i5 Clarkdale for new project?

[LeedsFan]

Just  wondered  what experiences anyone has had with these processors with their onboard GPU?  I have a new project in mind. Basically it's a "Mame in a box" with everything built into one controller. It's not just for Mame though as I want to use other emulators and use it as a standard PC too for web surfing, watching movies and playing other games.

However the controller is gonna be as compact as possible. So I was figuring using a miniITX board (17cm square) with an i5 Clarkdale processor. I believe these can be OC'ed quite well on stock cooling. I reckon I can get everything into a controller measuring around 340mm wide. It will be a single player only but with 2x J-Sticks for Smash TV and Robotron as these are two of my faves. All ports at the back available for internet, mouse, etc.etc.

Just wondered how good the onboard GPU is for these purposes. I know Mame doesn't make use of graphics cards much but there will be other emulators I plan to use and I don't have much experience with those as yet.

[drventure]

No exp with that board specifically, but I've found with the boards I have played with that Mame will generally run fine on just about any of the newer stuff, but anything that makes use of actual 3d graphics (for instance, Future Pinball or Visual Pinball) will suck on an onboard GPU.

And when I say mame will work fine, I mean for the majority of older games. If you plan on overclocking the heck out of it to try and play the newer roms, I doubt that the onboard will work for that either, but I don't do any overclocking...

[releasedtruth]

It's my understanding that the GPU will be completely useless in terms of mame performance. Using an i5 I believe is an overkill for anything mid 90s and earlier and doesn't have the horsepower for anything newer. Sort of in a no-mans land unless seriously overclocked.

e.g. I have a P4 3.0 with 2GB ram and it plays everything up to Killer Instinct 2 well, but if I wanted to play Blitz, it would take an overclocked E8500 or something. I'd love to see your benchmarks though, perhaps in the 'new' benchmark thread.

[LeedsFan]

Yeah I was considering this chip mainly for the stuff other than Mame. The on board GPU would be good for movies and maybe the other emulators (I think). I don't have room for a dedicated graphics card for what i have in mind. It's gonna be quite slimline.