So I was hoping to play FF XII IZJS (International Zodiac Job System) on a second PC I'm going to be buying in a few weeks that's just for PC games and emulation. I've been reading message boards on other sites and they say you need a really high spec PC to run it while other sites say the specs don't need to be as high. Since Romulation IS the Epitome of Emulation, I was hoping for some feedback on what kind of PC I should be buying. Take note the PC would be for PC games and Emulation only. My budget's between 1000 - 1500 USD
If you have a PS2 slim, making a FreeMcBoot memory card is pretty easy to do and costs maybe $8 for one of the exploitable games. It's probably the easiest way to play IZJS without breaking the bank.
meaning its a poor spec for the price. The PSU is unbranded, the ram is basic ram instead of performance ram, and the gpu is one of the lowest spec they offer.
I do in fact have a PS2 slim gathering dust under the TV. Can you tell me what a FreeMcBoot memcard is? Is that a DIY thing? If it's feasible for me and it's that cheap I'll go that route. Post Merge: [time]1372986139[/time] If the question was for me then I was either is fine. Since I don't know how to build a PC by myself I usually just buy the components and have friends or pay someone to build it for me. I'm studying how to build my own PC though, whenever I get a break from work.
Well, if you want to choose the parts... Code: Less is more 16GB ram will give little additional benefit over 8GB which gives little benefit over 4GB. More than quad core will give no benefit. Code: The faster, the better more cores doesn't help, faster cores will. Don't get anything less than 3.0Ghz Tons of ram doesn't help, fast ram does. DDR3 is a must, get the highest speed supported by your board and processor. Lower timings are better. The two most important are: CAS Latency and recharge time. The lower the better, however higher mhz takes precedence. Pay attention to triple/dual channel support on the board. Triple channel means RAM must be installed in groups of 3 identical modules, dual channel in groups of two. Mess this up and it runs much slower. The more modules you have, the better (so long as you don't break the dual/triple channel rule). If you have a board with 6 ram slots and you want 6GB of RAM, go for 6x 1GB over 3x 2GB. This is because of the recharge time, which is a period after a module has been written in which it cannot be written to again. More RAM modules means there will be other RAM modules available while others are recharging, making the system overall more responsive. G-Skill Ripjaw RAM is awesome. Don't forget that you will need a 64bit OS for more than 4GB of RAM. Hard disks are easily the slowest part of a computer (excluding optical and floppy drives) and there isn't a whole lot that can be done about this. SSDs look great on paper but realworld performance is lacking. You'll want SATAII/SATA3gb/s, unless you're very rich and hardcore, in which case U320 SCSI and SAS are options (bear in mind these two have a maximum drive capacity of 300GB for SCSI, SAS can go higher). You want at least 7,200RPM rotational speed, and avoid 'green' or 'eco' drives as these run at 5,400 RPM and even if they claim equivalent performance to 7,200s, they aren't equivalent. WD Velociraptors are good performance wise but are known to have reliability issues. Seek time should be as low as possible, and the drive should be one of: Seagate, hitachi, western digital or samsung. If you're going for SCSI or SAS then fujitsu becomes an option. For optimum performance, you want at least three disks. One for installing your OS and programs on, one for your pagefile, and one for installing games on. It's quite common to use a western digital raptor/velociraptor for the latter, but you could also use one for the former, or even for all three (if you're using SATA). If you're going to download a lot of stuff then get a fourth hard disk (a high capacity one, such as a samsung spinpoint F3) RAI avoid RAID 0. It brings very little performance benefit and comes at the cost of data security. I personally use RAID 1 on my OS disk (RAID 1 is where two identical disks are mirrored to look like one disk, and data is written to both, so if one dies then the other takes over). Avoid 'onboard' raid on your motherboard, if you want raid then get a proper raid card (promise, adaptec, LSI logic, mylex or 3ware) avoid 'zero channel raid'. Optical drive: mostly irrelevant as far as performance is concerned. CPU cooler: This is hugely important. Don't use the cooler that came with your CPU. It will be adequate, but only just. This is especially true of intel coolers. Frostytech have a nice list of coolers ranked by cooling performance on a 125W CPU, Wander over here: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2521&page=4 to take a look. Note that it only lists