Help - PC optimization for dedicated emulation pc

[omnivorism]

Ok, I am not exactly new to this, but I don't have as much technical savvy as some of you out there, so hopefully someone can help me out here.

I already have a fairly substantial emulator and rom collection (about 500 gigs and growing). I have just about every system possible emulated already. But I am looking for optimal preformance as far as getting the most I can out of a pc to run those more difficult things at full speed.

My intial pc was a Dell Optiplex something or other with a P4 2.8Ghz and a Nvidia 6500 card.

Since then I upgraded to a HP Pavilion Phenom 2.2 Quad Core with 4 gigs ram and an integraded Nvidia 9100 video card (i think)

With my Dell, I could already run Dreamcast and PS1 at full speeds, but Gamecube and PS2 were a mere few frames a second, and things like SF4 wouldnt even load.

Now I have increased preformance, but still not at the level I know is possible. (too slow for SF4, ps2 or gc)

Basically my PC has the potential for 16gigs RAM, but I put XP 32 bit on it (cause vista sucks)
I have read that xp maxed out at like 4 gigs ram though. Which is the current amount I have.

I am thinking of jumping toWindows 7,
But really what I want to know is if 64 built build is problematic to game emulatiion for older systems or overall.
and also if as far as more advanced emulation if a higher end video card would have a better preformance increase than the ram upgragde from my current 4 gigs.

[Necroticart]

The reason SF4 is giving you problems is that your using an intergraded graphics card I would suggest that as your most needed upgrade as for your ram 4 gigs is fine for emulation and most PC games the only time you need to upgrade ram is if your doing video editing, graphics work or if you plan on multitasking and or upgrading to windows 7 64 it works great but you will need atleast 6 gigs to avoid issues as with vista it gets hungry but has lower CPU usage. As for the GC/Wii and PS2 emulation they are just plain buggy. At this point I would give it another 3 years before they are worth bothering with. For example i'm running an overclocked I7 and sporting 12 GB of ram and dual 260s and I get bad frame rates on both those emulators.

[omnivorism]

So are you implying that a 64 bit build of windows does not cause any additional emulation problems vs a 32 bit build?

Also while I know that a Nvidia 9100 is not top of the line as a video card, it is kinda mid-high I believe. There are certainly better, but does the fact that it is integrated vs just stand alone make a difference in a video cards preformance?

I understand that GC/ PS2 emulation are not at the top of their game, but I still plan to continue to build on my collection. I upgraded from a 500 Gig to a 1.5 Terabyte and I plan to keep adding games as long as there is something worth having. Even If I can't play them all now, maybe technology will catch up with my collection eventually.

Also, I am still very interested in playing PC versions of many games now also. So I want as much preformance as I can get.

So you say Windows 7 uses less CPU power, and has more capacity for RAM. I still would like to upgrade to it at some point then, if it makes much overall difference.
Question though. Probably well beyond my ability, but how about a Linux Ubuntu machine. Would the trouble of setting it up require semi advanced linux knowledge? Would it preform much better than windows?

[Necroticart]

I've never run into any, actually Mame 64 will give you a little bump in performance. also keep in mind mame emulation is CPU based not GPU (graphics card). now as for linux if you want to experiment with it setup a dual boot system that way you can still play PC games as most have no support in linux,as for performance it's debatable.  now as for your graphics card any time you have an integrated card it shares your system ram since it has no dedicated memory and besides that your ram is lower speed then what is found on a dedicated mid range card as for the range of your integrated card it's on the low end and not considered a gaming card.

[omnivorism]

Ok thanks.

Very helpful.

So my long term plan is upgrade to windows 7 64bit. upgrade to mame  64 bit, and most of all get a better stand alone video card. problem solved.

I can get a real good video card for around $200 or less yeah?
Any recomendations for my needs?

[Necroticart]

Try this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125335 It should last for awhile and will max SF4 with ease as with most games Crysis 2 might give it a bit of a run lol

[8way]

If your only concerned with emulation and you want to save some $$$, then that card is more than you need. You can pick up a Geforce 8800GT for half the price or less on ebay, and it would be more than you need for emulation. And it will handle SF4 just fine. You want to concentrate most your funds towards the CPU, that will be the most important part when it comes to emulation. As for Necroticart, your setup is more then enough for the Wii & PS2 emulators, the problem is their are less then a hand full of games that are compatible (some almost perfect).