Best 'value' CPU/Motherboard/RAM for a living room computer?

[zovc]

Hey!

The other day my NFC Systems S4 Mini came in after waiting months for the production! Originally, I was going to move my primary gaming computer to the S4 mini so that it would be convenient to pack up and move to LAN parties and whatnot. I found a new case that's marginally smaller and a bit easier to mod, so I'm instead using the new one for my main build. (Assuming all the mods I'm planning work out!)

Anyways, the brushed aluminum S4 Mini is way prettier than I possibly would have imagined based on pictures or video and I'd really like for the case to be on display, even if subtly, in my living room. I'm going to follow in the footsteps of a user at a forum I frequent and use an internal AC-DC transformer and an internal 'flex ATX' DC power supply/board. Instead of using a low-profile GTX 950, I'm going to use one of the low-profile GTX 1050's that have recently come out.

I want to be able to run Dolphin in 1080p at 60fps, possibly either oversampling or enabling MSAA if my 1050 will allow it. I don't know how much CPU or RAM are factors in whether or not that works out.

So, I've got my case, GPU, and power supply situation sorted out, but I'm trying to figure out what's the best value CPU/Motherboard and RAM combo. From what I can tell, the Pentium 4560 seems to be the most highly recommended "budget" processor both here and for frugal gamers in general. Here are a few specific questions:

• How much RAM do I need?
• Is there any reason to go above/beyond the Pentium 4560? The system will be on 24/7, would the (twice-the-cost) i3-6100T feasibly pay for itself over time?
• Does it make sense to wait for R3 or R5 Ryzen chips? Do we have word on when those are coming? IIRC they start at like ~$120.
  

As far as platform, I would like to use a M.2 SSD and have Wifi and Bluetooth built in to the motherboard. The Wifi is primarily a luxury, I can wire the system into the LAN, but having good Bluetooth with a decent (~15ft+) range is a high priority.

The system will be used for light gaming, but most stuff can be run via Steam in-home streaming from my primary gaming computer. Occasionally, I'll use the computer as a second gaming machine if a friend comes over and we want to play a game together that doesn't have couch/local co-op.

Thanks!

[Helios]

Do you want to build this system as soon as possible?

Reason being, if you just want an emulation system yeah. The G4560 is freaking awesome. If you want to play other games, then it comes down to:

Do you want to wait and see what Ryzen's 5 series brings? You'll be waiting. I doubt they'll be as fast as Ryzen 7, and we don't know if they'll fix the thread scheduling problems. Or you can get a Kaby Core i5 now and have a solid small gaming machine for a lot more than dolphin. Although I've read on some places the G4560 is just as good in some tests.

It all depends

[zovc]

Hm. "As soon as possible" implies more urgency than there really is, but I just don't see much motivation to wait at this point.

I have a hard time believing R5 would pay off much for me, spending ~$200 on a CPU seems like it's going a little deeper into my pockets than it needs to if I'm only putting a 1050 in the system. The main reason a R3 might be compelling is because it'd likely match an i3's ~$120 price point, but actually be a 4-core chip (with maybe 8 threads). Even then, I'm taking for granted it would follow R7's trend of falling (just) short of Intel's single-core performance. So... I could see R3 being compelling value, but I'm not really seeing the value in upgrading to a Kaby Lake i5 for this system. Do you have any specific cases where it might do better? Particularly with Dolphin or PCSX2?

What about RAM? Should 8GB good enough? The system won't be doing much multitasking at all.

Any suggestions on motherboards? Another mark against the red team (right now) is that there aren't many ITX boards even announced at the moment, and it might take a few months for them to 'mature' in terms of features.

Edit: I didn't realize R5 was announced with a date today. Looking into that.

[Helios]

Ryzen 3 isn't coming for awhile. Ryzen 5 is slated to launch April 11.

Eh, I'd say the G4560 is hard to go wrong with. I mean, you're not looking to max games if you're just putting a 1050 in it

[zovc]

Okay, it might be worth holding out for a little after April 11 to see how the 1400 does and if any of the announced ITX boards come out. I really like that AMD's boards seem to be (a fair bit) cheaper and that their chips are all unlocked. It would be a lot easier to play around with thermals and push the chip if my cooling allows it.

[Helios]

We're getting weird performance issues with Ryzen. And I suspect it's due to some thread scheduling getting thrashed. Dunno if it's fixable, but it would either need to be an OS update or a BIOS or Microcode fix.

[zovc]

Yeah, I'm taking for granted that those will get fixed up. If I was 'serious' about buying a Ryzen chip I'd be paying much more close attention to it.