| DMala |
|
Sleep is overrated
|
|
|
|
|
Reged: 05/09/05
|
|
Posts: 3989
|
|
Loc: Waltham, MA
|
|
|
|
Send PM
|
|
|
Build me a system...
#255153 - 05/22/11 04:45 AM
|
|
|
So I'm starting to get the upgrade itch again (curse you, MAMEDevs  ). I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for generally, but I always have trouble narrowing it down and picking a specific part, so I'm curious to see what the recommendations around here would be.
I'm upgrading from an Athlon X2 3800+, 2GB RAM, GeForce 6200 AGP. The machine is mostly for MAME and other emulators, generally older games, but the ability to run newer games full speed is definitely a plus. Budget is as cheap as possible, within reason. $350 for mobo, processor, RAM, and video card is not out of the question. (I have a case, hard drives, optical drives, and hopefully a power supply.)
|
|
|
|
Re: Build me a system...
[Re: DMala]
#255180 - 05/22/11 05:26 PM
|
|
|
grab a maximum PC and take their picks listed close to the back(there are a few picks per category, depending on price range)
|
Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!
|
|
|
|
> grab a maximum PC and take their picks listed close to the back
Good idea. Here's the recommendations from the back of PC Gamer magazine's March edition, so the pricing may have already dropped a bit. (Sorry but I've already given away the newer issues.)
[ATTACHED IMAGE]
|
|
|
|
Re: Build me a system...
[Re: DMala]
#255189 - 05/22/11 06:54 PM
|
|
|
If you want cheap and powerful machine for MAME, pick up the following...
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$52.99 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357
Intel Celeron E3400 Wolfdale 2.6GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80571E3400
$49.99 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116348
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
$79.99 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166
SAPPHIRE 100287VGAL Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
$69.99 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102871
$59.99 after rebate
------------
$252.96 ($242.96 after rebate)
The CPU I've chosen above should easily overclock to around 3.5GHz without raising the CPU voltage. I have a similar Wolfdale that went from 2.5 GHz to 3.5 GHz with no problems using the stock shitty Intel heatsink/fan. I have an ASUS motherboard based on the same Intel chipset and I was able to do the overclock by only changing TWO BIOS settings: 1) drop the memory divider to the lowest setting which was listed as "667MHz" which is really a 3:5 divider, and 2) raise the front side bus to 280 from the default 200. You can also play around with dropping the multiplier slightly if it results in better overclocking results. My CPU's default multiplier is 12.5x, the CPU above is 13. You may find that with the Gigabyte board, you can drop the multiplier to 12 and increase the FSB over 280.
Note that the Intel G31 based motherboards don't have fully unlocked memory dividers, so to overclock, you need to buy faster memory, drop the multiplier to the lowest setting, then raise the front-side-bus, which on these boards overclocks the CPU and memory at the same time. This is why I've selected 1600 memory for an 800 motherboard, in case you were curious.
As a side note, the above CPU actually supports Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x), believe it or not. You might find that useful if you play around with VirtualBox or VirtualPC and mix and match 32/64-bit guests/hosts.
|
GroovyMAME support forum on BYOAC
|
|
|
Re: Build me a system...
[Re: krick]
#255191 - 05/22/11 07:54 PM
|
|
|
2.6 to 3.5 = this
C2D's are hit and miss with how much you can overclock them stably over time. 3.1 is a safer estimate.
|
|
|
|
Re: Build me a system...
[Re: aavada]
#255194 - 05/22/11 08:11 PM
|
|
|
> > grab a maximum PC and take their picks listed close to the back
>
> Good idea. Here's the recommendations from the back of PC Gamer magazine's March
> edition, so the pricing may have already dropped a bit. (Sorry but I've already given
> away the newer issues.)
The "dream system" is only $2661? WTF? Have they forgotten how to dream, or have PC advancements pretty much stopped for the past year or so?
|
|
|
|
Re: Build me a system...
[Re: Smitdogg]
#255196 - 05/22/11 08:39 PM
|
|
|
> 2.6 to 3.5 = this
>
> C2D's are hit and miss with how much you can overclock them stably over time. 3.1 is
> a safer estimate.
I have three C2D "Wolfdale" chips of varying retail speeds. Overclocked, one is stable at 3.4, one is stable at 3.5, and the last is stable at 3.6.
All of them can easily do 3.2 (equal to the fastest retail Wolfdale).
The trick, in my opinion, is to stick with the cheaper dual core Wolfdale models.
|
GroovyMAME support forum on BYOAC
|
|
| DMala |
|
Sleep is overrated
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reged: 05/09/05
|
|
Posts: 3989
|
|
Loc: Waltham, MA
|
|
|
|
Send PM
|
|
|
Re: Build me a system...
[Re: TriggerFin]
#255199 - 05/22/11 08:47 PM
|
|
|
> The "dream system" is only $2661? WTF? Have they forgotten how to dream, or have PC
> advancements pretty much stopped for the past year or so?