AMD compatible coolers, intel compatible is on the next or the previous page. Also pay attention to the noise level, you don't want it to be too high or it will be irritating. (i'm deaf so I couldn't care less). Case: This is also hugely important, but not for the reasons most people think of. Get a fancy looking case if you like, but looks are a secondary concern. Most important is airflow/thermal performance. You want 120mm fans in the front and the back at minimum (or slots to put said fans), the more the merrier, and the bigger the better. Side panel fans are a double edged sword, they can improve airflow, or they can totally balls it up. It depends on the case design. Make sure none of the fanciness blocks fans. Front fans should draw air into the case, back fans should pull it out. Side again depends on case design. For the record I hate tooless cases, its faster to use a damn screwdriver. If the case has a full height drive rack, then you will need a full tower (not a mid tower) otherwise the graphics card wont fit in the case. Fans: the higher the CFM for a given size, the better. Also pay attention to the noise ratings. Coolermaster excaliburs are nice, Delta fans and vantec tornados cool amazingly well but are also hellishly loud. CPU: The killer question. As said before, no more than 4 cores are necessary, and hyperthreading is a waste of effort. Higher clock speeds are better, bigger L2 and L3 cache sizes can also help. Pay careful attention here as the cache sizes quoted could be either per core or unified (all cores sharing the same cache). Also pay attention to the TDP (thermal design power) as this affects what cooler you choose. Motherboard: You want one that is compatible with your CPU (Both in terms of socket, FSB and TDP). ATX boards are easier to work with than microATX/uATX. This and the processor dictate what ram you can use, and how much, so DDR3 and as high as possible mhz. Good brands are: Asus, DFI, Gigabyte, MSI. Avoid ECS, PCChips, EVGA and foxconn. Pay careful attention to the chipset; a nvidia graphics card on an ATi motherboard chipset might be what is causing the issues my mate and I have, we just haven't been able to prove it yet. power supply: Don't skimp here. If this blows it could well take out the rest of your system. you want at least 500W. You will need PCI-E power connectors, and fewer, bigger 12V rails is preferable to more smaller ones. Choose from: Antec, thermaltake, silverstone, seasonic, OCZ, Enermax, coolermaster, corsair. Note that a higher rated PSU will NOT use more electricity than a lower rated one in the same computer; this is a common misconception. The rating is the MAXIMUM amount of power it is capable of supplying, so the higher the better, but there's no need to go overboard. Don't touch any brand I have not listed, and if your case came with a power supply then junk it unless its one of the above. Sound card: Avoid creative, they suck. Asus Xonar are the way to go. graphics card: Your choice is ATi radeon or Nvidia geforce. good brands are: BFG and XFX (these are the most used by gamers), MSI, gigabyte. Avoid: sparkle, evga, HIS Keyboard: logitech G19 mouse: I like the logitech MX518 and it's very highly rated plug in wired network card: if your onboard sucks, intel is the way to go. This ends today's lesson, I hope you've been taking notes because there'll be a test.
Thank you so much Xenirina, you're the best! I'm gonna print this out cause this is a LOT of info. Please, no test.
I'll let you off this time a few things that have changed since that was written: Samsung no longer make hard disks, BFG no longer exist, and DFI no longer make consumer motherboards.
Hm.... Maybe an AlienWare Gaming Laptop? In case you want a PC, try buying a high-speched ASUS. ASUS made a quite good name for themself. For about 1200$ you have one with 16 GBs of RAM. an Intel Core i7 Quad Core. A Nvidia GTX {NUMBER} (Nvidia GTX's are rumoured to be very good for processing high detailed game graphics)
Thank Loonylion for that one. He wrote it all. Offtopic Loonylion: I posted that wall of text on GBAtemp. Apparently all your stuff is wrong http://gbatemp.net/threads/building-a-gaming-pc.350638/
alienware suck, avoid them, particularly the laptops. nvidia gtx are overpriced and not necessarily good. It depends which model. Everyone has their own opinions, that list was written based on 10 years of experience.
It's not horribly difficult. You'll need an empty 8 MB memory card, a screwdriver that is small enough to take 3 screws off, an exploitable game, and a small USB drive. All files are provided on their website. Get the noob pack, so much easier when they have everything organized for you. You'll have to Google for FreeMcBoot. It probably has a .info domain. I used 007 Agent Under Fire since it was readily available and only needed to get to the second level to exploit.
