SmileyOfChaos

Wondering if this computer will be adequate, since I don't play any intensive newer games or MMOs. We are on an extreme budget, and so far this is about the best I could find for $500 and under. I did do a little research but I still know next to nothing about computer hardware.

$450 from Wal-Mart (Please no lambasting for store choice)
HP Pavilion p6823wb
64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium
AMD Phenom II 521 Dual-Core
3.50GHz, 2MB L2 Cache
4GB DDR3 SDRAM (expandable to 16GB)
1TB SATA hard drive
ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics
1919MB Graphics Memory

Note: I know the Phenom processor and 4200 graphics card are pretty bad, but is this enough for PS2 games? They are the most intensive things I'll be running besides Visual Studio.

BlueMak

PS2 games? Eh, if you want to play PS2 games then you should buy a PS2. It's going to be far cheaper too.
The are others more informed about US prices regarding the hardware.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Jac

I have no idea about that hardware really other than a cursory search on Google. The processor is a Dual Core running at a decent speed which should be OK for all but the most recent games. Crysis 2, BF3 and BatmanAC all need quads in my experience. The integrated GFX chip seems very slow but looking around I've seen people claim they can run fairly recent games at lower resolutions. Memory looks good and it has a decent amount of storage and a good OS.

Why have you decided to go for a PC - are you planning to do things other than just play games?

I'm sure people will come along who have a better idea about what performance and what games you are likely to be able to play on that system.

Is there no way you can go down to your store and test some games on it before you buy?

Robert McClelland

Your best bet get 500 gaming computer those HP computer have 300 watt psu and you can't upgrade them.

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"XTREME AUDIO IS CRAP!" "There no support for it. It's crapist card on face of the earth it should be throw into the sun"
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1949536385.png

IvanV

I'm with BlueMak, if you need it for PS2 games, get a PS2. It's cheaper, you don't need to worry about compatibility and you get to play with the controller for which the games were designed.

Other than that, it's not bad. There are also sub-$100 graphics cards that are much stronger than that integrated solution (which, on it's own, will run most games at low resolution and/or details), should you wish to play more demanding PC games at a later time.

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If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

blibbax

I'd get a PS2 and a PC along those lines. I have a similar performing CPU and memory and it deals with everything I throw at it with aplomb. I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if an HP/Dell/Compaq/Acer/etc. is a good deal, though.

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SmileyOfChaos

Both my PS2 and computer are over 4 years old, and my games have taken quite a few scratches over the ~8 years I've had them. I have the PS2 and game ISOs backed up on my computer though. I need a new computer anyways since mine is starting to die, and I can't really play the games anymore via the discs but the ISOs are perfectly alright, so I wondering if this hardware is capable of playing them. The best comparison game I can think of is DOOM 3, as it was for XBOX and PC so it's around the intensity of the games I want to play.

blibbax

PS2 emulators are unreliable and unstable, and can encounter performance issues even on the latest high-end PCs. It's just not something that's been mastered yet, and it probably will never be unless Sony eventually markets one.

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SmileyOfChaos

I have one that runs smoother than a baby bottom on better computers....it just doesn't do so well on mine. On my friends' it runs at 50 fps, on mine it runs at 5. Needless to say this is unplayable, but 30+ is just fine. If the specs I listed are capable of playing DOOM 3 at reasonable levels then the emulator should run fast enough to be playable.

blibbax

The thing I've found is that some games work fine and some are atrocious. If you're sure about the games you want fine. On the other hand, Doom 3 is available as a PC game and will run on nearly any modern PC.

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SmileyOfChaos

Yeah I knew DOOM was for both PC and XBOX, which is why I used it as a benchmark for the emulator. If DOOM 3 works on most modern computers then the emulator should work pretty well too.

blibbax

Any given game will generally run significantly worse emulated than as a PC game. It's a lot less efficient, and limited to the console's graphical settings.