I have noticed that the absolute maximum you can spend on a system without getting completely frivolous has come down over the years. A lot of components are just so cheap these days.
Having said that, a 500GB hard drive in a "dream" system? I wouldn't even bother with anything less than 1TB, even on a fairly low-end system.
Anyway, all of these are a little too rich for my blood. I guess the entry-level system is in the ballpark, but I'll definitely be going with some flavor of Intel. It's a shame, I was an AMD fan for a long time, but Intel is just miles ahead in performance.
|
|
|
|
Re: Build me a system...
[Re: DMala]
#255200 - 05/22/11 09:09 PM
|
|
|
> I have noticed that the absolute maximum you can spend on a system without getting
> completely frivolous has come down over the years. A lot of components are just so
> cheap these days.
>
> Having said that, a 500GB hard drive in a "dream" system? I wouldn't even bother with
> anything less than 1TB, even on a fairly low-end system.
And 6G of ram? The upgrade for the main home system I'm in the process of installing has a 3G main disk and 16G of ram, so their dreams are a tad tame...
OG.
|
|
|
|
Re: Build me a system...
[Re: DMala]
#255201 - 05/22/11 09:10 PM
|
|
|
> Having said that, a 500GB hard drive in a "dream" system? I wouldn't even bother with
> anything less than 1TB, even on a fairly low-end system.
Unless it's a solid state drive. A 500GB solid state for your C drive would probably kick righteous ass. But yeah you'd want more size than that for a secondary for storing stuff other than programs.
|
|
|
|
Re: Build me a system...
[Re: Smitdogg]
#255205 - 05/22/11 11:23 PM
|
|
|
> > Having said that, a 500GB hard drive in a "dream" system? I wouldn't even bother
> with
> > anything less than 1TB, even on a fairly low-end system.
>
> Unless it's a solid state drive. A 500GB solid state for your C drive would probably
> kick righteous ass. But yeah you'd want more size than that for a secondary for
> storing stuff other than programs.
They do at least have the SSD spec'd there, but only an 80GB, so the 500GB is where the non-OS stuff would go. In the past they'd have had multiple 500GB drives if they think that particular drive is the way to go (probably the best they've found in testing). I'd expect 2-5 of them, and often it would be in a RAID setup, if that still happens.
I expect they just don't have much reason to go over the 6GB RAM, unless that, again, is a particular favorite, or there's a problem pairing the motherboard with other things. The case itself, from Cooler Master, may impose some limitations.
|
|
|
|
I said Maximum PC for a reason
[Re: Olivier Galibert]
#255208 - 05/23/11 12:22 AM
|
|
|
The picks in the gaming mag are horrible. The RAM, Video card, and HDD are all subpar on the dream machine! and that was March 2011? :facepalm:
|
Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!
|
|
|
Re: I said Maximum PC for a reason
[Re: URherenow]
#255214 - 05/23/11 01:48 AM
|
|
|
> The picks in the gaming mag are horrible. The RAM, Video card, and HDD are all subpar
> on the dream machine! and that was March 2011?
Ah, that's it. I didn't even realize that was PCG, not MPC. I had to drop both of them a while back when my budget collapsed.
Yeah, MaximumPC is probably where you should be looking. They seem to have full back issues available free on the web site as pdfs that run near 80MB....
|
|
|
| DMala |
|
Sleep is overrated
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reged: 05/09/05
|
|
Posts: 3989
|
|
Loc: Waltham, MA
|
|
|
|
Send PM
|
|
|
Re: I said Maximum PC for a reason
[Re: TriggerFin]
#255215 - 05/23/11 02:17 AM
|
|
|
> Yeah, MaximumPC is probably where you should be looking. They seem to have full back
> issues available free on the web site as pdfs that run near 80MB....
Whoa, nice find. The sub-$1000 Sandy Bridge article from last month is pretty interesting.
Is there any reason not to consider a Core i5 or even a Core i3? krick's suggestion is interesting (and cheap!) but I'm thinking something current generation is a better idea in the long term.
|
|
|
|
Re: I said Maximum PC for a reason
[Re: DMala]
#255268 - 05/23/11 09:53 AM
|
|
|
> > Yeah, MaximumPC is probably where you should be looking. They seem to have full
> back
> > issues available free on the web site as pdfs that run near 80MB....
>
> Whoa, nice find. The sub-$1000 Sandy Bridge article from last month is pretty
> interesting.
>
> Is there any reason not to consider a Core i5 or even a Core i3? krick's suggestion
> is interesting (and cheap!) but I'm thinking something current generation is a better
> idea in the long term.
Well... Would "my laptop is running on dual i7s" be a reason? No?
I'm too far off the game, next up?
|
|
|
Index 
Threaded 
Build me a system...
Reply
). I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for generally, but I always have trouble narrowing it down and picking a specific part, so I'm curious to see what the recommendations around here would be.
[Re: 
