Best choices for upgrades?
#1
I've been trying to play Kingdom Hearts 1 and all is at 60 fps until game play in which it goes between 20-40 fps sometimes lower.

I have a Dell Dimension E510
These are my specs:
2 Gigs of RAM

ATI Radeon X600 graphics card

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 GHz

and i'm not sure what else... all basic, i've only upgraded the RAM

Does anyone know what i can upgrade to get my fps up?
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#2
CPU and GPU are the main factors to consider when it comes to speed. Those are the two things you really have to upgrade. 2GB and upwards of RAM is enough for PCSX2.

in your case, a single core p4, even at 3Ghz is way too slow.
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+ geforce GT 440 @ Win7 64bit
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#3
Basically you may end up needing to upgrade the CPU the graphics card the motherboard and even the RAM to a DDR2 because I dont think that dell machine is gonna let you upgrade much really, take in count the recommended specs for PCSX2 are a Core 2 Duo 3.0GHz CPU and 8600gt or better graphics card.
Core i5 3570k -- Geforce GTX 670  --  Windows 7 x64
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#4
The RAM i got was a 2GB DDR2... not sure what you mean.

But if i replace the CPU and Graphics card would that allow me to play at full speeds?

I'm trying to avoid major surgery, but would i need to replace everything to get a new CPU?
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#5
The only thing you'll be able to upgrade to is a 3.4 or 3.6ghz P4. Nothing else will work in that motherboard (and there's the outside chance the motherboard won't even support those... I haven't much direct experience with Dell Dimensions). It'll run you about $70 and I wouldn't expect more than 15% speed increase over what you have already.

Upgrading the video could be trickier. Your Dimension comes with a 300watt power supply, which doesn't leave much breathing room for high-end GPUs. You'll want to stick to something with a relatively low wattage consumption by today's standards (under 65watts, I'd think). Tho even with that limitation you can find a good cheap video card that's 3-4x faster than the on-board Intel crap, and 1.5-2x better than the ATI x600.

According to spec your Dimension should have a P4 capable of Hyperthreading. You can turn it on in the BIOS, if you do. When enabled, your CPU shows up as having "two cores" in the Windows Task Manager. It'll give you a decent speed boost in PCSX2.
Jake Stine (Air) - Programmer - PCSX2 Dev Team
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#6
You Will also get Full Speed if you have 3.2GHz or High P4HT.
   
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#7
Forget about upgrading dell machines, their cases and motherboards are so much different than usual that its almost impossible
Intel Dual Core E5200 @ 3,5ghz /gigabyte GF9500GT/2 GB RAM / ASRock P45XE/ Corsair CMPSU-400CXEU
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#8
Seriously......get a new PC. Dont buy cheap integrated PCs. A well-thought out PC made up of chosen parts is far better performance per price-wise. First-off, integrator PCs have custom-built boards that have very limited expansion options. Another thing is, fitting a good gpu card and cpu on that system would require that you also install a good quality power supply unit or you risk turning your system into mush.
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#9
Err... I wouldn't try to use a standard ATX PSU. Some Dell boards even have proprietary PSU connections, and there has been cases where standard ATX PSUs have ended up frying the mainboard.

Basically, you'll end up replacing your PSU, motherboard, CPU and graphics card and case (since you probably won't be able to fit a standard ATX motherboard in it... so it won't really even be 'major surgery', but a completely new 'body' so to speak.
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#10
*****, thanks. I'll be buying a laptop in a few months, i'll just make sure that's souped up.

How do i hyperthread my pcsx2 though?
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