when should i buy a comp for PS2?

[mefy]

Can anyone verify if this is spot on?

"If you are a gamer, the focus should be on the graphics card, more than the cpu. For that, a strong quad will do the job. Few games use more than two or three cores, making hyperthreading and 6 core cpu's of marginal value for gaming. Today, the sandy bridge 2500K is the gamer's cpu of choice in the $200 price range. It is so good, particularly when overclocked, that a future upgrade to ivy pridge will likely not be needed to run the strongest of graphics cards. The 22nm ivy bridge follow on's to the 2500K will be compatible with the P67 and Z68 chipsets if necessary.

If, you run multi core enabled apps, then the more cores the better. It is looking like the upcoming bulldozer 8 core offerings will be good value. But, we have yet to see any benchmarks. Historically, Intel has had cpu's that are more effective per clock, so a comparison without benchmarks will be difficult.
And, a little later this year, the sandy bridge-E will give bulldozer a run for the money at the highest price range. Particularly if you value 32-64gb of ram. "

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by mefy

Can anyone verify if this is spot on?

"If you are a gamer, the focus should be on the graphics card, more than the cpu. For that, a strong quad will do the job. Few games use more than two or three cores, making hyperthreading and 6 core cpu's of marginal value for gaming. Today, the sandy bridge 2500K is the gamer's cpu of choice in the $200 price range. It is so good, particularly when overclocked, that a future upgrade to ivy pridge will likely not be needed to run the strongest of graphics cards. The 22nm ivy bridge follow on's to the 2500K will be compatible with the P67 and Z68 chipsets if necessary."

This is spot on.

Originally Posted by mefy

"If, you run multi core enabled apps, then the more cores the better. It is looking like the upcoming bulldozer 8 core offerings will be good value. But, we have yet to see any benchmarks. Historically, Intel has had cpu's that are more effective per clock, so a comparison without benchmarks will be difficult.
And, a little later this year, the sandy bridge-E will give bulldozer a run for the money at the highest price range. Particularly if you value 32-64gb of ram."

This is not.

Get the 2500k, or an i3 if you're on the lowest of budgets.

[mefy]

Im looking to spend about 2-3k on a new comp... but am clueless as to what to do. Dont think im going for alienware anymore.

[Fenrys]

Most games are happy with a very fast GPU and only need a CPU that's 'good enough' to feed the graphics card. Some games, like Starcraft 2 or Dwarf Fortress, want an uber CPU to calculate the AI's behavior for many units. My guess is that PS2 will fall into the former category - a decent CPU and a great GPU will likely run it at maximum settings.

Generally speaking, games want faster cores not more cores. A modern 2 core Pentium will outperform an "8 core" Bulldozer in most games.

Bulldozer isn't really 8 cores. It's 4 modules and each module has a single floating point unit and fetch/decode/execute unit. Each module also has 2 integer clusters and 2 integer schedulers, so in some cases it can behave like it has 8 cores but in other cases it handles like a clumsy quad core. Also, in its current incarnation it's pretty terrible - we have seen benchmarks and they are slow. If you'd rather support AMD the David rather than Intel the Goliath, you're better off buying a Phenom II X4.

I don't think I've ever used more than 6GB of RAM when gaming, and that's not for lack of trying. My RAM usage stays under 4GB most of the time.

I'm not going to upgrade anytime soon, and expect to run PS2 at almost-max settings (I know it can run BF3, MW3, and Skyrim at almost-max):
CPU: Phenom II X4 955 BE
GPU: HD 6850
RAM: 8GB
SSD: 60GB Phoenix 2 Pro (Windows 7 install)
HDD: 500GB Spinpoint F3 (games install)

IIRC, it cost about $800 new and runs every game that exists @ 1920x1080 resolution and somewhere between High and Max settings.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by mefy

Im looking to spend about 2-3k on a new comp... but am clueless as to what to do. Dont think im going for alienware anymore.

You're probably better off buying a 1.5k rig now and a 1.5k rig later on if you have that much to blow, or even three 1k rigs over time.

Originally Posted by Fenrys

SSD: 60GB Phoenix 2 Pro (Windows 7 install)

Would you still choose this over the 60GB Samsung 830?

[mefy]

Why is only windows in the solid state drive and not any games?

[FastAndFree]

Originally Posted by mefy

Why is only windows in the solid state drive and not any games?

You could fit a select few games on a 60Gb SSD, I have Planetside on mine

[Fenrys]

Originally Posted by mefy

Why is only windows in the solid state drive and not any games?

After installing all the applications that I use to make a living, there's 14 GB free. I could fit one large game or a few small ones while still maintaining a bit of free space for wear leveling. I actually have used that space in the past - Planetside was on the SSD after I'd uninstalled Fallout 3, which replaced CoD4, etc...

Originally Posted by Vancha

Would you still choose this over the 60GB Samsung 830?

No. The Phoenix was the best of what was available at the time, but that is no longer true.

Recently I've been using the Crucial M4 with new builds, but the Samsung 830 may run games faster. The M4 has better random 4k read/write speed, which is important for running Windows. The 830 is faster in almost every other way.

Flip a coin, the M4 and 830 are both great picks.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by Fenrys

No. The Phoenix was the best of what was available at the time, but that is no longer true.

Recently I've been using the Crucial M4 with new builds, but the Samsung 830 may run games faster. The M4 has better random 4k read/write speed, which is important for running Windows. The 830 is faster in almost every other way.

Flip a coin, the M4 and 830 are both great picks.

Thanks. I was mildly aware of how it stacked up against the M4, but the Phoenix was an unknown to me.

Also, before I leave you alone, can you vouch for the quietness of the F3? Supposedly it's the quietest of the 7200s.

[Fenrys]

F3's are the only 7,200 RPM hard drive I've used for the last ~3 years. They've been the fastest mechanical drive on the market. I don't have experience with other 7,200RPM disks to compare them to in terms of how much noise they make. I don't even notice it when it spins up, so I guess the 3TB 5,200 RPM Green disk I use for backups is louder (I do notice when that spins up).

[KrazyJester]

http://cyberpowerpc.com Go here!

[mefy]

will installing PS2 on a SSD over a reg HDD make any big difference?

[Fenrys]

It's too early to say for sure.
If PS2's programming is anything like WoW's, then yes, you'll notice a difference.