Build or Mini or...

[Emmitt Jay DeLong II]

Budget: Unknown

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: NES, SNES, SMS, GB, GBA, N64, PS1, PS2, PSP, Arcade Cabinet

Other details: That's the question, lol.

 

Looking for an option for a All-in-One emulation that I can hook up to my TV. I have done some surface Google research and decided I really don't know where to start. I see a few emulation specific devices out there but they tend towards specific consoles (unless I missed some). I thought about building something but nothing I came up with seemed to make sense. I'm not trying to build a PC unless that's what I should be doing. I then thought about the Mini PC thing. The self contained ones people tend to use as terminal or portable presentations units. I've seen them used as a media hub type thing but seeing as my targeted use case relys more heavily on CPU power and less on GPU power, will they work? I'm not even sure if this is the right section of the forums to post this in, lol. I don't want to spend more then $299.00 US. I would prefer a Windows environment. My limited coding skills tends to eliminate a Raspberry Pi situation (plus, the OS). But even with those limits I find myself swimming in too deep of an ocean without lessons. Any advice would be appreciated. Oh, at least two USB ports would be needed. Powered would be nice, but not necessary.

 

EDIT(S): Grammer and more appropriate title.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Emmitt Jay DeLong II

[Bombastinator]

The mini PCs then to use laptop processors, but not all of them.  If you want raw cpu power an m2 mini might be the thing.  I don’t know if they support all the emulators though.  That would have to be researched.  They are BSD which means most of the Linux stuff can be made to work on them without much trouble though so most of them have probably been done.  Plus it’s handy to have a machine around that can run anything if it needs to.

[Emmitt Jay DeLong II]

15 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

The mini PCs then to use laptop processors, but not all of them.  If you want raw cpu power an m2 mini might be the thing.  I don’t know if they support all the emulators though.  That would have to be researched.  They are BSD which means most of the Linux stuff can be made to work on them without much trouble though so most of them have probably been done.  Plus it’s handy to have a machine around that can run anything if it needs to.

As long as it's a Windows environment then it will be fine. Do you have a specific product/site I could look at. As I said, I've seen a lot of these mini box PC's. All with different lists of uses and features. None of which list emulation though. Unless media player qualities. As for storage, an m.2 or even SD card reader is fine. What I'm running doesn't take much space. And if it's wifi or Bluetooth capable, I could just network it.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Emmitt Jay DeLong II
Clarity and grammer.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

As long as it's a Windows environment then it will be fine. Do you have a specific product/site I could look at. As I said, I've seen a lot of these mini box PC's. All with different lists of uses and features. None of which list emulation though. Unless media player qualities. As for storage, an m.2 or even SD card reader is fine. What I'm running doesn't take much space. And if it's wifi or Bluetooth capable, I could just network it.

Windows isn’t the top choice for retro emulators.  Linux is, generally. No one will list retro game emulation it’s both small and grey.   Generally that stuff is kind of potato though.  I suspect a nuc or a number of its clones will do you fine. Maybe something with a laptop cpu and a 680m would be enough. There’s a bajillion of those things. “Dawid does tech stuff” reviews a lot of them.

[Emmitt Jay DeLong II]

9 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Windows isn’t the top choice for retro emulators.  Linux is, generally. No one will list retro game emulation it’s both small and grey.   Generally that stuff is kind of potato though.  I suspect a nuc or a number of its clones will do you fine. Maybe something with a laptop cpu and a 680m would be enough. There’s a bajillion of those things. “Dawid does tech stuff” reviews a lot of them.

As I'm too lazy/dumb to relearn Linux so I'll have to skip out on those. NUK was something that came up in my search so if that's what my requests/needs push towards then I'll head over there. Good lookin out and appreciate all of you.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Emmitt Jay DeLong II
Grammer and clarity

[Bombastinator]

26 minutes ago, Emmitt Jay DeLong II said:

As I'm too lazy/dumb to relearn Linux so I'll have to skip out on those. NUK was something that came up in my search so if that's what my requests/needs push towards then I'll head over there. Good lookin out and appreciate all of you.

The nuc is by definition going to be all intel.  They’re going to have an iGPU or some intel based 680m work alike.  IGPUs are fine for most stuff, but the semi discrete stuff may not always so good at compatibility.  An iGPU is likely enough though considering resolution requirements.  Make sure it can run what you want before tossing cash.