Computer Problem: Which one is best suited for.....?

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leon_belmont

Killer of all evil
Hi , at the end of the month i decided to upgrade my Desktop.

Main things i want to do ,is play Wii,PS2,Gamecube

Which of these ones is better suited for this task?

Intel Based

Intel Dual Core E5200 2.5 GHZ 800MHZ ,2MB Cache
Silicon Power 2048MB RAM 800MHZ
PCI Express 1024MB VGA GARD DDR2 DVI TV
Other things are not important like HDD DVD Writer etc.
Price 334 USD.

AMD Based
Amd Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.3 GHZ
others equal like the intel based.
Price 300USD

Intel Based Quad
Intel Quad Core 2.3ghz 1333Mhz 4MB Cache
Silicon Power 4096Mb Ram 800mhz
Pci Express 1024MB
Price 800 USD

AMD BASED
Athlon Procesor AM2 5000+ Dual Core
others equal
Price 600 USD

I am aiming for the 600USD AMD as this is how much i am aiming to spent for a PC.

What do you suggest?
 

Zach

New member
Honestly.. it doesn't matter how powerful your rig is... Those systems have a long way to come, if they are even emulated in any realistic form yet..

Don't upgrade your PC because you want to emulate.. Upgrade it cause you want to do PC things.. You could probably buy all those consoles for $600 and then chip them.
 

leon_belmont

Killer of all evil
But i ve seen videos of Dolphin ,or Dolwin emulator in youtube emulating CASTLEVANIA JUDGEMENT at full speed in a Core 2 duo extreme procesor. And even some GC games. I dont know about PS2. Of course i will do the same thing which i do with my actual pc with the new one.
 

Jale

Active member
That's because some games run flawlessly, some don't and some won't run at all. I agree with Zach. If you're going to spend lots of money in a PC to emulate, it's always better to get the real system and mod it. It's a lot cheaper and runs flawlessly that way.
 

leon_belmont

Killer of all evil
I agree with you ,but still i am going to upgrade,cause i cant stand anymore a singlecore,so which one of the systems is more worth the money?
 

Zach

New member
I would go with a Core 2 Duo setup.

Quad Cores are fun for bragging rights, but VERY FEW programs actually utilize all 4 cores. Hell most games don't even push my C2D to 100% on both cores.

Also.. are you recycling your HDD and stuff? You need to be careful.. Most new motherboards are predominantly SATA. They might have 1 PATA IDE port at most. If you don't have SATA drives this makes it difficult..

But SATA HDD/DVD Burners are pretty cheap for decent sizes these days.

Is your total budget $600 USD? Are you gonna buy from a specific store? If you can buy from Newegg I would do that.. but they seem to randomly enforce this "no international credit cards" policy, with some getting through and some not.. It's hard to recommend parts when we don't know exactly where you are shopping because prices can vary wildly, especially when changing currency
 

leon_belmont

Killer of all evil
600 is what i took apart for a new PC. but i can go to 700 the most for a desktop.

The Intel Core 2 Duo E5200 2.5 X 2=5ghz
2GB of RAM
1024 VGA

sounds really reasonable to a price of 334 USD.,well in fact i consider it cheap confronting the specs with a ebay Core 2 Duo desktop,so probably i will go for this,although i would have prefer a E6600 Core 2 duo processor.

The rest i am gonna buy a mini netbook 8.9 with Linux.

P.S When i buy in dollars i win a lot,because most things are sold in Euros in Albania,so i prefer USD as i can save a LOT.
 
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Zach

New member
Ok but you realize you are not getting a 5Ghz PC? Its not really twice as powerful because it has 2 cores.. I don't think CPUs scale that way anymore. It just makes better multitasking and such.


If you are buying from a local store, then I can't really give you much advice though.. Or tell you how much of what you can get for your money.

I would recommend though..

C2Duo @ 2.6Ghz or better. Get as close to 3Ghz as possible for it to really shine.
A good graphics card would be an AMD/ATI Radeon 4870 1GB, or 4890 1GB. They perform on par with many of the GTX series models, except they are nearly as rediculously priced.. when going for a Nvidia GTX get a Minimum of a GTX 260 (216 core) or get a GTX 280/85. Skip the 275 altogether really.
Recommend at least 8GB of DDR2 or DDR3 depending on the motherboard you get and what type of DDR it supports and what its maximum is.. Get a board that at LEAST supports 8GB of either type.. And don't automatically run out and buy the fastest RAM you can get your hands on, because it won't matter if you are not overclocking.. If your CPU is 1066FSB, get ram designed for that FSB, if its 1333FSB, get RAM rated for 1333, etc. With a 1:1 memory divider in BIOS it will run fine, and even if you overclock in the future (and you will have to use your FSB) a good DECENT board will have lower divider options so you can keep your RAM within its specs even though the FSB is higher.. However I doubt you will be overclocking, so just get the ram rated for your CPU/Mobo and don't be swindled into other higher priced shit you won't fully utilize.


