Worth going i5 over i3?
#1
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Worth going i5 over i3?
I just spilled water on my out of date gaming rig and it gave me an excuse to upgrade. I'm right in the middle of partout business so I can spend some decent cash, but I would like to keep it as low as possible since the cash goes towards my next car.
I have to replace my motherboard and videocard. Both got hit with water. The processor is fine but unfortunately it's an old LGA socket 775 motherboard so it's not worth upgrading (It's also DDR2-800 and has a PCI-E x16)
I was browsing around parts websites and I was wondering if it's worth spending 60 dollars more for quad core computing (159.99 core i5 3.3ghz) or a dual core (99.99 core i3 3.1ghz).
The box will be used for light gaming, PS2 emulation (The BIG resource sucker, I'm thinking i5 might be worth it just for that), movies and internet browsing.
I'm trying to keep it under 400, but naturally that's a bit difficult with 3 major components needing replacing.
My list:
-Some sort of socket 1175 MOBO with 4x DDR3 and a PCI-E x16 x2 or whatever the new one is. - 130
-Some sort of videocard (GDDR5, hopefully 1gb) - 140
-Core i3/i5 -(99/159)
-4gb ram - 30
60 over with the i5, but to be honest I'm leaning towards that so I can do it right the first time and not have to redo it in a year.
Thoughts?
I have to replace my motherboard and videocard. Both got hit with water. The processor is fine but unfortunately it's an old LGA socket 775 motherboard so it's not worth upgrading (It's also DDR2-800 and has a PCI-E x16)
I was browsing around parts websites and I was wondering if it's worth spending 60 dollars more for quad core computing (159.99 core i5 3.3ghz) or a dual core (99.99 core i3 3.1ghz).
The box will be used for light gaming, PS2 emulation (The BIG resource sucker, I'm thinking i5 might be worth it just for that), movies and internet browsing.
I'm trying to keep it under 400, but naturally that's a bit difficult with 3 major components needing replacing.
My list:
-Some sort of socket 1175 MOBO with 4x DDR3 and a PCI-E x16 x2 or whatever the new one is. - 130
-Some sort of videocard (GDDR5, hopefully 1gb) - 140
-Core i3/i5 -(99/159)
-4gb ram - 30
60 over with the i5, but to be honest I'm leaning towards that so I can do it right the first time and not have to redo it in a year.
Thoughts?
#2
Boost Pope
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I'd definitely consider it worthwhile if building a new machine from scratch.
Question: PS2 emulation? I honestly had no idea that this was practical. If whichever application you are using for this is multi-threaded, then it will benefit from a multi-core CPU.
Just took a quick peek at the PCSX2 install guide- the only reference I can find in it to multi-core operation is applicable only when using Software Rendering, rather than graphics-card acceleration.
Still, it's only $60. Go for it.
Question: PS2 emulation? I honestly had no idea that this was practical. If whichever application you are using for this is multi-threaded, then it will benefit from a multi-core CPU.
Just took a quick peek at the PCSX2 install guide- the only reference I can find in it to multi-core operation is applicable only when using Software Rendering, rather than graphics-card acceleration.
Still, it's only $60. Go for it.
#9
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I'd definitely consider it worthwhile if building a new machine from scratch.
Question: PS2 emulation? I honestly had no idea that this was practical. If whichever application you are using for this is multi-threaded, then it will benefit from a multi-core CPU.
Just took a quick peek at the PCSX2 install guide- the only reference I can find in it to multi-core operation is applicable only when using Software Rendering, rather than graphics-card acceleration.
Still, it's only $60. Go for it.
Question: PS2 emulation? I honestly had no idea that this was practical. If whichever application you are using for this is multi-threaded, then it will benefit from a multi-core CPU.
Just took a quick peek at the PCSX2 install guide- the only reference I can find in it to multi-core operation is applicable only when using Software Rendering, rather than graphics-card acceleration.
Still, it's only $60. Go for it.
#11
Your luck with PS2 emulation will depend on which games you want to emulate. Some are playable, some are not, even if you spend $1500 on two GTX 590s and $1000 on an I7-990x. It just won't matter.
I went with an I7-920 back during thanksgiving of last year, (or was it the year before that?) and this thing will gobble up everything I throw at it. From hosting servers to hardcore gaming to video encoding, it just keeps asking for more.
When building my GF's HP Envy 14, I opted for the I5 over the I3. I am quite impressed with it.
I went with an I7-920 back during thanksgiving of last year, (or was it the year before that?) and this thing will gobble up everything I throw at it. From hosting servers to hardcore gaming to video encoding, it just keeps asking for more.
When building my GF's HP Envy 14, I opted for the I5 over the I3. I am quite impressed with it.
#12
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BTW, new specs:
-Core i5 3.2ghz
-Intel DH67CL mobo
-4gb cheapo-ram (DDR3-1333)
-Raedon HD6670
Also got a new PSU in case my old one was blown... Didn't want to spend money I didn't have to replacing everything twice..
-Core i5 3.2ghz
-Intel DH67CL mobo
-4gb cheapo-ram (DDR3-1333)
-Raedon HD6670
Also got a new PSU in case my old one was blown... Didn't want to spend money I didn't have to replacing everything twice..
#13
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I figure more-cores and x64 will help significantly with this.
#16
Boost Pope
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It's because emulating hardware is a difficult thing to do. Different architectures. And not just the main CPU, but the GPU as well. Everything has to be translated in realtime. It's like running a program written in Java or Applesoft Basic vs. running real software.
A Pentium 1 running Win2k will "emulate" a 16 Mhz 286 running DOS quite easily, because the instruction sets are compatible. The same machine will struggle to emulate an 8 Mhz Amiga 500.
BTW, just noticed your sig.
#18
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I use to always go AMD. But the latest i7s just seem to take the cake lately. I did go with ATI for my GFX card on my gaming rig.
Works great in windows, but I wanted to try cpyrit with APP but had no luck successfully getting it to work on my Ubuntu setup. My GT250 on the other hand was very simple to shake hands with cyprit and amazingly fast vs my cpu.
Works great in windows, but I wanted to try cpyrit with APP but had no luck successfully getting it to work on my Ubuntu setup. My GT250 on the other hand was very simple to shake hands with cyprit and amazingly fast vs my cpu.
#20
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I have had very little trouble with it on my home machine. The only app I couldn't get to run was my old copy of AutoCAD 2005, so I run that in a virtual machine.
We do have a couple of applications I use at work that don't run under x64, as they rely upon a fairly old (and obsolete) .NET library that hasn't been supported for years. We're working on fixing that, until then, I do keep a couple of 32 bit machines around for that purpose.
And of course I still have the one 486 running DOS (yes, actual DOS) as there was never a Windows version of the M-Sys reflash tool created, and we still need to support those damned things every now and then.
We do have a couple of applications I use at work that don't run under x64, as they rely upon a fairly old (and obsolete) .NET library that hasn't been supported for years. We're working on fixing that, until then, I do keep a couple of 32 bit machines around for that purpose.
And of course I still have the one 486 running DOS (yes, actual DOS) as there was never a Windows version of the M-Sys reflash tool created, and we still need to support those damned things every now and then.