Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hey folks, I am currently looking to buy a new pc, I want to make it as pro-dolphin as possibly without going over about a 1500$ (canadian) budget. Here is what i've come out with as my best option so far:

1 x Intel Core i5 750 Quad Core Processor Lynnfield LGA1156 2.66GHZ 8MB Cache Retail Box

1 x MSI P55-CD53 ATX LGA1156 P55 DDR3 PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 3PCI SATA GBLAN DrMOS OC Genie Motherboard

1 x G.SKILL F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH Ripjaws PC3-10666 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1333 CL7-7-7-21 Core I5 1.65V Memory Kit

1 x MSI GeForce GTX 295 576MHZ 1792MB 2.016HZ GDDR3 PCI-E 2XDVI Video Card

1 x Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower Gamer Case 900 ATX 9 Drive Bay No PS Top USB2.0 1394 Audio

1 x Seasonic SS-650HT 650W EPS12V 20/24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 80PLUS 6PIN PCI-E 120MM Fan OEM

1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA2 3.5IN 8.5MS 7200RPM 16MB Hard Drive OEM *3YR MFR Warranty*

1 x Samsung SH-S223C 22X DVD Writer SATA Black OEM

1 x nGear Flash Card Reader 3.5IN Internal USB Black CF/SM/SDHC/MMC/MS/XD 18IN Cable



Not to shabby for about 1400, but is there anything that is a blatent no-go for dolphin-related gameplay? I figured I'd go with an nvidia card this time around since my ATI 4850 was so-so with opengl, actually, it wasn't very friendly with opengl at all.

Your advice would be appreciated.

From my point of view is a good PC. Enough Ram, GHZ, Graphics card memory. Mm....Yeah a Graphics card: NVIDIA PCI EXPRESS would be good. Mm....Good drivers.
Mm....if is fast overclocked the speed of your sistem and games will be good.
But wait for others replies to help you more.

either pick a faster cpu or overclock that one

If you're looking for simply the best Dolphin PC, the GPU is overkill. For CPU, you just need two cores running as fast as bloody possible. I don't know for certain how well the i7 750 overclocks but get the CPU in your budget that overclocks best. The 750 probably isn't a bad option.

The reason is, Dolphin does MOST of the work on the CPU and can only utilize two CPU cores (no, multithreading beyond two cores will NOT be available in the future). As much stuff as possible is already offloaded to the GPU but it's not much so you don't need a very powerful GPU for Dolphin.

So, in conclusion, two key things to remember:

CPU: Core 2 or Core i5/i7 line (or its AMD equivalent) overclocked to the max.
GPU: A 9600GT (or its ATI equivalent) or better.

I'd recommend against the GTX 295 simply because it's old tech and Nvidia's new lineup is just around the corner, supposedly by March/April. Since Dolphin isn't GPU-intensive, you could get a 9800GT for ~$100 to hold you down. Try looking for an eVGA of BFG branded card as well for the step-up program.

Get an aftermarket CPU cooler too and overclock that 750. It'll help a lot with Dolphin. Everything else looks fine though.

Btw, where are you buying all your parts? There may be some cheaper places to check.

(12-16-2009, 08:08 PM)w4ffles Wrote: [ -> ]I'd recommend against the GTX 295 simply because it's old tech and Nvidia's new lineup is just around the corner, supposedly by March/April. Since Dolphin isn't GPU-intensive, you could get a 9800GT for ~$100 to hold you down. Try looking for an eVGA of BFG branded card as well for the step-up program.

Get an aftermarket CPU cooler too and overclock that 750. It'll help a lot with Dolphin. Everything else looks fine though.

Btw, where are you buying all your parts? There may be some cheaper places to check.

Thanks for all the help guys, I have been looking all over but remember I want CANADIAN shippers so I am a little limited that way, I am going through ncix.com so far. I can't seem to find anyone else that comes anywhere near as close as ncix does.

Yeah, I was going to suggest NCIX or newegg.ca