building a new emulator box.

ok my emulator computer is showing its age, so its time to step it up.
i have 4 question before i start ordering parts .

1.cpu whitch seems to be most important thing.
would i get any benfits from using multi-core like amd x2 chip?
this well be used for mame,nes,snes,psone,ps2 and 3d0

2.what would be best sound card to use?
i heard some where that new creative fx help with glitch in mk2 and 3 on mame32.

3.video card does it really matter?
i'm using my same setup and 90 inch projector for screen, its fun as hell.

4.how much ram is needed?1or 2 gigs.


this will be my lan computer as well so of course ill get really nice video card. i was just wondering.

anyway i did search before posting, didnt find anything under building a new emulator computer.

so any help would be great. thank you

I'm not really an expert on this, but CPU is definately important. AFAIK there are no emulators which make use of multi-core processors, but they do run fasters because other cores can do background tasks for example. I don't think 1 or 2GB of RAM will make much difference. For a videocard I really don't know.

thx for reply. just so you know the dolphin gamecube emulator can use dual-core. not sure how much it helps but food for thought.

If you want a ncie card, the really good ones are the ATI X1900XT, or X1800XT. The Nvidia 6800GS, or 6600GT makes for a good mid-high-end card. OMFG cards are like the Geforce 7900GTX or ATI X1900XTX. I have no idea about US prices seeing as I'm British...

As multicore emulation is not really widespread, I'm not sure whether to advise for or against buying a multi-core CPU. I guess you have to assess where you will be in a few years. You might buy a multi-core now and never use it, but face an upgrade situation down the line anyway. Or you may decide not to get one and then end up wanting one as more emulators (hopefully) become available.

If it were me, I'd just buy the fastest single core CPU I could get, since the majority of emulation only utilizes single core CPU's anyway. Whether to buy AMD or Intel is completely up to your brand loyalties. Usually I'd just buy what could be bought the cheapest - and you should consider not only CPU price, but the price of other required components, such as a motherboard to support that CPU and the RAM type that motherboard may also require. (DDR 1/2, RDRAM, etc)

I've been out of the sound card market for a long time, as I use the onboard sound for my Nforce 4 board. A lot of people find their Nforce onboard audio (one type uses 3rd party drivers, the other uses Nvidia drivers) to be of comparable quality to Soundblaster Live/Audigy, etc. Other people swear by their turtle beach cards, etc. I consider it a low priority usually, but if you're gonna go without Nforce audio, I'd say visit an audiophile forum and ask them.

As far as your graphics go. If you are going to be emulating a lot of 3D systems, you might want to consider a pretty powerful card. No less than a Geforce 6600 I'd wager. Not sure how to rate ATI cards as I don't use them.

Plenty of ram will be good for emulating certain games in mame. You will usually see faster ROM loading times and less in-game stuttering in this case. Usually this is limited to games that are large in file-size. Don't expect to see improvements in games like the early 3D Arcade fighters and some racers (Cruisin' Series) though, as that is emulation related.

that was nice little read thx for your reply. i got all part pick out already ill have them listed tomorrow, now i go to work.