Building the perfect emulation machine (PC)?

[404Ender]

At some point in the near future (preferably this summer) I plan on putting together a dedicated PC purely for hooking up to my TV and emulating classic games. I would plan on the ability to emulate anything up to (and including) the PS1/N64 era. Saturn would be a nice bonus, but I know emulation of that system is a bit tricky and resource intensive so it's not a necessity for me. As far as other systems go, I would like to be able to play any game along with the associated perks of emulation, mainly enhancements wherever possible including AA filters or high texture packs for 3D games and increased framerate and multiplayer capabilities for any/all that support it.

Here would be the things I'm definitely looking for:

• Lots of USB ports (4 at the very least) for USB-whatever controller adapters

• Enough RAM and processing power to run everything as smoothly as (or better than) the original game

• Small form factor (probably microATX or HTPC cases)

• Adequate cooling (for gaming marathons

• Video card with HDMI out (or whatever is the best option for older games on an LCD HDTV)

• Internet access for online play (preferably wireless + wired, but wired-only would suffice)

Cool things that would be nice if they aren't too expensive to add:

• A DVD drive that upscales DVDs

• SD card support (just as an additional input memory format, to transfer stuff easily or view digital pictures)

• Support for the Wiimote somehow for navigating menus/folders (I've seen ways to use it on PCs, don't know how difficult it is though)

Any recommendations for parts to purchase or advice on emulation of lots of systems and games in general (like a good front-end) would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to put any sort of budget constraint on this project, but obviously the cheaper the better, so long as I'm not sacrificing too much quality.

I also have a question concerning the TV...would I be better off purchasing a monitor with a super high refresh rate, or will most emulated games display fine with no lag on an HDTV with the proper hardware backing the games up?

Thanks again in advance for any help or suggestions you guys throw at me.

[diehllane]

The Wiimote is bluetooth. You'd need a bluetooth USB dongle hooked up and then download the driver. A quick google search should help you find that.

[racketboy]

A DVD drive that upscales DVDs

I think that is more of a software thing than a hardware.

For navigation, you might just want a remote like the Windows Media Center remotes.
I used it for all my stuff.
Very rarely, I'll need to exit out and use a regular keyboard and mouse.

As for video DVI is the same video as HDMI. HDMI just has the audio on the same connection.
However, not all TVs have DVI. You can also get a DVI-to-HDMI cable. I have one, but some of the screen got cut off on my CRT. Results may be better on an LCD.

[404Ender]

A DVD drive that upscales DVDs

I think that is more of a software thing than a hardware.

Ah ok, how powerful of a processor do you think would be needed to do the processing/upscaling?

Any recommendations on brands/specific models for any of the components I'd need? Or at least how powerful of a processor or how much RAM?

[racketboy]

A DVD drive that upscales DVDs

I think that is more of a software thing than a hardware.

Ah ok, how powerful of a processor do you think would be needed to do the processing/upscaling?

Any recommendations on brands/specific models for any of the components I'd need? Or at least how powerful of a processor or how much RAM?

That I don't know, but I would imagine anything modern would do the trick.
How big of a display are you going to have?

[404Ender]

I have a 40 in. Samsung LCD. Does display size matter though, or just the resolution (1080p)? And would the video card be the most limiting factor in terms of running N64/PS1 games at smooth framerates or would it be the RAM? Basically, where should I splurge the most?

I've been looking at cases on newegg and found some pretty good looking Micro-ATX and Mini-ATX ones...the Mini-ATX towers are much smaller, but are they as widely supported as Micro-ATX in terms of motherboards and other components?

[JJJ]

Pretty much everything older than a PS2 can be emulated with a decently-clocked Core 2 Duo CPU. I have a 3ghz E6850 and I've found it to be fast enough for near-perfect Saturn emulation, DS emulation, just about everything. I cost me $300, but that was last summer so I'm sure its $200 or so for such a CPU now.

I did try some PS2 emulation as well, but its too glitchy for my taste regardless of the speed.

I can't imagine you'd need over 2gb RAM for emulation. That should be plenty.

Vidcard - I'm not up on the new stuff, but I bought a Nvidia 8800GTS last summer and it seems more than fast enough for all emulation stuff.

I'm afraid I don't know much about the mini/micro-atx stuff. Good luck!

[GSZX1337]

• Lots of USB ports (4 at the very least) for USB-whatever controller adapters

You can use USB hubs so that you're not needing to use up all of your ports at once.

• Enough RAM and processing power to run everything as smoothly as (or better than) the original game

Emulators up to PSX/N64 don't really need that much power. I ran N64 and PSX emus at high resolutions with 1GB of RAM, an AMD Athlon 64 3500, and a GeForce 6800. I was scoping out PS2 emulator forums one time and noticed that many of the people who were able to run games well were those with Core 2 Duos and GeForce 7 series cards. So, you don't need the latest silicon to enjoy emulators.

• Video card with HDMI out (or whatever is the best option for older games on an LCD HDTV)

For HDMI, the AMD Radeon HD 3000 series seems to best option.

[racketboy]

I have a 40 in. Samsung LCD. Does display size matter though, or just the resolution (1080p)? And would the video card be the most limiting factor in terms of running N64/PS1 games at smooth framerates or would it be the RAM? Basically, where should I splurge the most?

Yeah, the resolution is what matters, I was just curious about the size and if you would notice much of a difference with upscaling.
But 40 inches is pretty good

And RAM shouldn't be too much of a factor for emulation nowadays -- at least not to the point of splurging.
The ROMs aren't going to be very big in comparison of the RAM sizes we have today. And these older consoles had very little RAM utilized themselves.
CPU will be the main thing for all the non-3D stuff, but of course even a good used machine can handle those.
So I guess if you were to splurge on something, I would put decent money on a video card (but not high end unless you're running new PC titles), a well-equiped and dependable motherboard, and a case that you like and is easy to work on.

Specs are overrated. For projects like this, sometimes it pays to spend money on the things that most people don't think about.

[404Ender]

Thanks for all of the tips so far guys, especially racketboy's quick responses!

So has anyone had experience with mini-ITX stuff? I can't figure out whether or not most of the motherboards would support a separate video card (because the integrated graphics probably aren't good enough) or if a normal-sized card would even fit in a mini-ITX sized case. I'm surprised there aren't more dedicated websites or forums for stuff like this, I figure it'd be a pretty popular idea.

It sounds like the vid card will probably be the most important for me. I'm sure I can pick up a 1 GB stick of RAM for pretty cheap and the processor is usually built into the mini-ITX mobos so I don't have to worry too much about that.