So I've been playing Xenoblade Chronicles on my (2014) Macbook Pro 15" , for the last few days. The game runs really well, but I'd like to get a dedicated windows machine to hook up to my HDTV in the living room and use it solely as an emulator and maybe some other storage / streaming related tasks that I've been meaning to set up. So this is more or less hitting a few birds with one stone - and being an old console emulator is a big bonus.
The problem is I need something that:
A) Is relatively portable so I can tuck it in the corner and/or move it around when I travel (which I regularly do). It doesn't necessarily need to be console portable, but as portable & small as I can get without sacrificing too much performance.
B) Is aesthetically pleasing - or as much as possible. My wife is a stickler for decorations, and I won't hear the end of it if I put something in the living room that resembles a bulky wonky PC.
C) I can run all emulators at max or near max settings.
I was thinking about just buying a Mac Pro (the new small / black ones) as they not only look good, but are fairly portable. That would also give me the option to use it as a media center among many other things. But I'd rather have a native windows machine to bypass any future headaches or problems, and a mac pro is probably complete overkill for something like this.
I don't really have a set budget in mind - I just want something that is fairly future proof, looks good, is small, quiet (or as quiet as something like this can be) and will run most emulated games in HD (wii, gc, ps2, older nintendo consoles, etc). Then again, I don't want to buy a $600 processor if I can get a $100 processor that will give me 85% of the performance I need.
I don't have a problem building it. I have not built a computer in a long time, but I do know how to. I've just been out of the computer shopping game for almost a decade, so I have no idea what to order, what's good, etc - and I'm sure there's certain configurations that work better than others for emulation. I think the small / portable thing will be more of a function of what case I buy - but I've been out of the game for so long that I could be wrong.
Let me know if anyone can help out.
The problem is I need something that:
A) Is relatively portable so I can tuck it in the corner and/or move it around when I travel (which I regularly do). It doesn't necessarily need to be console portable, but as portable & small as I can get without sacrificing too much performance.
B) Is aesthetically pleasing - or as much as possible. My wife is a stickler for decorations, and I won't hear the end of it if I put something in the living room that resembles a bulky wonky PC.
C) I can run all emulators at max or near max settings.
I was thinking about just buying a Mac Pro (the new small / black ones) as they not only look good, but are fairly portable. That would also give me the option to use it as a media center among many other things. But I'd rather have a native windows machine to bypass any future headaches or problems, and a mac pro is probably complete overkill for something like this.
I don't really have a set budget in mind - I just want something that is fairly future proof, looks good, is small, quiet (or as quiet as something like this can be) and will run most emulated games in HD (wii, gc, ps2, older nintendo consoles, etc). Then again, I don't want to buy a $600 processor if I can get a $100 processor that will give me 85% of the performance I need.
I don't have a problem building it. I have not built a computer in a long time, but I do know how to. I've just been out of the computer shopping game for almost a decade, so I have no idea what to order, what's good, etc - and I'm sure there's certain configurations that work better than others for emulation. I think the small / portable thing will be more of a function of what case I buy - but I've been out of the game for so long that I could be wrong.
Let me know if anyone can help out.
