Help pick some minimum specs

[Xeriel]

I am planning a new build to use as a media centre for my living room. It will be used primarily for streaming videos off the network and the internet, and secondarily for emulating old games from NES up through dolphin and PCSX2. Most of the hardware advice I've been able to find is overkill considering the intensive games will make up a small minority of what this box needs to do. My goal is to have it play any Wii or PS2 game I throw at it, but I don't care if the more difficult games are only running at 1xIR as long as they run smoothly.

I am building everything around this case, as it fits the aesthetic I'm looking for, and has the 600W PSU and adequate airflow required for fancier components:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163187
and this motherboard, as it fits my desired case while still retaining wi-fi/bluetooth functionality and is supposed to overclock quite nicely:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131840

Rather than just throw an i5-3570k in and start overclocking, I would prefer to be a little more cost effective and spend only as much as I need to for this to comfortably run stock settings. What CPU and GPU would you recommend as a minimum to run everything at or above 1x?

Thanks

[Starscream]

You need a powerful processor to run the games at full speed, period. 1xIR or above is all about your video card.

http://dolphin-emu.org/docs/faq/

[NaturalViolence]

This guy built an HTPC for emulation with the exact same chassis and motherboard as you if you want to take a look: http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-building-an-mini-itx-goal-mariokart-wii-4-players

Ideally I would recommend the fastest cpu you can get if you want to run GC/Wii games well. The i5 3570K is currently the most recommended choice do to its ideal cost/performance ratio. You don't need to go overboard like he did. For 1080p rendering I would recommend a 7850 or higher from AMD or a 650 TI boost or higher from Nvidia.

[admin89]

Quote:Rather than just throw an i5-3570k in and start overclocking, I would prefer to be a little more cost effective and spend only as much as I need to for this to comfortably run stock settings

If you chose i7 3770k , you would have to overclock it too
Dolphin does not support Hyper Threading , i7 is useless , i5 3570k is the best bang for buck atm

[Xalphenos]

Like everyone else is saying a 3570k is the best choice right now. You said "run everything" and "smoothly" for that you need the fastest CPU you can get regardless of IR. How fast the cpu determines how much you can play without slowdown. For best results you are going to want an i5 and the price difference between the cheapest i5 and a 3570k is only ~$25 on newegg. I guess if you are just determined to not get a 3570k you could get the non k version saving yourself $10 and still being able to overclock to 4.2 ghz through the turbo multipliers on that board.

Since you seem to be ok with 1x IR if it means you can run the game smoothly I would suggest buying a lower end gpu and put the money saved toward the better cpu. A HD 7770 or GTX 650 will be good enough for 1080p and can both be bought around the $80 mark when you find them on sale or with a rebate.

[Xeriel]

Thanks everyone. I didn't realize resolution has such little effect on performance speed.
I'll go with the 3570k and then try to save a little bit with the GPU.
Much appreciated!