THRobinson
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Everything posted by THRobinson
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What do you mean by 3Ghz? There are a lot of 3Ghz CPUs... like a 15yr old socket 478 P4 3Ghz? a G3950 is 3Ghz and slower than the G4400 I was mentioning.
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It's a hard topic... figuring out min. specs because of all the variables. Plus, hard to know if the advise is from someone like minded or someone who see's no problem in dropping $2k on a system build. I had a friend who use to spend $700 on a new video card every 6 months and sell the old one at a $200-300 loss each time. Just because something slightly better came out. To me that was nuts, to him it made total sense. I usually get a mid/high end card, GTX10604GB right now, and I'll keep that and skip the next gen before I upgrade it. If that guy was on here, I'm sure the min. recommendation of a PC from him would easily cost $2k. That's all I'm trying to establish... what will work just fine, vs what will work totally maxed out. Those comparisons are good for 1 thing though... the same reason you didn't like. Same hardware, same game, what difference would you expect to see. There's another vid that's the same thing comparing 5 games and really, that's exactly what you'd want. If I were making a system to play games and all the side-by-side game videos showed almost no difference, to me that would be the whole story. It would be different if I was looking for a home system, because I'd also need to see comparisons for other apps like Adobe suite software. If those vids were showing LaunchBox/games and the comparison looked like that, difference of a measly 3fps... decision would be done. Well... bought the motherboard, was on sale from about $100CAD down to just under $50CAD. Seemed a good deal. LGA1151 MicroATX. Had a slot for the GPU and 2 slots for dual channel ram... don't really need much more than that. Can't say I miss the old days when you needed a slot for your GPU, soundcard, modem, SCSI card, etc... Figure I'll add sales alerts for the parts I want... CPU is still in the air for me. i5 would be preferred, but, again... not sure how many modern games I'd be playing. I'm sure the G4400 would play NES just as well as the i3 or i5... it's when I hit games newer than 2000 where it's iffy.
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No, no hyperthreading... but does that matter? That's the thing, those CPU specs don't tell the full story, but neither does the LaunchBox about page. I have no idea if LB gains anything from hyperthreading? multicores? which I think we established it doesn't a few posts back. DOS76 - "Most emulators don't take advantage of core threading from what I've read." NEIL9000 - "Dolphin only goes up to Dual core, and that's one of the more advanced emulators out there. So yeah." i9 would be overkill I suspect. Depending what you play. As mentioned previously, I may add God of War 1 and 2 for PS2, but likely nothing else. I won't be playing STEAM games or controller games standing in front of an arcade machine. For me, it defeats the purpose of an arcade machine if not using the stick and buttons. For me, mostly stuff that would run on a RaspPi but, some stuff that doesn't run very well... tried some N64 games and lag was so bad I couldn't play. PSOne games same deal. I have a PSU that I fixed (bad fan) a 250GB drive and a GTX650TiBoost card. Looking for something better and flashier than the Pi, but not gonna spend too much on. LGA1151 board on sale, $20 off and $25 mail-in, so $50CAD after all said and done. Future proofing wise, makes more sense to me to buy something new, than an old 3rd Gen i5, especially since I haven't found one under $350CAD yet for sale. Some decent ones out there for sale, but, paying extra for parts I don't need.
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Not at all... started to with MAME (not at home so can't recall which one I have installed)... when it starts it says NAOMI so, searched and I guess some sorta Sega thing? Was recommended to use DEMUL. Tried through LB, and direct with Demul... no luck. Tried grabbing the file again in case corrupted, and tried a different version (USA vs JAP type deal) and in Demul I went to the BIOS list and switched through a few of them to try but I don't even get as far as the Naomi screen. I really wish there was a standard way of making MAME files, some small nfo file in the ZIP that says what version it is and emulator intended for... hard to know if Demul or the file is at fault. When I get home I'll post again. Briefly something pops up but fast so I'll need to look at it a few times to get the verbiage. I know we can't say where to get ROM files and such but where I go is a real paradise of files... but doesn't seem to list version info.
