Ok so I'll be running gentoo boostrapped and emerge -e world for a core2 cpu. So mame of course would be source-architecture optimized. Oh yeah and 64-bit too! I know a core2 duo @ 4ghz (6mb cache) will run mame 3d games no problem. Even at 3.5ghz I believe.

If I get a E5X00 cpu will the cache make a big difference on those crazy 3d arcade games? I'd have it overclocked from 3.5ghz to over 4+ ghz. I'd really much rather get the E5X00 cpu since it's so much more value per dollar clock for clock vs any E8x00. It's the same cpu with 2mb of cache vs the standard 6mb of cache (the E3X00 have just 1mb of cache! They're still fast!).

I'm just curious as far as mame is concerned but any other observations-comparisons would be interesting as far as emulation goes. I'd also be using dosbox, snes9x, zsnes, vboyadvance, and a few others.

You mean:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=35300
vs
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id...ec-codes=SLB9L
?

If so, it is obvious that the 8600 is definitely way better.

However, what games are we talking about here (examples), because I have a Q9300 and I still cannot run say san francisco rush using mame. It's mostly because mame is quite inefficient at what it does. The other emulators you will have no problem with. I would get a good video card for those that can use opengl.

If and when I get the E5x00 I'll post some benchmarks since noone seems to be running mame with this cpu. I'm definately poor right now so I'm really lucky to be getting this cpu. Actually I think it's a sin for me to be getting it in the position I'm in.

Yeah of course the 8600 is better but I'm hoping it's only by a small margin due to the cache size and not huge like you say. Oh and I could care less about virtualization. I don't need that anyway.

Thanks to my motherboard (775dual-vsta asrock) I can install windows 98 (in apm mode) and have no conflicts and all my drives work with drivers available and what not. My thanks goes out to via for supporting windows 9x! Windows really flies with 1+gb of ram (no problems with vcache setting of course). Oh and I still have my voodoo 4 4500 pci card. Works great with final fantasy 7, resident evil, carmageddon (yes even in real-mode dos it runs in 3dfx mode!) and many other older games. Sound blaster live! is probly the best pci dos sound card you can get but if games use midi I'd rather use dosbox with something like SGM-V2.01 soundfont. Only bad thing is that I can't use pci delay transaction (much faster) with sound blaster live! + voodoo card. Oh well. I'm lucky enough to even be able to use it still and it doesn't effect these old games really, but this is where a pci to agp bridge would come in handy plus some other things that would benefit from that.

Yeah I'll be posting some benchmarks with many things even in windows 9x.

I made another thread regarding the opensource radeon drivers for X11. Nobodies made a comparison with a 9700pro card from ati so I'm just gonna do it myself against windows 9x and see if current drivers are faster or slower. I've only seen comparisons with newer generation cards but not older ones.

Sorry, but 800 MHz FSB and 2M Cache vs 1333 MHz FSB and 6M Cache ... there's a huge difference. The E5300 would be close to a P4 (except that it has 2 real cores), while the E8600 is the best of the dual core line.

However, looking at your mobo:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.as...l=775Dual-VSTA

It only supports FSB of 1066, and the CPU list is here:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=775Dual-VSTA

You can't even use the E8600. The best you can use is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-371-_-Product