What's new

Emulation HTPC help and discussion

ultradad

New member
Hello Emu community!! First time poster, long time lurker.
I've been emulating for years and its usually been SNES, Mame, GB/GBC ect, but I am beggining the thought process of going on a grand adventure of Hobbit proportions! I'm going to take the HTPC route and create an all-in-one type system for entertainment and emulation, 2 player set up BUT, it's been a few years since my last build AND I'm going to be emulating much more advanced consoles.
I'll start with what I know (or think I know so correct me if I'm wrong).
1. It takes more CPU power for emulation than GPU so you would benefit from a faster better CPU than a 2g GPU.
2. Intel emulates better than AMD
3. An SSD won't make a HUGE difference in performance on most games but my thoughts are it may be better to have maybe a 120g SSD for OS and such and a 1-2TB fast HDD for my games and emulating.

So the heart of the matter.....specs on an HTPC build. I'm looking for advice on parts to buy that not only will hold my movies/TV shows, but will hold and smoothly run up to the PS2/GameCube hell maybe even the Wii. I don't want to over do myself buying the top of the line of whatever is out right now, but I don't want something I have to upgrade for what I need it for. I haven't been able to find any definitive statements on specs that are primo for such a build just, "that'll work". Any information would be appreciated and any suggestions or discussions about front end programs like gamex or controller/mods/adaptors would be great. Sorry if its sporadic and an odd post, I'm trying to type this little by little in my spare time at work xD Just wanted an all around build thread since I can never find one.
 
Last edited:

Shonumi

EmuTalk Member
1. It takes more CPU power for emulation than GPU so you would benefit from a faster better CPU than a 2g GPU.

Generally yes. The amount of GPU resources it takes to render things like N64 and PSX games in 720p or 1080p HD is ridiculously low. Even Intel HD Graphics will handle that without breaking a sweat. This gets more complicated as you enter more "advanced" systems. If you want to run games in Dolphin, an Intel HD 4000 is essentially the baseline for playing at the GC and Wii's native resolution. If you want to increase graphical fidelity, you need to have more GPU power to put behind it. I dunno about PCSX2, but I think it's in a similar position. Depending on the game, Intel HD Graphics (3000 and up I think, haven't done much testing) run fairly well with PPSSPP in HD.

But emulating a console's GPU is often not nearly as intensive as emulating its CPU. The emulated CPU typically just does more work, hence a vast majority of emulators are CPU-bound in terms of performance. A big, fat, fancy GPU won't even make a difference if the emulator doesn't do anything special with it (frequently seen emulators for 2D systems, since graphics are rendered via software, and at most use OpenGL to paint the framebuffer to the screen faster).

2. Intel emulates better than AMD

I would tell you that it's more accurate to say that Intel's products (for the past several hardware generations) have consistently demonstrated higher single-threaded performance than AMD's. Most emulators don't use more than a few cores, so it's important to have a good few cores that run really fast. I'd reckon the trend is probably true across other emus if you look at some of their benchmarks. Dolphin benefits greatly from single-threaded performance. PCSX2 has a benchmark thread, check out the results. If you want to go Dolphin though, I honestly can't recommend AMD at the moment.

3. An SSD won't make a HUGE difference in performance on most games but my thoughts are it may be better to have maybe a 120g SSD for OS and such and a 1-2TB fast HDD for my games and emulating.

It won't make a big difference at all, but you might as well throw in an SSD if you're making an HTPC. You want the think to boot like lightning right? ;)

So the heart of the matter.....specs on an HTPC build. I'm looking for advice on parts to buy that not only will hold my movies/TV shows, but will hold and smoothly run up to the PS2/GameCube hell maybe even the Wii. I don't want to over do myself buying the top of the line of whatever is out right now, but I don't want something I have to upgrade for what I need it for. I haven't been able to find any definitive statements on specs that are primo for such a build just, "that'll work". Any information would be appreciated and any suggestions or discussions about front end programs like gamex or controller/mods/adaptors would be great. Sorry if its sporadic and an odd post, I'm trying to type this little by little in my spare time at work xD Just wanted an all around build thread since I can never find one.

Budget? Also what kind of profile are you looking for? Something small and out of the way, something that'll fit behind the TV, or maybe something to take the spot where you keep your DVD player? The dimensions of the rig itself will dictate what you can throw inside of it. I can't speak for frontends. I have an mini-PC dedicated to emulation as well hooked up to my HDTV, but I just use Linux 's KDE desktop with my controller acting as a mouse :D Works well though, I can use the whole thing with just a joystick.
 
Last edited:
OP
U

ultradad

New member
Mother of god.....that post was beautiful haha
Thanks so much for all the help. Well I'm trying to do some research because I'm rusty on getting it all correct and not having that unboxing failure moment. Budget, well I don't want to make the build not worth it when I could just buy for the same or better. Form factor, micro atx would be ideal. I won't be doing any PC gaming honestly. Maybe Diablo, and a few others but it'll mostly be emulating.
I don't want to go above and beyond if decent will get the job done perfectly.
So far I've tossed some items in an amazon cart, I put a 3.6ghz i3 4160… 6g or 8g of ram (I would do do more, why not) a 1tb WD blue 7200rpm, and a evga geforce GT 730 2gb GPU.
I don't have an OS preference so if you would recommend Linux, I would give it a shot.
So do you think I'm on the right track, need more power or am I right on the mark for ok performance? Basically I don't want to upgrade it since its only for movies, TV and emulating
 
Last edited:

Shonumi

EmuTalk Member
Sorry for the wait. Had to get work out of the way for the weekend ;)

ultradad said:
So far I've tossed some items in an amazon cart, I put a 3.6ghz i3 4160… 6g or 8g of ram (I would do do more, why not) a 1tb WD blue 7200rpm, and a evga geforce GT 730 2gb GPU.

An i3-4160 will do great for Dolphin. Only a very limited number of games should experience problems due to the CPU (fringe-cases really). If you have a list, I can tell you what might be a problem. Really though, the most common one to watch out for is The Last Story, and even that should run well. At GT730 should be more than enough to handle 720p to 1080p on most games as well. Dolphin does not take advantage of hyperthreading, but it is a dual-core application, so the i3-4160 will do a good job. As for PCSX2, there I have less experience, but it's generally seen as less demanding than Dolphin due to the amount of speedhacks you can enable. I'd advise you check the PCSX2 wiki and see what other people are saying about the games you want to play. Some turn out to be surprisingly demanding (Killzone, a number of Ace Combat games, MGS3 without speedhacks for example) but you should be solid for the most part.

ultradad said:
I don't have an OS preference so if you would recommend Linux, I would give it a shot.

If you do plan to use PCSX2, I cannot recommend Linux. I've been using Linux more or less exclusively for 6+ years, but I can honestly say the Linux version of PCSX2 lags behind the Windows version. It's improved a lot since the Linux video plugin for PCSX2 (GSdx) received a lot of work, but the Windows version has more love atm and it shows. I can get by, but I'm not sure it's something you really want to fuss with (especially since everyone wants HTPCs to be hassle free). I use Linux on my mini-PC because I'm just so familiar with it. Stick to the OS you know best, especially since most emulators are cross-platform.

ultradad said:
So do you think I'm on the right track, need more power or am I right on the mark for ok performance? Basically I don't want to upgrade it since its only for movies, TV and emulating

It looks good to me. I don't think you'll have any trouble with what you want to do given the specs you listed. Like I said, PCSX2 isn't something I'm overly familiar with (I do play it occasionally, but I'm from the Dolphin community, so I know more about Dolphin...) but you shouldn't much trouble unless you hit a game that just happens to be demanding.
 
