Can it run @ 1080p w/ stable 30FPS

[shawking]

How will this run? My absolute max budget is $400 and I don't mind getting things second hand, and since Intel has better single threading, I decided to go with them.

Games I'll play:
Any/every Zelda
StarFox
Any Mario game

I'll be using a 1080p TV. Thanks in advance & open to suggestions.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant


CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($54.49 @ Directron) 
Motherboard: ECS H81H3-I/HDMI (V1.0) Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($42.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Team Dark Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($57.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($55.33 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: DIYPC HTPC-Cube-Bk Mini ITX Tower Case  ($35.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Other: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Purchased For $0.00)
Other: Radeon 6870 1GB DDR5 ($70.00)
Total: $398.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-24 11:05 EST-0500

[admin89]

ECS is bad , very bad
P.S : Where do you live btw ?

[shawking]

ECS is bad , very bad
P.S : Where do you live btw ?

Can you give me a reason as to why you think they're so bad? I've used 3 ECS motherboards in the past for budget builds and they seem to be working fine. I won't be OC'ing or anything, but if you can find me a mini ITX motherboard for around the same price, then I'll be glad to switch.

Marietta, GA. I'm 20 minutes from the Greater Atlanta/Marietta Microcenter.

[lok1]

Make sure to use the latest proprietary driver with that video card. The open source driver will make dolphin games look psychedelic.

[shawking]

Make sure to use the latest proprietary driver with that video card. The open source driver will make dolphin games look psychedelic.

That was also one of my worries. Should I stick with the 6870 or should I switch to the GTX 460 which has similar performance and price?

Also, will this be able to play the games I want at high settings 1080p. Thanks

[lok1]

Make sure to use the latest proprietary driver with that video card. The open source driver will make dolphin games look psychedelic.

That was also one of my worries. Should I stick with the 6870 or should I switch to the GTX 460 which has similar performance and price?

Also, will this be able to play the games I want at high settings 1080p. Thanks

I have a 650ti in my desktop pc and a a8-6600k(8570D) in my htpc and neither can run SMG1 or 2 for me at 1080p. You should have no problem with either card for the Zelda Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Starfox Assault(I can run this at 3x even with the 8570D), or Super Mario Sunshine. The Smash Bros. games should also be fine. I recommend getting the nvidia card though. It should be better than my 650ti(had to look it up it's not), and a lot of people have issues with the AMD proprietary drivers on Linux and they do get worse performance then they would on windows. The only plus side to AMD is their opensource drivers that are getting better, and will probably overtake the proprietary driver in the future.

If you choose the nvidia make sure to get the latest driver because the proprietary driver in the package manager has a bug that will slow down performance by a lot.

[shawking]

Make sure to use the latest proprietary driver with that video card. The open source driver will make dolphin games look psychedelic.

That was also one of my worries. Should I stick with the 6870 or should I switch to the GTX 460 which has similar performance and price?

Also, will this be able to play the games I want at high settings 1080p. Thanks

I have a 650ti in my desktop pc and a a8-6600k(8570D) in my htpc and neither can run SMG1 or 2 for me at 1080p. You should have no problem with either card for the Zelda Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Starfox Assault(I can run this at 3x even with the 8570D), or Super Mario Sunshine. The Smash Bros. games should also be fine. I recommend getting the nvidia card though. It should be better than my 650ti(had to look it up it's not), and a lot of people have issues with the AMD proprietary drivers on Linux and they do get worse performance then they would on windows. The only plus side to AMD is their opensource drivers that are getting better, and will probably overtake the proprietary driver in the future.

If you choose the nvidia make sure to get the latest driver because the proprietary driver in the package manager has a bug that will slow down performance by a lot.

I guess Nvidia is the safest way to go. I guess I'll stay with the GTX 460 since I won't lose much performance and the driver support for Ubuntu is better.

[tential]

ECS is bad , very bad
P.S : Where do you live btw ?

I've used 3 ECS motherboards in the past for budget builds and they seem to be working fine. I won't be OC'ing or anything, but if you can find me a mini ITX motherboard for around the same price, then I'll be glad to switch.

Marietta, GA. I'm 20 minutes from the Greater Atlanta/Marietta Microcenter.

The best part of the processor you picked is that it ocs fantastically it's like purchasing a car and only driving it 40 miles an hour maximum. 

Up to you what you plan to do with your purchase though.
I'd go for a light on on that every day over running it stock for dolphin use. I mean the processor was specifically released for ocing lol...
Edit thought you chose this....
Intel Pentium G3258 Haswell Dual-Core 3.2GHz LGA 1150 Desktop ...
No clue why you wouldn't spend the extra money to get an infinitely better processor.

[AnyOldName3]

Although I'm not in a country that has Microcenter, I'm told they often have pretty good deals on a G3258 with a decent Z97 motherboard - either $100 or $90. That's pretty much the same money as your proposed build, and you can then overclock to the point that you can play every game Dolphin can run pretty easily.

[shawking]

ECS is bad , very bad
P.S : Where do you live btw ?

I've used 3 ECS motherboards in the past for budget builds and they seem to be working fine. I won't be OC'ing or anything, but if you can find me a mini ITX motherboard for around the same price, then I'll be glad to switch.

Marietta, GA. I'm 20 minutes from the Greater Atlanta/Marietta Microcenter.

The best part of the processor you picked is that it ocs fantastically it's like purchasing a car and only driving it 40 miles an hour maximum. 

Up to you what you plan to do with your purchase though.
I'd go for a light on on that every day over running it stock for dolphin use. I mean the processor was specifically released for ocing lol...
Edit thought you chose this....
Intel Pentium G3258 Haswell Dual-Core 3.2GHz LGA 1150 Desktop ...
No clue why you wouldn't spend the extra money to get an infinitely better processor.

Simple. I won't be over clocking so it would be pointless to spend the extra cash AFAIK. The G3258 only benefits from OCing. Also, Mini ITX LGA 1150 boards are expensive, so the entire thing is really out of my budget.

Although I'm not in a country that has Microcenter, I'm told they often have pretty good deals on a G3258 with a decent Z97 motherboard - either $100 or $90. That's pretty much the same money as your proposed build, and you can then overclock to the point that you can play every game Dolphin can run pretty easily.

Unfortunately that deal is over now D: and the cheapest Intel bundle I can get is about $180 USD which blows.