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About ready to start building a cabinet, but still stuck getting a few MAME systems working with LaunchBox. Goal is before I start construction, I have the software issues sorted out. I'm doing this all on my PC for now, making detailed notes for each system... it's not the system that will be used, I haven't purchased that yet. Right now, my enemy is Naomi. I have Capcom vs Streetfighter II. I tried with my MAME emulator, and it starts... Naomi logo comes up, choppy sound, fades away then Loading Game appears and that's it. I downloaded DEMUL but can't get the game to load. In passing in another thread someone mentioned that I need to add "-run=naomi -rom=" to the command line, which I did but no change. DEMUL loads, but can't get the game to load. Been doing pretty good with MAME stuff so far, though still having as many issues as I have victories with getting games to run. Hoping to one-by-one get these sorted out... this is #1 on my list. Anyone have any experience with DEMUL and/or Capcom vs Streetfighter II? Like this
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So... haven't bought anything yet. Been focused on other projects and torn between 2 designs for the cabinet. But... I was looking at option C... for Celeron. G4400 3.3Ghz is half the cost of an i3-7100, and doesn't seem too far off from one another performance and spec wise. Was thinking go cheap, get the G4400... but the board will accept up to a 7th Gen i7, so... 2-3yrs from now, grab a cheap used i5 or something. Any feedback on the G4400? Build - https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/THRobinson/saved/WBzVnQ Side-by-Side - http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Pentium-G4400-vs-Intel-Core-i3-7100/3539vs3891 i3-6100 vs G4400
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Got a snipe on 4x4GB dual channel corsair right now. Failing that I'll buy pairs... 2x4GB or 2x8GB
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Good point... got a few options being watched on eBay... just hope to snipe at a low price. Upside is, I have time... for the most part I can only get work done on weekends so, probably take a while to get this built. Main focus now is getting emulators figured out and roms working. If I can get that sorted out and ready I'll be happy.
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Thanks... Now to start getting some wood cut.
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Yup... no worries. Built my own systems since the early '90s. I just don't keep up with stuff.... basically, when time to upgrade I research the snot outta it, get what I need, then not look at specs again for 3yrs. My main PC has 16GB ram... I re-encode video often enough, like making a 12GB MP4 down to 4GB, otherwise I am a graphic designer and use Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign constantly and never had an issue. Game wise.... World of Wacraft, Borderlands, Bioshock, Crysis... with the GTX1060 I got a few months ago, my system runs totally fine. For Launchbox/games though, 16GB overkill? 8GB enough? maybe 12GB? Just don't want to dump in 16GB and find out it never runs past 10GB. If I can save $20, I'll save $20. My prob is that this arcade is just 1 DIY I have for the summer... also building a RaspPi based mini console for my niece, HiRes audio player alarm clock for myself, restoring a '79 CX500 motorbike, rebuilding a garage, renovating the kitchen and my car needs new struts so... yup... I know sounds like I'm being cheap, but just have too many things on the go so, ya... whatever I don't need to spend, goes towards the other dozen projects.
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Nice... thanks... when I get home I'll give that a try. OP related... I think I'll go cheap and grab the i5-3570. If I can get it under $175CAD I think I'll be in budget and be happier with it than the RaspPi. Also, side note.... got a Samsung 204B / 20.1" / 4:3 / 5ms/ 800:1 contrast / 1600x1200 monitor for $20CAD (well, picking up this week). Aware of the capacitor issues they sometimes have but, $14 to replace those and I'm not afraid to solder if it ends up needing it. Actually, person has 2 of them $25 each of 2 for $40, buying both because if in a few years one dies, I'd rather a $20 backup monitor than have to find a new one and probably cut a new panel for the cabinet if not the right fit. Annoying though because after 3+ weeks I gave up, and on Sunday, checked the local ad page, nothing new posted so went and picked up an LG L1952TX 19: 5:4 screen for $35... got home and 1 hour later, person posted a pair of Samsung 204B's. Sigh. But rather a 4:3 screen so, guess sell the LG now and hope I get most of the cost back.
