Endless Paradigm

ProperBritish Wrote:ill look up the Phenom II X4 940, actually. See if the price changes. Ive looked at the benchmarking and they're not that different on frames per second.

Gaming is almost completely GPU dependent, and CPU doesn't really matter much at all, since you're going to get GPU bottleneck anyway... as long as your CPU is not TOO poo poo. Core2duo + ATI 4870 would easily get you way more frames than Core i7 + ATI 4670 for example.

Besides for emulation, which is all CPU (you're using CPU to emulate both the console's CPU and GPU), and Core i7 would easily get you the most frames. And to emulate something like the PS2 perfectly, you probably do need something really hardcore like the i7, or a very high end Core2/Phenom2, since emulation is like the most inefficient thing ever. The PS2 actually has a piss weak 666MHz processor.

I've change to an AMD Phenom II X4 955 (Black Edition) base.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164047 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 (Black Edition) @ 3.2GHz

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158607 - GigaByte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P Motherboard

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164557 - PowerColor HD4870 1GB GDDR5 Graphics Card

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150302 - Sunbeam Transformer Case

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108453 - All-In-One Card Reader + USB 2.0

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166463 - Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz Memory

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228 - Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152008 - OCZ Mod XStream 700W PSU

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169565 - LG BH08LS30 Blu-Ray Read/Write Drive

by the way im just using eBuyer as a starting point. if you find the same thing cheaper or recommend me something ill look at it.

Drop the DDR3 RAM and use DDR2 - speed difference, from what I've read, is minimal.  Also allows you to get a cheaper AM2+ mobo as opposed to AM3.
I would probably go for just a combo Bluray reader / DVD burner for now (assuming you want to read BD), unless you really see yourself burning Blurays in the near future (when they become popular, prices will drop close to what current DVD burners cost, _and_ they'll be faster (and probably better quality too)).

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:Drop the DDR3 RAM and use DDR2 - speed difference, from what I've read, is minimal.  Also allows you to get a cheaper AM2+ mobo as opposed to AM3.

but the CPU he is looking at is an AM3 slot CPU

Edit: Nevermind "AM3 processors are also completely backwards compatible with AM2+ motherboards."

can't go wrong with ebuyer, my whole pc build components came from there.

right update, again! :D thanks for yo' help guys. keep the suggestions coming.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164047 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 (Black Edition) @ 3.2GHz - £146

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144554 - Asus M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe nForce Motherboard - £109

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160669 - Palit GTS250 512MB HDMi Graphics Card - £80

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150302 - Sunbeam Transformer Case - £56

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108453 - All-In-One Card Reader + USB 2.0 - £6.50

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148815 - Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz Memory - £55

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228 - Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive - £38

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152008 - OCZ Mod XStream 700W PSU - £80

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170014 - Sony AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW (DL) Disc Drive - £16

The cost is coming down guys :D