I finally finished choosing the hardware for my desired new PC. I chose these specs while keeping in mind the performance of pcsx2 on my laptop.

Motherboard - LGA 775 Asus P5Q SE Plus

CPU - Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz 4MB Socket 1156 ( I insist on overclocking to 4ghz)

GPU - ATI Radeon HD 5670 (2 GB Version)

Powersupply = ?

RAM (DDR3) - ?


MY PROBLEMS :

As you can see, I have no idea how many wats I'll be needing, thus the "?" for the Powersupply. I have no idea whatsoever about the features of a RAM, so I first thought I'd stick with a 4GB cheap black market RAM... I have no idea whether the above mentioned motherboard would overclock my i3 540 to 4 ghz or not. Can someone please help me...

Another issue :

I play games (actually one 3D game) on my laptop ( Intel Core i3 2.5 ghz & ATI Radeon HD 6370 2GB) with pcsx2 @ 1024x600 resolution (DX11), and I get stable 60fps in this game. So, will my desired desktop with ATI 5670 2GB and i3 540 4ghz give me identical/higher resolutions than my laptop with stable 60fps ?

so you have a LGA 775 mobo and a LGA 1156 CPU

First off, the motherboard you chosed has a different socket than the CPU. It even says LGA775 and the CPU is 1156.

Second, overclocked or not: Why do you still want to buy a dual core?

And third: How much money can you spent?

@PSU: Every 400Watt PSU from a decent manufacturer is sufficient. The more you go up, the more room you have to buy better hardware in the future.

As for your problems:
In terms of speed, RAM isn't that important anymore. Buy a 1600MHz (2x2GB or 4x2GB) from a decent manufacturer and you are good.

For PC games, like a ask above, why dual core? Sure not all games out there are quad core, but since the clock rates of the individual cores are the same as from dual cores, it makes no sense anymore to buy dual core.

Thanks for the help guys

(08-10-2011 12:39 PM)Nova eXelon Wrote:  First off, the motherboard you chosed has a different socket than the CPU. It even says LGA775 and the CPU is 1156.

Second, overclocked or not: Why do you still want to buy a dual core?

And third: How much money can you spent?

@PSU: Every 400Watt PSU from a decent manufacturer is sufficient. The more you go up, the more room you have to buy better hardware in the future.

As for your problems:
In terms of speed, RAM isn't that important anymore. Buy a 1600MHz (2x2GB or 4x2GB) from a decent manufacturer and you are good.

For PC games, like a ask above, why dual core? Sure not all games out there are quad core, but since the clock rates of the individual cores are the same as from dual cores, it makes no sense anymore to buy dual core.

But can a quad core AMD PHENOM II X4 965 3.4GHz 8MB CACHE AM3 64BIT overclocked to 4400 ghz perform in pcsx2 just as fast as a core i3 overclocked to 4000 ghz ? If it can then I'll be more than happy to buy it . And if that's the case then could you tell me what motherboard I need for an AMD P II 965 BE ?

As for my budget - Well I HAD TO buy a laptop a few days ago, so I'd be happy to save every penny when I can. But that doesn't mean I'll go with bad performance.

Can someone answer my question about the GPU please, it's in my first post.

-get the i5 instead of i3 to get advantage of the turbo boost rather than a risky overclocking if you cant afford it then it's up to you to stay put on i3.
-you cannot insert your LGA1156 in a LGA775 different socket.
-a 500W power supply is recommended as a powerhouse.
-a mid-range Ati 5670 is enough for pcsx2 as a average ranking especially you are in a budget.

I've got 5670 1GB version and it doesn't bottleneck the rest of the computer. FFX in 6x scale is not a problem. Maybe on some places but I can't say that precisely since I usually stick wih 4x scale.

Oh I see, I think everyone who uses pcsx2 agrees that an i3 is better than a phenom II X4, so I'll be sticking with an i3. This raises 2 extra issues.

1 - Which is better, an Intel Core i3 2100 (sandy bridge) @ 3.1 ghz - which almost does NOT overclock, or an Intel core i3 540 that can be easily overclocked to 4000 ghz ? All that matters to me is the performance in pcsx2, and unfortunately the Sandy bridge i3 2100 is not included in the benchmark listing of the pcsx2 forums...
Strange as it seems to a newbie like me, some people say that a stock 3.1 ghz Sandy Bridge still beats an i3 540 even when the latter is overclocked to 4000ghz

2- With an i3 2100 3.1 Ghz Sandy Bridge, how about an Intel H61 Socket 1155 mommyboard ?

lets look at the facts shall we :

70.11 FPS - SLUS 20672 - Intel Core i3 550 - 4.1 GHz OC - abdo123 - CPU-Z Validation
69.72 FPS - SLUS 20672 - Intel Core i5 2500K - 3.3 GHz Stock (Turbo Boost on) - Rezard

my i3 550 @ 4.1 GHz is equal to i5 2500K
i3 540 @ 4 GHz is stronger than i3 2100

of course all of that is about pcsx2 in any other application i5 2500K will kick my i3 550 a-s-s with it 2 extra cores



And about OC an I3 i have been 5 months trying to OC to 4.1 i cant !!!!!
i cant run it constant 4.1 GHz it is not THAT easy you need to be expert !!!!

That card sucks ass. Something like a 6850 should do you good. It's cheap and you'll get 3x res in most games.

I don't recommend the CPU either. You can buy a locked 2500 with a locked board for about the same price as the i3 + good board + good cooler, both of which you'll need for OCing. At most the 2500 build will be $50 extra, which I think is worth it considering you get 2 more cores to work with.

(08-10-2011 07:58 PM)abdo123 Wrote:  lets look at the facts shall we :

70.11 FPS - SLUS 20672 - Intel Core i3 550 - 4.1 GHz OC - abdo123 - CPU-Z Validation
69.72 FPS - SLUS 20672 - Intel Core i5 2500K - 3.3 GHz Stock (Turbo Boost on) - Rezard

my i3 550 @ 4.1 GHz is equal to i5 2500K
i3 540 @ 4 GHz is stronger than i3 2100

of course all of that is about pcsx2 in any other application i5 2500K will kick my i3 550 a-s-s with it 2 extra cores



And about OC an I3 i have been 5 months trying to OC to 4.1 i cant !!!!!
i cant run it constant 4.1 GHz it is not THAT easy you need to be expert !!!!

Well that's a clever way of putting it... thanks

(08-11-2011 11:57 AM)synce Wrote:  That card sucks ass. Something like a 6850 should do you good. It's cheap and you'll get 3x res in most games.

I don't recommend the CPU either. You can buy a locked 2500 with a locked board for about the same price as the i3 + good board + good cooler, both of which you'll need for OCing. At most the 2500 build will be $50 extra, which I think is worth it considering you get 2 more cores to work with.

Actually where I live an I5 2500 build would cost an extra 100$ (I've no idea why I'm smiling).

I guess an I5 would be better since I'm not planning to upgrade my PC in the next few years.

You said that i5 2500 is "locked," but the pages I found on Google say that an i5 2500 K can be overclocked : Is there an Intel core i5 2500 and an Intel core i5 2500 K. When I went to the market they told me that they only have an 2500 and they don't know anything about the "K". But I've been googling and everyone says i5 2500 K, while none says 2500 without the K. The i5 2500 (without the K) that I found in the market is actually 3.3ghz up to 3.7 (with turbo boost) 6M cache socket 1555... I mean these are the exact same specs of the i5 2500 with the K... Right ?

Just for the sake of knowing, the i5 2500 processor has a "Processor Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics 2000", what the heck is that anyway ?