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SmileyOfChaos

Yeah that's the bad thing with emulation, and is why I wish most of the PS2 library would come out on PSN already. So far there are only a few, but the ones I have (Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, GTA San Andreas, DBZ Budokai 3, and Star Ocean Til The End Of Time for the most part) aren't out yet. But my emulator doesn't do that much worse than the real thing, on my friend's XPS it's just a few frames less than running it on an actual console.

blibbax

Yes, but your friend's XPS is likely hundreds of times as powerful as a PS2 :P

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SmileyOfChaos

Yeah that's another problem I've been having with comparison...hard to do when the only other computer around is pimped out with thousands of dollars worth of bleeding-edge tech.

M0nk3m4n

I think the point here is going to be, if you wanna play the games, get new discs or look into a way to burn those .isos to new DVDs. Supposedly that can be done as well.
It's a nice dream to have your PC emulating all your consoles, but for now, your best bet
is gonna be, console games on the console itself, and PC games on the PC.

The price of some blank DVDs, or new copies of your games probly wouldn't cost $450.
If you also need the new PC for this 'n that, I'd say it'll bring you decent results.

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Try Rockbox for MP3 players (example: videos, full Classic Doom, etc. on Nano 2G)
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BlueMak

Basically the PC you have chosen is almost obsolete. Unless you are looking for older games and non too demanding programs. Everything current is of 4 core cpu and dedicated graphics card with 1GB of memory and full support of DX 11. Or higher.

I haven't used a PS2 emulator so I can't comment on the requirements for that.
BUT, if you have created backups of your PS2 games (and I want to assume they are legal versions) then you might want to do what we used to do in the 80's with floppy disk based game that allowed it. Use the copies to play the game, leave as backup the original discs. It makes more sense too.

As it is, with the system you have chosen, you probably are just fine with using Visual Studio. I haven't checked the requirements but I doubt they are anything as high as that.
But, for PS2 games you are definitely much better off buying an actual PS2 console. They are cheap too.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

caqde

PCSX2 recent versions using gsdx works best with a mid line DX 11 GPU (x50 series Nvidia, or x600 series ATI) along with a dual core CPU 3Ghz or higher (Phenom II or Core 2 Duo or better Architecture).

The emulator in its current state takes little to no advantage for 3 or more cores. GSDX using its software rendering mode does take advantage of multiple cores but the games you listed (At least what I own out of them) work great in hardware mode which allows for better visuals and framerates.

__________________
AMD Phenom II X4 925 AM3/ Giga-byte MA790XT-UD4P
XFX HD5770 1GB / 2x8GB of Geil DDR3 12800 10-10-10-28
Samsung SH-S182D DVD-RW drive / Sony Optiarc BD-5300S BD-RW drive
Western Digital WD1501FASS(Primary)/Western Digital 15EADS(Secondary)/Western Digital 7500AACS(Secondary)/Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gb(Secondary)
Antec TP-550 / CoolerMaster CMStacker
Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Professional / Creative Inspire 6600 6.1 speakers
Samsugn T200HD 20" LCD Monitor / Logitech Internet 350 Black Keyboard
Logitech MX510 Mouse

Judas

PS2 games require some serious juice to emulate many of the ps2 games..... hell even super highend machines like mine have a struggle just to emulate gamecube games...

and stability sucks hardcore..

so using intergrated graphics may not be to bad.. but the cpu is going to take a dump still... hell even a 3930K @ 4ghz is crying... that's if i can get the ps2 emulator to not crash.

I'd invest in a 2nd hand PS3 with PS2 capability. if not just get a ps2.... get it modded to play your backed up burnt ISOs.

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SmileyOfChaos

My current computer specs are as follows:

Compaq SR5450F
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 32-bit @ 2.00 GHz
2 GB RAM
500 GB hard drive
Nvidia GeForce 7100 / i630
2 GB graphics memory

This plays my Gamecube games via Dolphin 3.0 at around 20 fps, and PS2 games via PCSX2 at around 5-8 fps. All my ISOs are completely legal, ripped right from the discs as backups due to system/disc wear and tear. As you can see my current computer SUCKS, haven't upgraded it at all (besides newer Nvidia drivers) and it's 5 years old now, even modern eMachines would probably come with better hardware than this, so I figured the computer I chose would be more than enough. Though since I know nothing about any of this I figured I would go to a site that has people who regularly tinker with their computers and who know what they are taking about. As for getting a PS2, I need a computer more and was hoping that I could get two birds with one stone.

