MAMEWorld Forums - Hardware - Bespoke Arcades Synergy Upgrade

> dunno whether I have the expertise or cash to build or buy a whole
> new PC.

If you're feeling confident about upgrading CPU, memory and video card in an existing PC then I don't know why you'd worry about expertise - the rest is mostly screws, cables and installing Windows...cash is of course a different problem..

> The RAM is fairly easily upgradeable to 4 or 8Gb,

If it's only going to run emulators, 4GB is perfectly fine. 8GB and up and you're stepping into workstation territory. I'd ditch the existing 1GB and get a matching 2GB pair so that you can run them in dual channel configuration. ~~Look up in the motherboard manual which two slots to use~~ easy, mobo only has 2 slots..

> I just thought that for relatively
> little cash I'd be able to upgrade the CPU ad GPU to at least allow the machine to
> play games on PCSX2 through GameEx.

You want the Wolfdale Core 2 Duo E8600, the fastest Core 2 Duo CPU ever made. 40 dollars on Amazon. With good cooling (and if the motherboard is up for it) you can usually overclock those past 4GHz. PCSX2 runs reasonably well on my old PC which has an E8500.

You can look for a quad core equivalent, but I think those are still too expensive.

> I need to check on the PSU specs.

Take a photo of the label and attach it here. You need to look at wattage and, when adding a discrete video card, amperage on the 12V rail(s).
A quick way to figure out what the amperage should be is to take the TDP of the video card and divide it by 12 (volts). The amp rating on the 12V rail of the PSU listed on the label is the normally the peak amperage and you need to take that into account so that you don't put too much of a strain on the PSU - protect your investment and always go with a good quality PSU that can deliver a bit more than your hardware actually needs. If the CPU is the brain, the PSU is the heart

For example, something in the vicinity of 500 Watts (again, ample headroom will allow it to run more efficiently) that gets a good review here: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/category/power/

A good, period-correct video card for a PC like this would be for example a Geforce 9800 GTX+ or the Geforce 200 series equivalent (I don't remember which one, I think it was the 250). That should do fine for HLSL in MAME and PCSX2 graphics, unless you're thinking of upgrading the monitor as well - you'd need something faster for, say a 1920x1080 display.

S