)steamjunk1997 Wrote: [ -> ]wow!
thanks for that.

ok i know that the GPU does not do much for base emulation
but any recommendation.

and which do most of you prefer?
hard disc drives or solid state drive
i know the pros and cons of both
but it'd be nice to know


edit:anything important about those SATA ports

SSDs: Small and fast.
HDDs: Big and slow.

So in my mind it makes sense to have one of each - put the things that need to be fast on the SSD (your OS, whatever game you're currently playing), and put the things that don't need to be fast (any documents/videos/photos/music/whatever, games you're not currently playing but don't want to redownload off steam/download new patches etc.) on the HDD. I see that as the best of both worlds.

My example builds don't have a HDD, but you can grab a cheap-ish sata 3tb one (which seems about the peak price/space ratio right now) for $70 or so. You might already have a SATA hdd if you already have a pc, and it might be large enough to keep you going.

If you don't have large amounts of stuff to store, or you only play a few games that aren't huge, you might not even need the HDD. But I would *strongly* recommend getting a SSD for at least the OS plus a couple of games, so a minimum of 256gb or so. The 512gb one gives you quite a bit of room so you don't have to manage it quite so carefully, but I currently see a 1tb ssd as less useful, unless you *need* that much data on the "fast" device at all times.

As for SATA ports - they're all backwards compatible. If it has a SATA port, it'll work with no problems. It might not work at the top speed, but that doesn't really matter unless you're on an SSD (as no HDD can keep up with the top-speed SATA anyway). As the SSD I listed uses the M.2 slot, it bypasses any consideration there.

The SSD I put in my example builds actually fits into the M.2 slot on the motherboard - both the motherboards I listed support this, but if you do change something it's probably best to check it'll still fit.

As for preference - if you are only interested in gaming, I'd go for the Intel & Nvidia one right now.

I personally have a Ryzen, but I do things that use a lot of cores - Games right now don't get much benefit beyond the 4 cores that the intel system provides, so the faster single-thread speed of the Intel system pushes it ahead.

And AMD radeon GPUs seem to still be overpriced due to demand for mining right now - don't pay more for a radeon 580 than a geforce 1060. Plus, in most dx11 games (like fallout 4, for example) the nvidia geforce is probably slightly faster anyway.

i play games both emulated and not,
i do a little 3d modeling and less rendering,
and music,

so i guess a ssd would be of little use outside of booting the os and a few games faster.
what about the failure rates of hdd

and the only computers i have access to are 8 years or older
and my granny would kill me if i touched the insides of them.

failure rates of HDDs are pretty low as long as you're not like, bumping or banging on the system while it's running.

If you're really paranoid about failure rates, just buy 2 HDDs and RAID 1 them. Most motherboards come with features in chipset to do RAID 0/1

i have had a 1 tb portable hhd that i guess the disc spinner died in.
and a 1 tb internal hdd for a laptop that might still be usable.