Hardware recommend a laptop for Dolphin emulator

Deleted User · Oct 23, 2010

regnad said:
Thanks for all the input!

So is that Lenovo the way to go?

Anyone have this one Acer? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16834115866

Or any other suggestions?

That laptop is a good deal. i5's are a bit easier on the battery I believe too (because they have less cores). That being said, you'll still be able to use things like photoshop easily, just be wary of intensive tasks that are best left for more powerful desktop computers. The clock speed on the i5-460M is 2.53-2.80 both as a dual core, so I'd guess that that means when the processor deems it needed (and within TDP) thresholds it'll throttle itself up to higher frequencies as needed by the emulator or programs. Turbo boost is a pretty ingenious architectural feature as far as power-saving goes nor is a 460M a wimpy processor, far from it! It even has hyperthreading which allows it to handle 4 threads at a time. Compared to the Core 2 Duo series it usually eclipses the T9800 (2.8ghz) and T9900 (3.06ghz) in benchmarks tests (which can be viewed in the source-link in the next paragraph

)

Notebook review sums up this processor best saying that, "Therefore, the Core i5-460M is a high end dual core cpu which should handle all daily work and gaming tasks. Only the quad core i7 CPUs can be noticeably faster at tasks that require four or more threads (e.g. rendering). " - Source As far as the laptop itself goes, it supports up to 8GB of RAM, and ram is pretty easily upgradable (for future use) while also supporting a powerful wide-screen laptop 1600x900 resolution

jefffisher · Oct 23, 2010

regnad said:
Thanks for all the input!

So is that Lenovo the way to go?

Anyone have this one Acer? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16834115866

Or any other suggestions?

the touchpad on that laptop is the single worst i have ever used

regnad · Oct 23, 2010

Other than the touchpad -- which can be avoided with a mouse -- it seems like a good computer for the price.

Is the Acer's i5 good enough? Others seem to recommend an i7.

granville · Oct 23, 2010

I won't tell you which brand or model of laptop you should get, but i will tell you that besides the number of cores, there is scant little difference between a mobile i7 and a mobile i5 in terms of architecture. Dolphin in particular can only use 2 cores, so buying a quad core for it would be useless. This is especially true if your quad core isn't clocked as high. Mobile i5's may only have 2 cores instead of the 4 i7's have, but they can reach a higher clock speed normally and via turbo boost. If you want the best speed you can get out of it, and have no use for a quad core, you'd probably be better off with an i5.

In the realm of PC gaming, there are a handful of PC games that are being optimized to use the extra power of quad cores. I'm sure there will be more and more in the future. They still work with dual cores fine though. It will be a while before games actually require you to have 4 or more cores. Heck, there are games coming out nowadays that can STILL be run on non-dual cores (regardless of the requirements, i've seen people run them on single cores).

So i'd only get a quad core in a laptop if you NEED all four cores. Generally things such as video editing, converting, or real time 3D rendering. This need will NOT be for Dolphin though. And the developers have no plans to add support for more than two cores right now. If you do get an i7, you'll need to rely on turbo boost to use Dolphin and such power-hungry emulators. I'm not saying they're crap by any means (i love my mobile i7 and get fullspeed in the large majority of emulated games). But the i5 will give you better clock speeds if running Dolphin at the absolute highest speed possible is what you're after.

regnad · Jan 12, 2011

I'm leaning heavily toward the Acer AS7741G-7017 at this point.

That computer, and basically every computer I've looked at, doesn't seem to come with a recovery disk should it be necessary to reinstall Windows.

Not having bought a laptop in five years, is this the way it is nowadays? What do you do if you have a disaster? With my laptop that's being replaced, I've needed a reinstallation twice in it's five year lifetime.

Rydian · Jan 12, 2011

They often have a recovery partition on the drive instead, which you can run with a certain key combination upon bootup.

Originality · Jan 12, 2011

That and it usually comes with software to burn a recovery DVD. I don't know exactly what they put on the DVD though...

regnad · Jan 12, 2011

Yeah, a little poking around on the internet seems to reveal that that's what's done nowadays. Interesting.

Does anyone else have an Acer AS7741G-7017? I haven't been able to find many reviews. Is this the right choice do you think?

Deleted User · Jan 12, 2011

One of the things you should realize about Turbo Boost is that unless you have the Intel Turbo Boost Widget installed you're not going to be running at a solid frequency at any given time. After having my M15x for two years, I *JUST* saw my i7-720QM hit 2.80 ghz for a few seconds yesterday, these i5/i7 processors frequencies vary depending on the usage PER SECOND. What I mean, is that the frequency changes so fast that it doesn't even register unless you're specifically looking out for it.

The only way that you're really able to push a turbo-boost processor to it's limits is through the use of benchmarking programs designed to strain & test the components. For your uses an i5 definitely does have some headway against an i7 mobile processor because your base operational frequency (2.5) is what the i7-720QM would turbo-boost up to and closer to Dolphin's recommendations. I don't know if it's been mentioned, but the i5-series also has hyper-threading, which separates it from yesterday's dual cores (Pentium Dual Core, etc) in that the i5's have 2 logical cores and 2 virtual cores, which helps make up some of the difference between an i5 and an i7 for the specific tasks that might have seen some benefit from the i7. For about $700 it's a good laptop for Dolphin, but as other users have said, you're not really going to be able to run *every* game.

