Emulation Machine

[lplover]

So after coming across Lakka OS I felt inspired to build an emulation machine. 

 

Now, I'd love to just buy the PC that's listed for 8EUR with some Celeron 1.3GHz processor and 768mb of RAM but that'd be loud and power hungry, I was thinking on how to make it as cheap as possible in every respect.

 

So I'd love to do it straight up out of secondhand parts, as reliability isn't something I really care about, and I'd want it to run N64 emulators at least, but after talking to people in their IRC channel I heard that they were working on adding Dolphin to it, and Gamecube emulation would be amazing. It'd be a plus for it to not be running like a leafblower in the background, and I guess for I/O all I'd need would be an HDMI port and a USB port or two. Budget is the smallest you can get it, if possible under 100EUR, but I'm interested in all kinds of set ups. Since emulation of old consoles doesn't take much processing power relative to the amount of graphics horsepower we have now, I was thinking of maybe using a passively cooled CPU with integrated graphics? Hmm.

 

If I wanted to run Dolphin, I'd need a i5-3570K or higher for smoothness, along a 4+ series NVidia cars, which'd be quite costly, so I suppose something enough to emulate Nintendo 64 would suffice.

 

Sorry if I rambled, but I'd be interested to hear your opinions and ideas.

 

Edit: I suppose I forgot to mention cases, a tiny case would be great, but those are hard to find used and would probably have issues with compatibility with the Frankenstein's monster of used parts I'm trying to create.

[The Sloth]

get a pi for 35 usd and play most n64 games and other retro console game up to ps1. 

[lplover]

1 minute ago, nerdslayer1 said:

get a pi for 35 usd and play most n64 games and other retro console game up to ps1. 

Yeah that's definitely an option. 

 

But I could probably cheap out even more, by buying secondhand and salvaging.

[The Sloth]

6 minutes ago, lplover said:

Yeah that's definitely an option. 

 

But I could probably cheap out even more, by buying secondhand and salvaging.

 

pi zero for 5 usd 

[TopWargamer]

2 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

pi zero for 5 usd 

Good luck finding them for MSRP.

[Zodiark1593]

For anything from the PS2/Gamecube generation, an overclocked G3258 is a great chip for emulation, though more recent Dolphin and PCSX2 versions are beginning to utilize a third core.

[lplover]

Just now, Zodiark1593 said:

For anything from the PS2/Gamecube generation, an overclocked G3258 is a great chip for emulation, though more recent Dolphin and PCSX2 versions are beginning to utilize a third core.

Those seem to go for like $50, wouldn't be too bad.

[Zodiark1593]

Just now, lplover said:

Those seem to go for like $50, wouldn't be too bad.

Dolphin and PCSX2 are apparently compatible with Linux as well, so the cost of a Windows license can be cut (if you hadn't already).

[lplover]

Just now, Zodiark1593 said:

Dolphin and PCSX2 are apparently compatible with Linux as well, so the cost of a Windows license can be cut (if you hadn't already).

I would be using Lakka OS, it's a Linux-based OS made specifically for emulation, that's the whole point of the project.

[Zodiark1593]

2 minutes ago, lplover said:

I would be using Lakka OS, it's a Linux-based OS made specifically for emulation, that's the whole point of the project.

True enough. I mentioned it anyway as Lakka doesn't seem to have the aforementioned emulators pre-installed. 

[lplover]

Just now, Zodiark1593 said:

True enough. I mentioned it anyway as Lakka doesn't seem to have the aforementioned emulators pre-installed. 

It actually does, it uses pre-existing cores you download straight from the OS.

 

It's REALLY neat.