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Don't think I've tried that one yet... though honestly could not name a single gamecube/wii game at all. By that time, we were a Playstation family. Still fighting with MAME/NAOMI the past week... I understand enough about MAME to know that there are different emulators, and you have to have the ROM version match the MAME version.... still 100% clueless how to know what version it is and works with what. I've gotten some working so far, and using MAME, Xmen vs Capcom 2 will load the NAOMI screen, then says loading game and hangs. Grabbed DEMUL because recommended for NAOMI but won't run anything at all. That's another thread/problem. So far, seems that Neil9000 is i5, and DOS76 is i3... shoulda started a poll.
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When I used that PC Part Picker, the i3-7100 was actually $3 cheaper than the i3-6100... compatibility warning though about may/not work and may/not need a BIOS update for the board, but again, I didn't research much, just sorted by price. I think on the forums I was reading through, the debate came down to Quad vs Dual... which I know makes a difference when doing stuff like CAD, or converting video files... not sure if video games/launchbox benefit or not from Quad over Dual.
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I'd prefer new because well... new... but ya, from what I can see online they perform about the same in general and saves $100. How are the games for RAM anyways? I see lots about CPU's and GPU's... when I built my PC and researched (debated 16GB or 32GB) the general opinion was that nothing fully maxed seems to go beyond 10GB so unless rendering 3D/CAD 16GB was plenty. Not sure if the same for LaunchBox and PS2 games.
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So... had another thread about feedback on a build, and seemed the general consensus was that a 3rd gen i5 was the min. required for decent performance on newer stuff. I was on the fence between using my RaspPi for the build or a PC but, a donor PC was just too much money... 3rd Gen i5 was like $400CAD. Started to break down what I really needed, and I have an old BFG 500w power supply, just replaced a few months ago for my media server because noisy, but I have an unused fan from the new media server case that will fit so, noise issue should be taken care of. I have a GTX 650 Ti OC Boost (quite the mouthful) for a video card, and I have a 250GB 7200rpm SATAII drive. So basically, just need a Board/CPU/RAM. Using PartPicker I could build something around $260CAD ( https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/LWyByf ) ... just quickly sorted by lowest price and picked parts, didn't research anything yet. Using eBay, I could buy used parts and make an i5-3570 with 8GB ram for (if lucky) $175-200CAD. Googled a few forums and people seemed split between the two options, seems to be a few upsides to either way I go. Just wondered if anyone had any feedback about these options. Googling other discussions helps, but then again, you never know what application the poster is basing their opinion on. One guy may be a gamer, other guy may be using it for CAD. Only upside I see for the i3-7100 is that maybe in 1-2yrs I can buy a used CPU and upgrade to an i5 or i7. But, then again, if I get all the games running just fine, I may never update the system at all, software or hardware... if it works how I want it to work, I'll disable WiFi, keep unplugged from the network and avoid messing it up with an upgrade. Eventually I'll add another 4-8GB ram, and when I upgrade the GPU in my main PC I'll moved the GTX1060 to the cabinet... that may be it. In short... for Launchbox/Games... would the i5-3570 be better? is it worth about $100 to go for the newer i3-7100? (will note that I will not be overclocking).
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...and a good BMW beats out a station wagon any day of the week too... costs more too. I don't dispute that a good PC beats a RaspPi... but can you get a decent Window's spec'd machine for $49CAD? Plus... what's decent spec'd? based on the response to my OP, everyone's idea of min. specs are different. It's a downhill battle. I'll keep launchbox on the PC, and Pi for the arcade. I'll also build the arcade such that if/when I have a few extra bucks, I can easily swap it out for something else. Budget wise, the most I can probably get is a QuadCore Q9450.
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Ya, RaspPi is OK at PSOne, after that, nadda... and no Demul emulation... though was trying that today to get Marvel vs Capcom 2 to work and still no luck.
