Quick advice on Pc builds on a quick buy

[aldub516]

Hey all. In the midst of my cabinet build. The downside of not living in New York anymore is not having hundreds of curbside pcs to play with. The local pawn shop has tons of pcs. Considering I used to run mame off crap dells, I wanted to know your quick advice on the following pcs. I'm running mame .147 and mess for home consoles up to anything before n64. Ideally I'd love to play the intensive 3D games but for right now,'I just wanna drop a pc in it. So, how would these fare to get my machine up and running?

Hp e5200 a6620f
4 gb ram
Dual core 2.50 ghz

[cj138]

Yes

[Alvaro Guerrero]

yea it will run it fine

[aldub516]

Im sour about having to buy a pc knowing i have 5 back home. I shouldve brought one with me when i made my temp move to the west coast. So now its pawn shop or tweaker on craigslist..  and working backwards on old pcs always loses me. That pawn shop one you said would work is an option, but they want 100 for it. A local person hit me up and said they had this, which i can probably get for like 70-90. But when i checked specs, i noticed it might be a single core. What takes precedence, Ghz on the CPU, or the dual core/non dual core?  This is all he said in the listing

Here's what's inside:
Pentium 4 3.8ghz
4x1gb ddr 400 ram running dual channel
128 gb WD Raptor Hard Drive
Nvidia GeForce 2MX 64MB AGP (Model#NV880-0-REV-B-Model-p36)
Soundblaster Live

i googled pentiaum 4 3.8 ghz which pointed me to a few links that led me to believe its a single core.. but anyways, based on that, im gonna try and grab either one.. which might be the better buy?

[Malenko]

All Pentium 4 CPUs are single core. Hyper threading split the physical core into 2 logical cores, but it was still a single core CPU. If its 3.8 Ghz its probably a Prescott CPU , well hopefully its is, and not an overclocked norwood CPU.

I'd take the E5200 dual core over aP4 CPU.

[Alvaro Guerrero]

I actually ran my most recent arcade with a Pentium 4 3.8ghz and it ran n64 and having any graphics card is a great bonus

[JDFan]

For that price I'd check arrowdirect for an off lease core2 -- for exampple here is a core2duo 3.0 ghz. with 4gb ram and a 160gb. hdd with win 10 license for $87 shipped (+ tax if you live in a state they have locations) - they come with a new mouse and keyboard also so are pretty much ready to use and have a warranty (unlike many used systems) so are a pretty good deal normally

Use Holiday code for 20% off or if it expires before you order use arrow for 15%

[Alvaro Guerrero]

i got a great i5 recenly on ebay for cheap but this was to run gamecube and wii the pentium was fine for n64

[aldub516]

thanks all. ebay has some good pcs but my half knowledge of pcs will lead me to spend 10 days comparing on ebay. Im pretty sure anything over 3.0ghz and dual core is what i need as far as performance. I may grab that arrowdirect one if you think it will do the job. unless theres a particular one someone might spot for me on ebay or somewhere.. 100$ is somewhat my ideal budget which seems feasible from what you guys posted. thank you!. if that arrow direct will cover my needs, then i may just swing for that for now. If theres a particular kick ass machine on ebay or somewhere else you might suggest, im open ears. id like to order by this afternoon. thank you as always, you guys help tons

[aldub516]

the one on arrowdirect is 80 bucks, but i will need a bigger hdd off the jump..I found these 3 pcs on ebay.. if its not the biggest hassle, could one of you direct me to the best of the 3 and i will just go with that. they all have display ports, one even has a 1tb drive.. Ill try and swing them a best offer, but if youd be nice enough to help me decipher between those three, i will settle on that and go for it. im pretty sure the optiplex 790 is the one to go with, but you wisemen would know better. thanks
dell optiplex 790http://www.ebay.com/itm/222341028960?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
dell optiplex 990http://www.ebay.com/itm/201748817296?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
lenovo think centerhttp://www.ebay.com/itm/291970446316?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[jeremymtc]

Out of those three, I'd go with the Optiplex 990. Faster cpu speed is better for emulation, and that one includes Windows 10 with Win7 license (the 790 doesn't include an OS). You can add another HDD to the 990 for less than the cost of buying an OS for the 790.


Edit - misread the CPU speed on the 990. I'd still go with it as the most cost-effective.

[aldub516]

i have windows 7 discs, so im not concerned about buying an os, BUT not only did the 790 sell out by now quick, but the 990 is still a better buy than the arrow direct buy a few bucks. Ill make an offer on the 990. thank you. if not, ill go with the arrow direct buy.

[aldub516]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262762575607?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

ended up with that for $99 shipped. i think it perfect and right at my budget price. thanks all!