[Moks]

I can't afford to buy a new PC right now.

My existing specs is:
AMD K6-2 500
motherboard is Jetway 542..something (I'm from Asia)
64MB PC100 SDRAM
16MB Voodoo Banshee
52x AOpen CDROM 952e.

To improve ePSXe's performance which should I buy first? a new board, processor, memory or video card?

Any suggestion highly appreciated..

 

[Raziel]

You should first upgrade your video card(like a GeForce 2 mx or even a GTS as they're starting to be really cheap).
Then your processor (a K6-2 500 is performing quite well when a GeForce 2 helps it).
And finally a bit more ram would help.
Anyway it's only my point of view and other people will tell you to upgrade this before that and all....
Bye.

 

[Enigma1982]

I don't know about this...................
but I think you should upgrade your CPU and MB first.
Voodoo Banshee is still working
And you from Asia huh?? Which country???
Sawasdee ja.............

 

[cluthu]

I'd say there's a tie between your video card and your RAM. Upgrading either one would result in greater performance not just in ePSXe but pretty much any other application you run as well. Given that I don't live in Asia I can't say for certain, but right now RAM prices are relatively cheap. If you've some cash to burn and would like to see greater performance immediately, get more memory.

Secondly I'd upgrade both my mobo and processor. Generally you can get a good deal if you buy a bundle (that is, the mobo and proc in one package), especially if you consider getting anything from AMD. As I mentioned in a thread before, for just about any non-scientific/mathematical use AMD can't be beat priceerformance-wise.

 

[Betamax]

Ok I checked up on the mobo. It has an AGP 2x slot not a 4X so one of the really powerful graphics card might have its performance limited by this. If you want to go for a graphics card for this machine save your cash and get one of the budget ones, such as the geforce 2 MX. I'd say the best bang for buck here would be memory, as 64 MB just doesn't cut the mustard anymore. This should also speedup the system in general... not just for games or emulation like changing the graphics card would.

 

[Satan]

Originally posted by Betamax
Ok I checked up on the mobo. It has an AGP 2x slot not a 4X so one of the really powerful graphics card might have its performance limited by this.

I wouldn't worry about it. There's almost no difference between AGP 2X and AGP 4X, performance-wise.

 

[SanDRocK]

doesn't 4x have more features that 2x? fast writes etc.....?

 

[Guest]

There's no difference because current memory bandwidth solutions can't fully support 4x, so the difference isn't that great...

 

[Satan]

Exactly. Not to mention that fast-writes can make your system unstable. And you'll only feel a difference between AGP 2X and AGP 4X if you run out of video memory, which won't happen all that often with 32MB of graphics memory.

 

[Moks]

Thank you guys for all the replies. I really appreciate it...

Since some suggested on memory upgrade, i checked on our local stores for 128mb SDRAM.
I noticed that PC100 RAMs are already quite hard to find; what they have now is PC133.
Would there be a problem using these type. Can I combine PC100 and 133 types, or would socket 7 motherboards accept 133mhz RAM (in the first place)?

 

[Guest]

You can combine pc133 ram with pc100....
the cas latency time might give a problem though; you'd probably have to set that to 3....if you dont know what that is it's probably already at 3.

 

[Ali]

Sell the previous chip of ram.Becasue sometimes two ram chips of different manufacturers don't get to like each other and don't make a good match.Well I had a PC-100 64 MB ram chip from compaq.I sold it for 20$ and added 20$ more and got another chip of Ram of 128MB......Simple..............

I would suggest go for the card.......nothin happened with the change of ram........I am tellin the truth........but there might be some difference.....

Ali
M.L.A

 

[GEO]

that's right, more ram only cuts time for starting aplications and running a lot of them at the same time....you should upgrade the video card first cos a new processor would require a better mobo and if you don't want to spend much money.. buy a geforce 2 MX.