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Almost $250... (Canadian)... $300 I can get 8GB ram, motherboard, PSU and an i3-6100. Already have a drive and a GTX650TiBoost card laying around. But... again, if omitting PS2 games a $49 RaspPi may suffice. Use my regular PC for FPS's and a few occasional other games. Are the more modern (demul Arcade games Taito Type X Nesica) as CPU/GPU hungry as PS2? for $150 I can probably get a 2nd Gen i5. Which goes back to the OP and how a min. specs chart would be insanely helpful.
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Honestly don't know my games that well... for consoles especially. I do miss a lot of the old games though and need a project for this summer that's fun no work (like rebuilding the garage and renovating the kitchen). That's what started the Arcade build. That said... not sure how many fight games and side scrollers there are for PS2, and how many I'd play. When working on the RaspPi one thing I learned was that sometimes you can't get a game working because no emulator, but same game exists on another console. Not sure if the case for PS2 arcade style games or not... guess need to find a list somewhere of the games and scroll through and see how many exactly I'll be interested in. Likely I think the cabinet is going to be RaspPi based though, and LaunchBox on the PC for the few stragglers of games I really want like the GoW series. Maybe upgrade later but budget doesn't really allow for about $300CAD for computer parts. Though I will say, cheaper to buy parts new than buy a used system online... not needing the case, video card or hard drive drops the cost down quite a bit. Also... seems when it's used, people's idea of what a 'gaming rig' is, is pretty much all over the place.
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I'm just now (yesterday) learning about those... I have a copy of Marvel vs Capcom 2, that loads the splash screen of their logo, then says loading game, then hangs... was researching last night and discovered that stuff. Very confusing for noobs for sure. I figured if it was under MAME, MAME emulators would run it... now finding out that although under MAME it's some sorta thing called Naomi, which is a beefed up Sega Dreamcast, which means not really MAME but rather some other emulator altogether. I think I'll have to Google those you mentioned, and see what games in the list I'd want to play if any, to see if I need more hardware. Sitting here playing God of War though, I've established that if I need a handheld controller to play the game, I'm not putting it on the Arcade. Just seems odd playing an arcade machine that way. OP Wise though... a list I know would be subjective, but to me, min. specs means that the game loads, and runs smooth. Maybe at min. settings for the game, but that's what min. specs usually assume. I'm sure there's got to be some agreement on what's minimal, and what recommended and what's ideal.
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Just wondering, is there a chart or anything with min. specs per platform? I see a lot of posts about min. specs for a build, and sometimes they seem really low, sometimes they seem overkill... Be nice if there was a chart where you could look through and pick a platform like N64 and next to it recommended min. specs, then go down the list to PS2, see what specs are recommended for that, etc... that way you can look up the types of games you'll be playing and know what to build. No point spending $800 on a rig but never playing anything newer than a PSOne game. Also, game/emulators aside... min. specs for LaunchBox/BigBox as well. Is there something like that somewhere? Would it be something maybe we can start building? I'm looking to build a cabinet soon, been testing games on my home PC and on the fence about PS2 games. Run fine on my system, but I'm not sure I want to stand at an Arcade cabinet with a PS3 controller not using the joystick/buttons. I may just leave those on my PC and not bother with game systems that need a gamepad (PSOne/PS2). At which point, my recommended min. specs of a 3rd Gen i5 (other thread) probably drop down significantly.
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Do you guys think an i5-2500 with a GTX650Ti 2GB would work? or still too old... stick with an i5-3xxx series?
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I'm talking the other way around... a PS2 game that's normally 4:3 being displayed widescreen 16:9... is it stretched and distorted? is more added to the left/right to make it widescreen? or is it cropping the top/bottom of the 4:3 to make it 16:9?
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For the PS2 games going 16:9... is it adding more to the sides to make it wider? or is it chopping off some of the image at the top/bottom to make it 16:9? If it's adding, then I'll have to ponder a bit more, but if it simply cropping off the top/bottom then I'd rather stick with 4:3 in case I'm missing stuff.
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I should clarify... I knew about women, I just had no luck gettin' any until I then. Now it seems the other way around... I see stuff online about female gamers and comicon stuff and think... dammit... why wasn't it that way in the early '90s? I got stuck in highschool when grunge and depression were the 'in' thing.
