The Emulator build

[demonix00]

This one is going to be the third build after modernising my current system and building the dedicated high (ish) end gaming system and is going to be situated near the TV and will be at the top end emulating PS1 and PS2 games (mostly from physical sources) since it should be able to play those games that have troubles running properly on actual hardware.

 

I don't have the time to do a part picker or whatever list and is going to be subject to change depending on what I plan to do in the future in regards to storage since I might get a NAS for data storage.

 

Case: Silverstone SST-ML07B Milo Mini ITX case £51.99 (OCUK)

PSU: Silverstone SX500-LG Strider SFX-L PSU £78.10 (Scan Computers)

Motherboard: MSI A88XI AC V2 £69.95 (OCUK)

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K £59.99 (OCUK)

RAM: Team Group Vulcan Red 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-12800C9 £35.99 (OCUK)

HDD: Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD £59.99 (OCUK)

Data HDD: Toshiba 2TB HDD x2 £53.99 ea (OCUK)

ODD: LG GS40N Slot Load DVD+/-RW drive £25.99

GPU: Gainward GeForce GTX750Ti Golden Sample 2GB £95.99 (OCUK)

 

Prices include shipping where applicable and don't include any current discounts (budget is just to be cheap for components that aren't as important and an upper limit of £100 for components like the GPU and such).

 

[PlayStation 2]

You really should've pushed for a Pentium G3258. PCSX2 especially loves its IPC.

[demonix00]

You really should've pushed for a Pentium G3258. PCSX2 especially loves its IPC.

It's why the component list is subject to change since I wasn't sure if I should go with AMD or intel for this build, but I just looked around for an intel based setup.

 

Mobo: Asus H81I-Plus Mini ITX £58.99 (OCUK)

CPU: Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 £55.99 (OCUK)

 

So that's around £11 saved on the motherboard and £4 saved on the processor in a quick few minutes of looking around.

 

I'm also going to avoid having anything poking out the back (with the exception of any cables for any USB 2 hubs I need to use since I'll be getting USB retro controllers with the exception of the controller for PS1 and PS2 games since I purchased a third party wired PS3 controller which is going to be relegated to this setup since it is missing a major required feature for some games) by getting some header to USB port connectors (I'm also most likely going to get a keyboard that has a trackpad included to save on having to use a mouse on this setup).

[PlayStation 2]

It's why the component list is subject to change since I wasn't sure if I should go with AMD or intel for this build, but I just looked around for an intel based setup.

 

Mobo: Asus H81I-Plus Mini ITX £58.99 (OCUK)

CPU: Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 £55.99 (OCUK)

 

So that's around £11 saved on the motherboard and £4 saved on the processor in a quick few minutes of looking around.

 

I'm also going to avoid having anything poking out the back (with the exception of any cables for any USB 2 hubs I need to use since I'll be getting USB retro controllers with the exception of the controller for PS1 and PS2 games since I purchased a third party wired PS3 controller which is going to be relegated to this setup since it is missing a major required feature for some games) by getting some header to USB port connectors (I'm also most likely going to get a keyboard that has a trackpad included to save on having to use a mouse on this setup).

rip

[demonix00]

While it's relatively easy to get original controllers, getting USB adapters so that they work on a PC isn't since the only place I know in the UK that sells retro game controller to USB adapters doesn't have a genesis/mega drive controller to USB adapter available so on that end I'd have to purchase a clone controller with a USB connection.

 

While I did want to mention the difficulty in getting controller adapters, this post is mainly about some of the possible changes to the systems configuration and while it's original purpose is being kept it is also going to be used for 100% (that means not having to use a third party program) controller compatible games which in themselves were originally console games and should run without any frame rate issues on this build.

 

Motherboard is changed to an Asus Z97-P £68.99

Processor is being kept as the intel G3258

The Case is being changed to a Silverstone SST-GD10 Ultimate HTPC case £69.95

The SSD is being changed to the Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e Gen3 8Gbps x4 AHCI SSD £124.95

The Optical drive is changed to a Samsung SH-224FB/RSMS (Retail) £19.99

The Power supply is being changed to a Bequiet! Pure Power L8 530W '80 plus Bronze' modular power supply £64.99

All other components will be as they are in the first post, but there might be a change in the capacity of the mechanical hard drives since there's only space for two hard drives in that case which is why changed the motherboard to one that has m.2 support.

 

I know I've broken the max component spend with the change in the SSD, but the cheaper m.2 drives of around that capacity are SATA 6gbps and I want the OS (which is likely to be windows 10 pro) to boot as fast as possible along with any programmes that are installed on it.

 

Something I'm not to certain on is if I should stick with the stock cooler or get an aftermarket cooler in case I want to crank up the processor in the future.