To be honest, there are programs out there that can recover/retrieve look into what your windows installation serial key is; first & foremost, I'd look into getting a handle on that information and putting it away somewhere for safe keeping. For example, http://www.tech-exclusive.com/how-to-recov...s-7-serial-key/ Once you have that information, even if you lose your recovery CD, you can just download another one off the internet (say through BitTorrent) & register it legitimately.

There are also programs that make it possible to make a bootable USB-stick, which (because of read & write rates) offers a considerably faster installation rate than an optical disc, though having an optical disc lying around may be more convenient.

All in all, I think this laptop with it's mobility 5650, i5-460M will make an admirable choice for a Dolphin laptop. It goes without saying, however, that a desktop built @ this price range would perform considerably better, though. However, for a mobility choice @ this price range it's one of the better options out there.

Lodis · Jan 13, 2011

You should take a look at the new Sandybridge laptop releases. The CPU's on that new platform are much faster than the previous generation even at lower clock rates.

Qooby · Apr 29, 2011

Hello,

I want to buy a new Laptop for PCSX2 and Dolphin emulator. I want Full Speed with all PS2, GC and Wii games and 1080P Support.
Which laptop is recommended for this?

The Laptop must provide the best possible quality for this emus.
I don't want to play PC games with it. I only want the best Laptop for the both emus, thx.

MrCooper · Apr 29, 2011

Qooby said:
Hello,

I want to buy a new Laptop for PCSX2 and Dolphin emulator. I want Full Speed with all PS2, GC and Wii games and 1080P Support.
Which laptop is recommended for this?

The Laptop must provide the best possible quality for this emus.
I don't want to play PC games with it. I only want the best Laptop for the both emus, thx.

Good luck.

Foxi4 · Apr 29, 2011

One of these 'ere lappy's.

Generally "the bigger the better".

Rydian · Apr 29, 2011

Qooby said:
I want Full Speed with all PS2, GC and Wii games and 1080P Support.

The emulators themselves aren't capable of this yet no matter the hardware.

Many games yes, but there's a lot of games that don't run at all, let alone full speed.

Fishaman P · Apr 29, 2011

Basically, you're looking for a second-gen i7, preferable the highest i7 model number you can get.

Graphics wise, same deal as above. Personally, I'd go with ATI/AMD, but others say NVIDIA has better DirectX drivers.

An important note: Update your DirectX runtime with either this or this, and then upgrade to Windows 7 SP1 if it doesn't already have it installed.

Deleted User · Apr 29, 2011

Yeah, processor completely tops graphics processor on this one, if you try to play things on 1080p on a laptop you'll probably get slow downs if you don't have a mobility 5850/ GTX 460M / mobility 5870 or better.

In that regard, look for ... i7-620M / i7-640M & most of the new Sandy Bridge Dual Cores on custom Laptops (think Sager/Clevo & resellers). Dual Cores = Cheaper & more efficient than emulators than quad cores. The only quad cores I can really reccomend off hand for PCSX2/Dolphin are unlocked XM processors b/c of their overclocking capacities.

http://www.originpc.com/shop/pc/configureP...p?idproduct=650 - I'd wager that this is the strongest emulation laptop on the market. For this price you could build two PC's that would both last 3-5 years, so I don't recommended it, I'm only pointing it out for sheer Ghz/Theory.

Qooby · Apr 30, 2011

I thought about the laptop thing and a PC is the better and cheaper way to go.

Now i have some questions.

The Emus work best with Dual Core. Is an Intel Core i3-2120, 2x 3.30GHz cpu much better for the emus than a Intel Core i7-2600K, 4x 3.40GHz cpu?
Which gpu brand is better for both emus nvidia or amd/ati and why? In the Wii console is a ati gpu, therefore i thought amd/ati is the better solution.

I#m really new a this emu thing, but I want't the best Emu experience with it.

This PC should only work really perfect with the emus, other things like PC Games, HD movies, Multimedia etc.. is irrelevant for me..
I search now for the best emu hardware constellation and nothing more.

Originality · Apr 30, 2011

The reason why people like to think that dual cores are better for emulation than quad cores, is the fact that typically dual cores have a higher clock speed than quad cores (and emulators aren't coded to make use of the extra cores). Without even starting on the overclocking business, a Core i7-2600K will perform better in emulators than a Core i3-2120 for two reasons. Firstly, the base clock of the i7 is 0.1Ghz fasher than the i3 (on each core). Secondly, TurboBoost will push the speed of the i7 slightly further by disabling the unused cores (giving an extra few hundred Mhz of speed).

It's also easy to overclock to 4Ghz (max stable clock on air cooling is 4.8Ghz, but a 4Ghz OC shouldn't need any overvolting) with the i7-2600K to push performance even higher. EDIT: I might add though, a Core i5-2500K will probably have better performance than the i7-2600K, because the max stable clock for the i5 is 4.9Ghz. Only 0.1Ghz difference, but thought I'd mention it.

As has been mentioned, emulation is mainly CPU based. It doesn't matter whether you're using AMD or nVidia graphics, because they largely won't be used (they'll just output the display whilst the CPU does all the work).

Since your only concern is emulation, the graphics card is largely irrelevant. I'd say grab a nVidia GT 550 or GTX 560 (both are mid-ranged graphics cards) cheaply since your main focus will be on the CPU, and possibly a high quality heatsink to cool the CPU with.

On an unrelated note, try to stop using the name ATi - they became AMD over 2 years ago. Knowing how popular ATi was, they gave it a year for people to get used to the transition, but that's passed and now all their graphics and drivers are being branded with AMD instead.

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