As for whether or not $334 USD is reasonable, that doesn't say much at all.. your specs are very cague.. CPU's alone can cost upwards of $200+ USD, and you haven't listed a motherboard you are gonna purchase (I recommend Gigabyte, they are good boards and inexpensive for what you need) and "1024MB VGA" is too vague to mean anything.. Also - what about your power supply?? You HAVE to get a new power supply if you are gonna buy a modern CPU and Video card.. if yours is some shitty 300W or even 400W it may not be ATX 2.0 compatible if its real old, and will NOT power a modern video card.

You need at least a 550W power supply that has support for at least 2 PCI-Express power plugs, as most cards either require 1 or 2 of these.
 
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Zach

New member
If you can get us an exact list of all the parts you are planning to purchase and how much the cost is per part, or if it comes as a "packaged set" etc..

We need individual product names and specs to work off of, if you are going to get ANY helpful advice.. and DON'T forget the power supply!
 

Jale

Active member
The Intel Core 2 Duo E5200 2.5 X 2=5ghz
2GB of RAM
1024 VGA
Woah, there! Just because it has two cores, doesn't mean you'll get 5 GHz. 2.5 GHz is the speed per core and, depend of the application you're running, it will utilize one or both of them. For instance, if you run an old application that does not support multitasking or multicore, it will work as fast as a Pentium 4 of the same speed, with some variants regarding FSB and memory architecture.

And Zach is right. I have a Core 2 Quad computer and very few applications use all four cores. The only ones I have that manage to run all four cores are Photoshop CS4, Devil May Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto 4 and Assassin's Creed (as you can see, most games already support quad core technology).
 
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leon_belmont

Killer of all evil
The parts
Intel E8200 Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHZ 6MB Cache
4 GB Kingston RAM 800MHZ
ATI RADEON 3460 HD
200GB HDD
ASUS MOTHERBOARD M5N(dont remember the other numbers)
Dual Layer DVD Burner

for 430 USD i think its ok.
I built it myself at the store where i bought my actual PC,by choosing all the parts.
(just i made an order for the end of the month,still havent got it)

Now a question ,i saw the video card and it didnt have HDMI port on it.
If i buy a more complex video card like one i saw on ebay ATI with HDMI onboard will it fit in any modern motherboard ? If so that would be my final ideal choice for the video card ,as this is the part i am concerned most.
 
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Zach

New member
Leon the 3460 is not the model I gave you the link to in your TV thread. You are looking at the wrong card, that is why it has no HDMI.

The model is this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121259

3450, not 60.


As for how to tell if a video card will fit in your motherboard, that is simple. Your motherboard should have a PCI-Express x16 port, (if the board you picked has AGP you are getting swindled), so just read the specs on any video card you may be purchasing and make sure it is a PCI Express x16 card.

Also you are not making sense with the motherboard model.. The only results I can find for "Asus M5N" keep refering to a laptop. And also you still haven't mentioned what you are gonna do about a power supply.. You need to get a new power supply for this stuff most likely, as if your PC is pretty old it probably doesn't even have the proper power plugs for the motherboard anymore.

Do you know what kind of case your PC has? Is it a mini-tower, mid-tower, or full tower? Because the size of the motherboard and power supply also matters if you buy the wrong ones and they can't fit in your case.
 
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leon_belmont

Killer of all evil
Well it will have a new case with the right power supply,but you didnt answer my question,so how can i add to the ASUS motherboard which has the PCI X16 you are mentioning the HDMI graphic caRD ,so i can hook up my PC just like my PS3 ,HDMI to HDMI?

PS. But hey Zach you gave me a really good idea, i will start out by buying the video card you re mentioning one of these days,and then i will look for a motherboard adequate for it,which has also support for the largest FSB. Then adding other things will be a joke.

Thanks man. Consider this topic finished now.
 
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Zach

New member
I'm not sure I understand what you mean, "how you can add to the motherboard, the graphics card so you can use HDMI" ??

And to answer any questions about the motherboard I really need a full model number.. Like I said the info you gave kept giving me google hits on Laptops, not motherboards.

