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My new rig (doing it cheap)
daywane:
I am giving my Daughter my old PC. I ordered this PC from Amazon (remember I am doing it CHEAP)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DJXW682F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Video card is coming from eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/387402963505
around $170 total
I have no plans on going to Windows 11. When Windows 10 expires I guess I must learn Linux
All I do on a PC is emulation. YouTube, stream, banking, Plex.
This should do what I want. I will toss a couple 4 Terabyte USB drives on it.
BlueGhost:
Those Ryzen APUs are pretty nice, I've used a few varying from the 2000 to the 5000 series. I wouldn't even bother with the GPU you have selected, it's not a big enough improvement over the Vega graphics on the 2400ge. The 2400 will have no problem with anything in MAME, and can do up to PS 2 emulation relatively well.
RandyT:
--- Quote from: daywane on December 09, 2024, 12:35:24 am ---I am giving my Daughter my old PC. I ordered this PC from Amazon (remember I am doing it CHEAP)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DJXW682F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
--- End quote ---
Not sure if you knew this already, but there are ThinClients which pop up on the used market now and then with pretty much the same specs and much smaller footprint. The HP T740 ThinClient is a bit thicker than most, but has 2 SODIMM slots, an NVME slot, M.2 SSD slot and the one for smaller cards (A-Key?) for wireless, which can be used for other purposes if desired. What sets it apart from other thin clients is that it also has a single full-size PCIE slot for half-height cards. It's virtually identical in ports as well. The only mildly annoying thing about them (and the one you bought too) is the 4 DP ports, but no HDMI ports. The T740 also lacks normal SATA drive connections, which can be remedied thanks to the PCIE slot, if you really need them, but the card would need to supply power to the drive as well (not sure something like that exists.)
I managed to snag a quantity of HP T740's for general/development use and they came out to about $40 each (!) with 8gb of PC4 3200 SODIMMs in Dual Channel, Wifi, Bluetooth, 64GB EMMC drive and a power brick. Even with those specs, they make great little special purpose Linux devices (or even Windows 11 if you are a masochist). They aren't always easy to find at that price and with those specs, but they are very upgradeable and at less than half the cost of a decent Pi (or even at the full cost), they are a no brainer.
RE: Linux
If you are heading in that direction, pick up a cheap system now (or dedicate an old unused system) and start playing. The options for distros have become amazing lately, and Valve is even getting ready to put out a Steam version specifically geared toward gaming. It won't be long after that we start seeing forks of that distro (if even necessary) which combines excellent PC gaming with other general use capabilities. Once this happens, MS is is going to become irrelevant to a large chunk of the gaming market they currently have a stranglehold on.
No time like the present. By time Win10 dies off, you'll already be well on the way to make the switch. If emulation is the main thing you play around with, I'm not sure it would take you more than a week to not care about Windows anymore, unless there is some program that you absolutely must have and it can't be run under compatibility tools like Wine.
RE: Graphics card
What BlueGhost said. You won't really be gaining much with that card and it doesn't even provide you with the more common HDMI ports. If you really want to step up the graphics, you'll probably need to spend more. But if you do, keep in mind that Linux is geared toward AMD graphics. There are closed-source Nvidia drivers, as well as newer open-source ones which are getting better, but AMD stuff is usually more compatible out-of-the-box and less likely to have weird issues.
daywane:
I am using a HP ELITEDESK mini pc
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 2400G with Radeon Vega Graphics 3.60 GHz
16.0 GB (14.9 GB usable
64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
I can play what I want . most PS2 , the few GameCube I like. honestly after the Wii i gave up on consoles. I still like Mario Karts.
I would like to try WiiU .
Thanks for the heads up on GPU card. It is better then the one I have on the HP PRODESK I5 I i am giving to my daughter.
I just assumed any card would be better than on board . I have 2 more of those HP PRODESK I5
one will get the smaller card Linux. Mint probably and I will give the larger to my daughter.
Dreamcast Gauntlet Legends and GameCube monkey ball is our games to play together .
RandyT:
The card you bought is technically better, at least as far as the benchmarks. But only about 16%. That might be enough to get you something that is on the edge of being playable on the built-in GPU, but probably not enough to add a more advanced system to your emulator collection.
The RX-6400 (note the extra zero) is about 250% as good as the Vega 8 graphics, but runs about $150. But the Vega iGPUs are surprisingly capable on their own. You just have to make sure you have good cooling (i.e. make sure the thermal paste is in good condition) and be sure to give it a pair of the fastest DIMMs supported by the system. I've seen people putting slower memory in these systems and complain about the graphic performance. :banghead: