Beelink U59

[MayImilae]

Games - but downloading ROMs is illegal....

Just as a reminder, the only legal way to play Wii and GameCube games in Dolphin is to rip your legally obtained GC and Wii discs with your Nintendo Wii. Don't joke about downloading games, because:

Stating that you've downloaded a game will get you banned immediately.

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

the only legal way to play Wii and GameCube games in Dolphin is to rip your legally obtained GC and Wii discs with your Nintendo Wii

You forgot about the method of using RawDump with a compatible PC DVD drive.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron

Presumably you mean both of them but, in general, this would be the main game(s) to focus on in terms of achieving satisfactory performance. But, in general, even it should be a non-issue for any Zen3-or-newer processor (and even older Zen if ignoring mobile variants), and the graphics requirements are generally not going to be an issue with any integrated Ryzen processor as well unless you crank up the internal rendering resolution or insist on using exclusive ubershaders paired with higher-resolution rendering.


That being said, one quick thing to note about Resident Evil 4 - I'm sure you're aware that it has a native PC HD port that was released back in 2014, right? In general, anything capable of properly rendering the Wii version in high resolution via Dolphin should be able to similarly run the native PC version without issue (which itself supports 60fps; the Wii version is capped to 24fps), just note you may or may not have to manually edit the input.ini configuration file if you want to change controls.

(and I mention only the Wii version because it's superior to the GameCube version and even lets you use a GameCube or classic controller if you refuse to use the wii remote's IR aiming - if you do forgo the wii remote's IR aiming and aren't using a physical GameCube controller, then be sure to use an emulated classic controller to avoid the issue where a GameCube controller can't get past the title screen, and make sure you're using the North American version of the game in order to avoid a possible classic controller bug with the PAL version)

It's also worth mentioning that Resident Evil 4 has been ported to basically every single console (Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and the Wii U can obviously natively run the Wii version), and there's even a full remake coming out in March of this year.

[mbc07]

You forgot about the method of using RawDump with a compatible PC DVD drive. [...]

You mean the very few compatible IDE drives that had high failure rates and that haven't been manufactured anymore for at least a decade at this point? Yeah, people definitely use them to rip GC/Wii games nowadays /s

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

DISCLAIMER: Before If anyone wants to think I'm somehow defending piracy, if desired, I will even record a video of me going through my physical Wii and GameCube discs next to a display showing me logging into this forum and clicking around my profile and this forum thread as well as then subsequently showing CleanRip on my Wii being able to successfully read a disc if you absolutely need to see proof of my legitimacy. I'm one of those OCD people that will pull out all the stops to prove a point and dispel all doubt. As a bonus I can even show the IDE port on at least my "workstation" AM3 PC due to its clear side-panel (my "HTPC" LGA1156 PC is buried behind my TV and has a solid side panel and a fan wire of questionable connectivity that I'd really prefer to not touch).

that had high failure rates

I didn't realize they had a high failure rate...

You mean the very few compatible IDE drives...and that haven't been manufactured anymore for at least a decade at this point?

A single IDE port was present as recent as AM3 and LGA1156 (I have multiple motherboards of both still in use) and we recently had a person inquiring about running New Super Mario Bros. Wii on an Athlon II as well as another user asking about running Dolphin on an i5-520, both of which are right in the era of when an IDE port on desktop motherboards was still present.

Considering that OP is asking about purchasing a new PC, there's actually a relatively good chance that they're upgrading from an older PC, perhaps a PC old enough that it's not even worth trying to run Dolphin on it (or, for all we know, they already tried and it didn't go well) which, again, makes it all the more likely to have an IDE port.

Yeah, people definitely use them to rip GC/Wii games nowadays /s

There's also the angle that, once you rip your discs, you don't really need to do it again - I ripped my games back in like 2011 or something which is squarely in the era of IDE not being unheard of, though at the time I mainly for used it with a softmodded Wii since I would semi-regularly bring my console to different places, and it was way less tedious to bring a single USB disk than a bunch of game discs, not to mention that I didn't really have much in the way of a PC capable of running Dolphin until 2014 with my G3258 when my Athlon 64 x2 without an IHS died (I probably put too much pressure on it with the giant heatsink I used considering that it first lost one of the memory channels).


Honestly, the only real main reason I mentioned it was because I distinctly even remember reading a forum post years ago (though I think still post-2010) where someone actually did use the RawDump method. This implied to me that, even though CleanRip had since been a thing, the RawDump method was actually still used.

[mbc07]

Chill out. 

I'm just pointing out that bringing up RawDump/FriiDump as dumping methods nowadays is a moot point. As I said earlier, very few drives were compatible, they were IDE only and they're out of production for at least a decade at this point. It doesn't matter if you have access to newer (aka not-too-old) PCs with IDE ports if it's nearly impossible to get a compatible drive in working conditions. 

Buying an used Wii (or even an used GameCube) to rip games with CleanRip is considerably easier, faster and cheaper than trying to get everything required to use RawDump/FriiDump...

[GenerationI]

I'm not making any recommendations, but just for the sake of information:

I did use RawDump back in 2011 on a PC which was maybe on the way out in those days, but well built and reliable and not uncommon then. It was compatible with all kinds of adapters like a Sega Saturn PC card and GameBoy devices that needed a classic parallel port and hardware interrupts. I used RawDump because I had heard that optical discs deteriorate after several years (though it hasn't happened yet), and I didn't know how to make a backup using a GameCube or Wii at the the time. RawDump was totally reliable though.

GameCubes and Wiis don't last forever, so I keep a compatible IDE DVD drive as an alternative just in case I ever need it. It's currently installed in a newer PC with a SATA to IDE adapter. RawDump 2.0 is often reluctant to start dumping initially, but once it starts it can dump a GameCube disc in just 35 minutes. I haven't tried version 2.1, and I have problems getting FriiDump to work in Linux (it's an interesting project though, from a technical point of view).

As I said, I'm not making any recommendations here, but I think a retro game enthusiast might find it worthwhile keeping an old IDE PC just to be able to use the old game console adapters.