The graphics card I am telling you to buy is PCI-Express. All you have to do is buy a Motherboard that has a PCI-Express x16 slot on it. All new motherboards come with one these days.. That's all there is to it, buy the board, install the card into the slot, just like any other graphics card... Then you can use an HDMI cable to connect your computers HDMI port to the TV's HDMI input port... What aren't you understanding?

Also.. about buying a case with a power supply.. Unless you are buying a high-end case, and picking a custom power supply as an option - that is not gonna work out very well for you. Computer cases are notoriously for coming with crappy, cheap ass power supplies, just barely good enough to power a sub-standard computer.

Even in today's age, when you might get a 400 or 450W, or even 500W PSU with a case, it is not usually good enough or may lack the appropriate power plugs for PCI-Express graphics cards.
 

Mupen64 Man

Big fan of Mupen64
Staff member
It looks like those computers are running integrated graphic cards, you have no hope with the standard chip set, Just felt the need to point that out. Need something like Ge force or ATI.
 

leon_belmont

Killer of all evil
No problem cause i already fixed my actual PC,(i am typing from my new screen now) and works like a charm with DVI to HDMI with external audio speakers for sound. So i can wait another month and go for the ultimate machine quadcore.

Anyway now another question ,with Linux you can play HD movies if your screen supports it, i am wondering can i play Blu ray files ,right from my HDD in my Windows with VLC media player if i add the Bluray Codecs ????

P.S My TV doesnt support Linux,the mouse scrolled down very slowly so thats why i am asking for it in Windows.
 

Zach

New member
Umm.. your TV has nothing to do with what OS you can run. Your drivers for your laptops graphics chip do, as well as setting the correct monitor options in linux.

You should ask on a linux forum about your problem. There is no reason why Linux should not run on your laptop and display on the TV.

Also.. I don't know much about video players and all that jazz, especially when it comes to blu-ray.. But for standard HD and whatnot, download the CCCP Combined Community Codec Pack. It lets you install media player classic, as well as Zoom player I think, and you should be able to playback HD codecs (x264) and all that stuff.. I don't know about blur-ray discs and whatnot (especially if you don't have a blu-ray drive) but for widescreen format HD videos you should be good to go.

But still I would not bother with a quad-core even if you are saving up, UNLESS you are planning on buying a Core i7 CPU (Intel's newest CPU) but that can be extremely expensive with the motherboards alone costing as much as a Core 2 Duo chip in most cases..

I can give you a list of parts that you can try to find locally and find out how much you have to save up, if you like.. Although I suggest saving up for more than 1 month, possibly 2 or 3.. It will be worth it.
 
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leon_belmont

Killer of all evil
I saw at a forum of Linux ,that that was possible on Linux in PS3. So to see my Bluray .mkv riped with X264 and AAC i need a ATI HD or NVIDIA HD card. I think i give up on a quad core and here is what i am gonna do ,at my existing PC i will change processor add a Core 2 Duo ,or Dual Core(i know it supports dual core ,not sure about core 2 duo) and add a ATI HD Video card and add 2GB of ram ,so i will go to 4GB(a 32 bit pc dont use more than 3-3.5GB of Ram) and save really a LOT. (All the other money is gonna go for PS3 Games and a few Blu Ray original DVDS)

PS Linux display well in my TV only i cant see the menus to change my screen resolution as i set linux to the maximum and my TV the maximum can display is the resolution of 720p as a PC and 1080i as PS3.
 
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Zach

New member
You don't need a card with "HD" in the model to display high-def content. Whoever told you that is full of crap.

Computers are already high definition and can display resolutions way beyond 1080p and all the other lesser HD resolutions as it is. All you need is a card with the proper TV-out connections.
 

leon_belmont

Killer of all evil
That cheater,but anyway i fixed Linux,and just installed Vista Home Premium(just for fun) and so u re saying i can watch .mpg BLURAY right from my PC/TV cause my card has the right input/output DVI-HDMI(means HD video without HD sound). I dont care much about the sound,as long as video is okay.

I tried playing TRUE ROMANCE 720P from 1993 a Blu ray Remux and the quality was not that good,still havent tried a 1080p though.

PS. A .mpg BLU RAY is a .MKV converted with mkv2vob a program created just for this purpose.
Also fixed my resolution in Windows is 1360x768 with 60Hertz and in Linux i just wanted more so i am with 1920x1200 with 30 Hertz Refresh rate(i know its a little creepy with 30 Hertz but i just wanted a fullHD resolution ,although with not 60 Hertz)
Anyway the colors of my screen just look wonderful now :)
 
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