OP
U

ultradad

New member
All in all it sounds like a pretty good deal then. I appreciate the feedback, no worries on taking your time lol I sent the message while at work xD
Its been a couple of years since I built one so I'm a little rusty and teenie bit worried lol. I'm looking into a microatx case, I don't want to over clock, I just want to use what's in there and hope for the best so I'm not going the water cooling route. Do you think a couple 120mm fans should do be OK, or any suggestions? I'm also trying to keep it as quiet as possible without going out of the way to do so. You know a HTPC needs to stay somewhat stealthy haha but the gaming and movies will drown most of the noise I guess. I figured the GPU will be my biggest culprit

Also, do you think I'm being to conservative with the ram? I mean I could double it for next to nothing
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Shonumi

EmuTalk Member
Yeah, water cooling in an HTPC sounds excessive. I'd go with the fans. I'm not big on PC building, so I don't have any specific recommendations. I hear good things about Noctua though, and if you go with one that has high reviews on, say, Newegg.com, you probably really can't go wrong. For most of your emulation needs (NES, Genesis, GBC, GBA, N64, PSX, etc) your rig will basically be sipping power since you won't be pushing the system, generally speaking. Your thermal output will be low in those cases. Dolphin, PCSX2, (and Desmume X432R and PPSSPP if you're into those) will push up your temps because you're doing more work on the CPU and GPU, naturally.

For RAM, no, you're not being conservative. It really doesn't take much RAM to run even some of "heavy" emulators I mentioned about. Adding more RAM won't do diddly-squat for emu performance. I'm fine with 4GB for Dolphin and PCSX2, but even that much is "overkill". Unless watching HD Bluray rips or something requires more RAM than I thought, 6GB or 8GB is enough. Even if you could double it for next to nothing, I don't know what you'd do with it all ;)
 
OP
U

ultradad

New member
See! This is the stuff I haven't been able to pinpoint. I didn't know if it would even help. I would love to get smooth Desmume running for once in my life haha. The idea to start all this was when my son noticed me playing Pokemon on my phone and I wanted to let him start where I did. Since its going piece by piece it'll take some time.
 

Shonumi

EmuTalk Member
Desmume should run fine if you enable the dynamic recompiler (I forget where exactly that option is in the menus). Some games really push it though (unfortunately one of them is Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, one of my favs :() but try the latest version. 0.9.11 just came out.

Anyway good luck putting everything together. All kids need to grow up on Pokemon games, so be sure to build this rig for your youngster :D
 

Clements

Active member
Moderator
I'm using Corsair Quiet Edition case fans (PWM) and they work extremely well, may work out to be better value.
 
OP
U

ultradad

New member
Clements- Thanks for the suggestion, I will go take a look at those now! I'm trying to stay with you hat I remember from my last build. Staying with certain brand name parts. EVGA GPU, Kingston or similar ram, WD HDD, ect. I am VERY excited about this build and since its all about emulation, I feel like I have a better grasp of what's needed to emulate. I only want to do up to PS2 and GameCube. I don't think I will play any intensive PC games, probably Diablo 2, Dungeon Siege 2, Oblivion. Nothing crazy.
Since the emulation mostly relies on GPU, would it be prudent to maybe fork out for a better CPU?
 

Shonumi

EmuTalk Member
Since the emulation mostly relies on GPU, would it be prudent to maybe fork out for a better CPU?

Reverse the first part of your sentence :p Most emulators are CPU-bound (meaning performance is primarily bound by how fast a CPU can operate). The GPU is used primarily 1) to take a framebuffer computed by the CPU (think NES, SNES, Genesis, 2D systems in general) and the paint it to your screen via OpenGL (sometimes Direct3D too) or 2) to emulate a console's GPU using equivalent functions in OpenGL or Direct3D (think N64, PSX, GC, Wii, 3D systems in general). The 1st case isn't demanding at all, the 2nd case varies depending on the system and the game being emulated.

Generally, unless you want to play in higher resolutions, you don't go looking for beefier GPUs. The GT 730 should handle 3x IR in Dolphin for most games, dunno about PCSX2, but you should be able to do 720p or 1080p there as well. Unless you want more, you don't need anything better. It'll smash through N64 and PSX games in HD too (even crappy integrated Intel GPUs from 6-7 years ago could do that).

Your CPU is good as is in my opinion btw.
 
OP
U

ultradad

New member
Do you have any experience with front end.? Something like emulation station or gamex. I'm having some issues with the code on emulation station on my regular PC. I was just testing some things out and I did not realize it takes such a small amount of power
 
OP
U

ultradad

New member
I just changed icons, cleaned up the desktop and put them in order next step is to setup hotkeys ;)
 

Top