BlueMak

If it is only Walmart and under $500, I would get this Walmart.com: Lenovo H405 Desktop PC with AMD Athlon X4 650 Quad Core Processor, 6GB Memory, 1.5TB Hard Drive and Windows 7 Home Premium (Monitor Not Included): Computers

And add when I can one of these, in case the onboard is not good enough for what you want it
Walmart.com: GIGA-BYTE Radeon HD6450 1GB PCI Express 2.1 DVI Graphics Card: Computers

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

SmileyOfChaos

BluMak...holy hell that's quite a bit better than the one I was looking at. Almost everything is better...quad instead of dual, 1.5 TB instead of 1.0, 6GB for tri-channel RAM instead of 4GB...the only things worse are the fact that it doesn't have a monitor and that the the processor speed took a 0.30 GHz hit, but the quad should make up for that (again I'm hardware illiterate) and I figure you know what you're talking about so that should be plenty. Plus I'm using a 1080p widescreen TV as my output device so the missing monitor isn't so bad either...once I find out which card in the 3000 family it has I'll likely go for that one. Thanks for the tip!

Judas

fair enough... i was just considering the issue i've had with emulators and getting them to work without error.. obviously you've tinkered and spent more time fine tuning the emulators for those games...

Just keep in mind that sometimes emulators and settings applied have a habit of working better on one machine and for whatever reason not at all on another. Emulators are just totally unpredictable by nature.

The last dolphin emulator i had used was in the 2.x range.. so if 3.0 works noticeably better awesome i may give it another swing later...

as for the ps2 emulator... i haven't tried for awhile..

if you can smack 2 birds with one stone.. awesome...

Looking at alternative machines.. i think you could potentially get better with the funds.. as bluemak pointed out.... looks like his machine would prove to have more potential..

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SmileyOfChaos

Yes after looking at the computer he linked me to I've changed my mind and am getting it instead. As for Dolphin, 3.0 works FAR better than previous versions, it runs smoother/faster and several games such as Mario Golf Toadstool Tour don't crash anymore. As for my tinkering, I just try to disable as many enhancements as possible without breaking anything, and turned the settings down a lot. With my current computer I can play GC games as long as they are RPGs and don't have much action going on(Yugioh: Falsbound Kingdom, Fire Emblem) and keep a reasonable 20 fps during gameplay, 40+ in cutscenes and menus, anything else tanks. As for PS2 games, out of the 4 I listed Kingdom Hearts 2 ran the best at 8 fps during gameplay, 25 in cutscenes and menus. Though it seems DBZ Budokai 3 is one of the iffy games, it ran at 4 fps no matter what, so I couldn't even get to the main menu in that one.

Judas

yeah see.. i prefer to play games at no less than 24-30fps... most of the games i tried would either crash or bump along at nothing higher then 2-4fps... which for the few games i wanted to play.... wouldn't do it..

But yeah RPGs wouldn't be all to bad...

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caqde

The PS2 and Dolphin emulators have gone a long way and are mostly stable. I can play a PS2 game for 3-4 hours before it crashes if I use the right build. I mostly play RPG's and with my build (no overclocking at all) I get 50-60FPS on games like Shadow Hearts, FFX, FFXII, Kingdom Hearts (I, COM, II), Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2, and Atelier Iris using PCSX2(build 5001 ATM). I don't use speed hacks and the graphics are DX11 Hardware with 2X Resolution with the exception of shadow hearts that needs software rendering in which case I use the AA settings.

I don't use the Dolphin emulator that much though..

__________________
AMD Phenom II X4 925 AM3/ Giga-byte MA790XT-UD4P
XFX HD5770 1GB / 2x8GB of Geil DDR3 12800 10-10-10-28
Samsung SH-S182D DVD-RW drive / Sony Optiarc BD-5300S BD-RW drive
Western Digital WD1501FASS(Primary)/Western Digital 15EADS(Secondary)/Western Digital 7500AACS(Secondary)/Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gb(Secondary)
Antec TP-550 / CoolerMaster CMStacker
Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Professional / Creative Inspire 6600 6.1 speakers
Samsugn T200HD 20" LCD Monitor / Logitech Internet 350 Black Keyboard
Logitech MX510 Mouse