PC Upgrade for smoother running

[dalehitchy]

I have a Core 2 Duo (2.9 ghz) , 4gb ddr2, 5450 gpu 1gb Games run smooth, up to ps1, gamcube can slow down abit but not so interested in those games anyway. Just want the menus to go well, which can be a bit laggy at the moment. Would a upgrade to a Core 2 Quad @ 2.4ghz be worth it?

[SentaiBrad]

It could be helpful, maybe overclock it a bit if you have decent cooling. The DDR2 RAM could also stand a bit of an upgrade, but I assume your motherboard is limiting here since you're sticking with the Core2 Series. CPU can help, the hard drive LaunchBox is located on (SSD's, SATA3's and USB3's are best, but again, your motherboard), and you can try turning off the RAM Cache. This will rely more on on your HDD but some users report that turning it off increases performance for older systems. If you are trying to view BigBox then there is also a quality selector for the various views to reduce the box art a bit for performance.

[djweevil]

You don't say which os you are running but if you are using vista 7 8 or 10 then the majority of your 4gb of ram will be eaten up by default. I would suggest turning off visual services to free up resources if this machine is dedicated as a launch box machine. My brother is running a 3.2 ghz core 2 duo. I installed a ssd drive and his motherboard board actually supported 8 gb of ram so we maxed his ram out the machine is nice and fast even running windows 10. The reason i suggest an ssd is if you do decide to upgrade your pc in the future you can carry it over to the new machine. Just use the ssd to install your emulators and keep the larger files ie roms on a bigger standard hard drive. Also on a plus note you never need to defragment an ssd if you do you can screw it up. If you get a new vid card be advised that on older hardware a new video card will not run at its full pci express rating ie you may have a 1x or 2x. Check your mother board and see what the max is for ram. Then check your local cregs list kajijii or whatever to see if you can find a machine to cannibalize. If the machine is offline ie not hooked to the internet you can save on a lot of resources by removing things like antivirus etc. Another option if you are not concerned with the machine possibly dying you can research overclocking it a few hundred mhz this will make the machine more peppy at the risk of system instability and heat issues. As far as upgrading do not dump a lot of cash into your current system you will find it more cost effective to build a new machine over time.

[Imgema]

dalehitchy said Just want the menus to go well, which can be a bit laggy at the moment.

Please define "laggy" I have two computers, a Core 2 Duo E8500 / 4GB Ram / 8800GT and a recent i5 4670 / 16GB RAM / GTX 960. The difference between those two computers while browsing the LaunchBox menu is very small. When i change between systems it takes 4 seconds on the Core 2 Duo and 3 seconds on the i5 (average). Caching is faster on the i5 of course but after that, browsing the menus is a very similar experience. I don't think upgrading to a core quad will make any difference. However, using an SSD (if your system supports it) and using LaunchBox there may be more worth it, although i haven't tested it so i'm not sure. .

djweevil said I installed a ssd drive and his motherboard board actually supported 8 gb of ram so we maxed his ram out the machine is nice and fast even running windows 10.

You are doing something wrong. No way you can max out 8GB that easily. I use Launchbox on a Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM and Windows 7 64bit. Max usage is a little less than 2GB while using LaunchBox, with a 7000 games/box art collection (1GB Ram cache selected in the options). Launchbox itself uses less than 700MB Ram there. On the newer machine (i5, 16GB) i'm struggling to make Launchbox use more than 1GB RAM itself, after setting Ram cache to 2GB. You might want to clean up your systems a bit.

[DOS76]

I use it on an Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop with a mobile Core 2 Duo T8300 with 4GB and the performance isn't bad at all in LB. BigBox is another story altogether, but I never use it on a laptop anyway so no loss there. I have LB with a lite install with only cover art on a Insignia Windows 10 tablet with an quad core atom (don't recall the model its not very old) and only 1GB of RAM and as long as you turn down the RAM cache to like just a smidgen past zero even that works okay with some lag when getting covers (Its only 1GB of RAM so you can't expect much) but RetroArch is snappy on there and the telescopic Ipega Bluetooth controller I have fits it perfectly to make it a pretty awesome handheld about the size of the Wii U controller.

[SentaiBrad]

It's true what systems can become lean and mean, but someone else's solution isn't necessarily wrong @Imgema, we don't know either users daily needs. In a perfect world, people would have decent machines no more than 2-3 years old then most problems would be fixed. What someone needs out of a machine and what they have / can afford are very different. Let's also keep in mind raw speed and numbers don't amount to anything. A less powerful later model can put to shame an older model that is "twice as fast", at least when you're looking at numbers. Generally, users have a lot going at Start up, and have AV software or active monitoring software going on that generally reduces performance. My general recommendation in this position is to get Advanced System Care, Malwarebytes Antimalware and use them. ASC's first page on scanning is awesome, I use 3 of the options almost daily (I can get screenshots if anyone is curious), that cleans up the machine, and other check boxes I use every so often. Driver Booster in the Tool Box is amazing, so is the Start up manager. The Uninstaller also helps when removing things to get rid of crap that the programs leave behind. If the install of Windows is just older, that + older hardware + software may just make a slower experience.

[djweevil]

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You are doing something wrong. No way you can max out 8GB that easily. I use Launchbox on a Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM and Windows 7 64bit. Max usage is a little less than 2GB while using LaunchBox, with a 7000 games/box art collection (1GB Ram cache selected in the options). Launchbox itself uses less than 700MB Ram there. On the newer machine (i5, 16GB) i'm struggling to make Launchbox use more than 1GB RAM itself, after setting Ram cache to 2GB. You might want to clean up your systems a bit.

Sorry I must not have been clear I meant maxed as in the most amount of ram supported by his motherboard.

[djweevil]

SentaiBrad said It's true what systems can become lean and mean, but someone else's solution isn't necessarily wrong @Imgema, we don't know either users daily needs. In a perfect world, people would have decent machines no more than 2-3 years old then most problems would be fixed. What someone needs out of a machine and what they have / can afford are very different. Let's also keep in mind raw speed and numbers don't amount to anything. A less powerful later model can put to shame an older model that is "twice as fast", at least when you're looking at numbers. Generally, users have a lot going at Start up, and have AV software or active monitoring software going on that generally reduces performance. My general recommendation in this position is to get Advanced System Care, Malwarebytes Antimalware and use them. ASC's first page on scanning is awesome, I use 3 of the options almost daily (I can get screenshots if anyone is curious), that cleans up the machine, and other check boxes I use every so often. Driver Booster in the Tool Box is amazing, so is the Start up manager. The Uninstaller also helps when removing things to get rid of crap that the programs leave behind. If the install of Windows is just older, that + older hardware + software may just make a slower experience.

Hey Brad another awesome tool is Privazer it is free and will clear a lot of junk as well as your old registry streams. I fully agree with you on malwarebytes it has saved me countless times in the past. There are also special profiles incase you are running a ssd or a regular hdd. I would recommend using it about once every two weeks or so maybe once a month with an ssd drive to eliminate unneeded wear and tear on it. You can find the program here. Also it gets updates all of the time. http://privazer.com/

[SentaiBrad]

SSD's don't need the same treatment as HDD's, and actually if you do that it'll make your SSD worse off, so be careful! Advanced System Care has all of that stuff plus more, and as I pay for the Pro version of it I get all of the tools.