Amazing!

[zektor]

I built myself a new system this past Monday, here is what it consists of:

Soyo Dragon 2 mainboard
P4 3.0E (1MB Cache & HT Technology)
512 MB PC3200 (DDR 400)
280GB HD Space (One 200, one 80)
Geforce FX 5900SE (128MB & TV Out)

Wow! I can actually play everything in Mame at full speed...even CHD's :) Not to mention all of those new PC based games. It ran me about $900 to get everything I needed, but well worth it. Welp, back to the games! :)

[Jorpho]

Even Crusin' USA and the other Ultra64 games?

[zektor]

Even Crusin' USA and the other Ultra64 games?

I just tried Cruisin and KI 1 and 2...and I'm happy to say, yes, they are completely playable at what appears to me as full speed :)


By the way, this MB/CPU combo is incredible. I really cannot believe the speed....as I have played with other p4 systems that are slow by comparision. I purchased the MB and CPU at newegg.com:

Soyo Dragon 2:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-139-139&depa=1

Intel Pentium 4 3.0E:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-171&depa=1

And the memory is two 256MB PC3200 chips I got from Circuit City for $60 each (plus a $5 mail-in rebate on each) that run on the board in dual channel mode. This chip and board are HIGHLY recommended by me. Even the soundcard on the board is great, performing better than my old SBLive!

[gamergary]

That is a nice rig.

[zektor]

I tried an emulator I haven't tried in awhile today on the new setup...Project Tempest. Can we say perfect 60fps emulation with sound? :) Actually, I have to use the frame limiter as the emulation is too FAST without it!

[Daniel Thomas]

Thanks for posting. My computer's power source died on me a couple weeks ago, so I'm planning on buying a new PC when my tax returns come in the mail. I'm still trying to figure out just what I'd need to run everything perfectly, so this helps a lot.

Just what exactly would you need a 200GB hard drive for? You can't possibly fill all that up, can you?

[Jorpho]

Oh, I could probably fill that up easily enough. All you need is Bittorrent, a few desirable anime series, a lack of willingness to burn anything to CD, and maybe a couple of PC game CDs copied to the hard drive (strictly so they run better). And perhaps a few different Windows or Linux installations.

And if that's not enough, backups. Of everything.

[Azazel]

I could easily fill that space up. That is why I keep my roms on cds and I probably should move that stuff over to DVDRs as they can store a lot more information. This way I have plenty of room for other stuff and if I want any given rom and I just pop in the cd that has it and it doesn't take up much iof my hardrive space. You'll also don't have to spend time tring to find any giving rom for download or worring about if the rom is corrupt or not.

[hydr0x]

nice setup but why only 512 MB RAM, unless you have Windows ME or older get additional 512 MB, games like Far Cry or others really use the RAM (and actually need it to play perfect)

[Flack]

200gig of drive space is like unlimited space for normal computer users. If you download pictures and install a few games and stuff like that, 200gig will last you forever.

However if you are like me and I'm assuming Zektor, 200gig is enough room to work and move around but won't last forever. I mean, if you do stupid shit like ripping DVDs, those are 4.5 gig each, ISO's of movies take up space, etc etc. I mean, the complete MAME collection is 2 DVDs now ... so yeah, if you download a bunch of crap, it adds up.

Zek, that's a damn nice machine!

[ventrra]

I have to agreee that it isn't hard to fill 200GB of drive space. My 2 drives together are 200GB and I only have 80GB free at the moment without installing MAME and several other emulators yet. Add a few PC games to some of that (plus addons) like 1nsane, Unreal Tournament, Quake III, etc. and it gets eaten up pretty quickly.

Zektor's setup is really good :envious:, but I've been building AMD systems myself lately.

[kainemaxwell]

So when you building one those for the rest of us? :P

[zektor]

hydr0x: I went and purchased another 512mb the day after I posted this. I was just waiting for payday! :)

Kaine23: As soon as I hit the Mega-Millions...damn lottery! :)

As for the 200GB, it's nearly full. 85GB of it is being taken up strictly for emulation. It's good to have the ability to get all of my stuff off the various DVD-R's and put them back on the HD for easy access. Another 30GB is dedicated to some MP3/MP4/OGG files, 6GB dedicated to my forever growing Howard Stern radio show collection, about 65GB dedicated to a bunch of PC games (Manhunt, Painkiller, Halo, Farcry, UT2004...and more), and just some various programs and other junk. If you have a high speed connection and a large HD or two....well it is VERY easy to fill! :)


BTW, Flack, the complete Mame collection spans 6 DVD's now...if you include all of those CHD's :)

[SirDrexl]

And if that's not enough, backups. Of everything.

Yes, even of stuff you can't use on your computer (XBox games)