AMD A8 opinions

[n3wt0n]

Hello everyone.

I am new to the emulation scene and am "rebooting" an ancient project to convert an old arcade cabinet to a more sophisticated emulation cab. Hyperspin front end is amazing and I want to include it as part of my build but I have to get some hardware issues sorted first. The PC that I originally wanted to use is WAY too slow but realistically a new monster of a computer isn't in the budget.

I have been reading that most older emulators are CPU only and multiple cores are not advantageous but as we get into the gamecube/N64 eras it seems that the requirements rise pretty drastically. I did read the "requirements for Hyperspin" thread but I can't search for AMD A6, A8 or A10 and get any results. I am curious how far forum members think I can get with only an A8-6600K as my processor and GPU? Also, the A6-6400K has a slightly faster clock speed (3.9 vs 3.6 in the A8) but the GPU isn't quite as good and it has less cores (2 instead of 4). The kicker is that it is half the price. Given the info provided I am curious to get the opinions of others. Do you have one of these chips running emulators and hyperspin? I would LOVE to hear what you think. Obviously, while I would prefer to spend less I understand that spending too little is going to leave me unsatisfied with the end result. One last thing, I know an i5 with a decent graphics card would probably be ideal but it just isn't in the budget right now.

Thanks for ANY help you can shed here. I really appreciate it and plan to be around quite a bit as I complete this build.

n3wt0n

[kyoken]

I have an A8 (Htpc) and a A10 too, i can play with the A8 to all emus, maybe a few dolphin and pcsx2 games dont work at fullspeed and you have to configure demul to work at fullspeed, but i think its better to buy a more powerful intel G3220 (3Ghz), a better dual core processor, Only a few emus works with all 4 cores, the gpu is enough powerful to play many emus and when you can, upgrade it with a better gpu. And its very very cheap

[dark13]

The best choice for a budget build is G3258 toghether with a z97 motherboard and a decent heatsink. That cpu is unlocked, and when pushed it performs really close to 4690k. Consider that right now there are some cheap non-z97 motherboard where a bios upgrade unlock overclock features.

AMD APUs are really sweat, but if you're planning emulating wii and playstation 2 intel is the right choice

BTW demul is basically the only emulator where GPU really kicks in...

[n3wt0n]

I have an A8 (Htpc) and a A10 too, i can play with the A8 to all emus, maybe a few dolphin and pcsx2 games dont work at fullspeed and you have to configure demul to work at fullspeed, but i think its better to buy a more powerful intel G3220 (3Ghz), a better dual core processor, Only a few emus works with all 4 cores, the gpu is enough powerful to play many emus and when you can, upgrade it with a better gpu. And its very very cheap

Thanks for the info kyoken. It got me looking into other intel chips in that price range and I found the one that Dark13 suggested below. I was going to ask some questions but Dark13 actually answered them in their recommendation.

The best choice for a budget build is G3258 toghether with a z97 motherboard and a decent heatsink. That cpu is unlocked, and when pushed it performs really close to 4690k. Consider that right now there are some cheap non-z97 motherboard where a bios upgrade unlock overclock features.

AMD APUs are really sweat, but if you're planning emulating wii and playstation 2 intel is the right choice

BTW demul is basically the only emulator where GPU really kicks in...

Thanks for the info. The G3258 unlocked will likely be my choice for processor. It actually seems a bit of a beast for what you pay. It is in an acceptable price range and seems to be easily overclockable up to the clock speeds similar to the AMD units I suggested above. Should I shoot for a lot more clock speed or does intel just handle emulations better than AMD thus making up for the clock speed differences? When you say decent heatsink we aren't talking liquid cooling are we? I would like to avoid that mess. What is the reason for recommending z97 motherboard over say, B85 chipset? I can "borrow" 8 GB of ram from my desktop machine for this build. It is 2x4gb DDR3 1600 CL9. Would this be overkill?

Thanks again for the suggestions. This has been very useful info as I want to get the parts and move onto the next part of the project.

If anyone else would like to chime it would still be welcome.

[dark13]

I said z97 because only this chipset has built-in oveclock features in bios. Anyway, as said, there are some cheap motherboards where you can enable overclock upgrading the bios. You can check this article . The only problem is I didn't check if these bioses are "official" or modded so you'll need to "study" about motherboards .

Clock per clock intel is faster than amd. But consider that with intel you need a pci-e videocard

"Hybrid" liquid cooling (corsair "H" serie, for example) is useful on tight builds but a huge "classic" heatsink, like noctua dh-14 has similar performance and will last more. Maybe it's better if you make some research but something in the range of a scyte ashura or noctua U12S should be enough for a dual core as on a quadcore 4690k these heatsinks are almost enough. Almost...

For most emulators and even windows gaming 4gb will be enough. With some configurations dolphin's coders suggest to use 6gb of ram.

[n3wt0n]

Thanks for the links. I will look into those boards and the article you included. I will educate myself on the different motherboard as much as I can before making a decision - I would like to be able to overclock if I need to.

[n3wt0n]

So I am on my way. I now have an Intel G3258 and an overclockable MSI motherboard. I also have 8gb of ram and a 640gb laptop HDD. I have an old power supply I can use until a replacement is available - perhaps an online boxing day special.