Building low-end and high-end computers and asking about compatibility.

[CrackedNuckles]

Here's the plan:

Build two computers: one the weakest possible and cheapest, but still capable of running some games for when I'm on the go (I'm building a laptop).

The other one is going to be much heftier, and capable of sporting at least 500 games perfectly, for the most part.

Here are some of the games I plan to play full-speed on weakling:

1.FFX.
2.FFX-2.
3.FFXII.
4.GTA-VC.
5.Kingdom Hearts.
6.Kingdom Hearts 2.

Here are some of the games I plan to play full-speed on powerhouse:

1.Hot Shots Golf Fore!
2.Metal Gear Solid 2.
3.Gran Turismo 4.
4.Hot Shots Tennis.
5.Xenosaga II.

Here's the weak build:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0 GHz @ 1333 MHz FSB.
Intel GMA X4500 or ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT.
DDR3 2 GB 1333 MHz.
Windows 7 Ultimate ... 64-bit.
Price: $70.00-$115.00 U.S.D.
(NOTES: The price will be on the higher-range of above if I bought the ATI Radeon card, because GMA X4500 is integrated and cheaper).

Here's the powerhouse build:

Intel Core i3-3220 @ 3.30 GHz @ 1333 MHz FSB or more.
GeForce GTX 460 or 650.
DDR3 3-4 GB 1666 MHz or +.
Windows 7 Ultimate ... 32/64-bit.
Price: $290.00-$338.00 U.S.D.
(NOTES: If I spent a little over $350.00 I could build a much, much better computer, but I'd rather stay around $300.00 max).

How will the games and associative rigs fare? We know FFX can work on a toaster and FFX-2 and FFXII are not too far off. The concerns may be KH2 and GTA-VC, but I think they should be 60 FPS. But GMA X4500 can be tricky, though I know it can handle lots of titles with a decent CPU like the one above.

Now for the more powerful rig, HSGF! will need constant software-renderer to work. Could the i3-3220 @ 3.30 GHz get 60 FPS in software-mode on HSGF!? I am pretty positive that at least 4 of the games on the demanding list and associative rig should work. The games that scare me are as follows:

Weak rig: GTA-VC, Kingdom Hearts 2, FFXII.

Strong rig: HSGF! and Gran Turismo 4.

[Blyss Sarania]

Have a look at: http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Low-budge...-for-pcsx2

Your weak build won't cut it. Your "powerhouse" build will only run weaker games.

Also Intel GMA is not supported by PCSX2.

[Ryudo]

Metal Gear Solid 2 on your 'powerhouse'.....? Yeah. Not gonna happen.

Both MGS2 and 3 still lag at times on my rig and are known to require very powerful computers.

[Donovan24]

Metal Gear Solid 2 on your 'powerhouse'.....? Yeah. Not gonna happen.

Both MGS2 and 3 still lag at times on my rig and are known to require very powerful computers.

GT4 aswell haha.

[willkuer]

I guess KH2 will be really hard on your toaster rig. FFXII might still work with some slowdowns.

But still look into the link Blyss posted. ssakash already found a very nice compromise. Even cheap modern cpu's are much superior to these Core2Duo/Core2Quad stuff.

In principle with this components and cost range you can only create two weak system. Nothing one would call powerhouse... Unfortunately emulating ps2 is a bit expensive...

[fade2black001]

Where do you see an integrated card at? Both builds have a dedicated card with them.

400 dollar build without rebates. With them all is like 350.

[Donovan24]

Where do you see an integrated card at? Both builds have a dedicated card with them.

400 dollar build without rebates. With them all is like 350.

On the first build.

Intel GMA x4500.

[fade2black001]

On the first build.

Intel GMA x4500.

Heh, missed tha. All I saw was the X2400

[ssakash]

you could get a g3258 with a formidable Gpu for playing games upscaled quite well in pcsx2. it will beat your strong rig in both cost and performance when, it is overclocked.

[fade2black001]

Forgot to list my build....

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/v9G3jX