Need Help Putting Together an Emulation PC

[Thmoviestr]

Hello all!

I am new to Dolphin but have used emulators in the past. I want to set up a super budget friendly dedicated HTPC to use for Emulation, mainly GameCube, Wii and Arcade games. I don’t want to spend a lot, a couple hundred (under 500). My goal would be to be able to play most GC and Wii games at 4K (60fps if possible) but would be completely fine with a well performing high detailed 1080p or 1440p. I would like the PC to be a smaller form factor like a Micro ATX or Mini ITX. My original plan was the below:

i3-9100F
H310 Mini ITX mobo
Gtx 1070



Is this overkill for what I’m looking to do or is it not enough?

Lastly I have a spare Dell Optiplex with an i7-4790. However it’s a small form factor pc and I would need a low profile GPU. The best low profile GPU available is the GTX 1650. Is this worth trying?

Any help and suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

[Shonumi]

If you're looking for 1080p or even 1440p in Dolphin, it doesn't take much from a GPU. I remember doing 1080p well in every game except Xenoblade Chronicles on a measly GTX 550 Ti years ago, and much hasn't changed. So with a GTX 1070, you should hit 4K without issue. Dolphin isn't nearly as demanding for 4K as a modern PC game would be.

Your CPU is rock solid. Dolphin is typically CPU-bound as long as you don't crank up the resolution beyond what your GPU can handle, and an i3-9100F will handle just about everything that Dolphin runs well. Just a small handful of games don't run well in Dolphin no matter what hardware you have, but I don't see you having any problems with anything else.

Honestly can't say anything bad about your build. It looks impeccable for Dolphin.

[Thmoviestr]

If you're looking for 1080p or even 1440p in Dolphin, it doesn't take much from a GPU. I remember doing 1080p well in every game except Xenoblade Chronicles on a measly GTX 550 Ti years ago, and much hasn't changed. So with a GTX 1070, you should hit 4K without issue. Dolphin isn't nearly as demanding for 4K as a modern PC game would be.

Your CPU is rock solid. Dolphin is typically CPU-bound as long as you don't crank up the resolution beyond what your GPU can handle, and an i3-9100F will handle just about everything that Dolphin runs well. Just a small handful of games don't run well in Dolphin no matter what hardware you have, but I don't see you having any problems with anything else.

Honestly can't say anything bad about your build. It looks impeccable for Dolphin.

Thank you so much for the feedback! What are your thoughts on using the old OptiPlex? Worth it or better off going with the i3, 1070 combo?

[Shonumi]

The i7-4790 would be a bit weaker than the i3-9100F for Dolphin. Dolphin generally uses 2 threads for the bulk of its performance, so more cores/threads don't really help a great deal (unless you have a ton of processes in the background, but that's unlikely for a gaming HTPC setup). The i3-9100F is using a newer architecture, so even with each core running at the same speed as the i7-4790, it'll be faster. Having said that, the i7-4790 isn't exactly slow. It's old, but it should run just about anything you throw at it in Dolphin (with the exception again being those few games that don't run well on anything).

The i3-9100F should have a lower thermal footprint, so less heat meaning you can store your build in smaller, more cramped spaces without worrying about heat. Another thing to consider is that Meltdown and Spectre mitigations have less performance impact on newer generations of Intel hardware, so the i3-9100F won't take much of a hit compared to the i7-4790. That may be irrelevant if you disable those mitigations yourself, but most people don't mess around with that stuff normally.

So, I dunno, it depends on whether you feel like you'd want the beefier i3-9100F for other purposes (e.g. if you expand your interests to other emulators). Otherwise it's up to you whether you want something newer and a bit faster, or want something older, slower, but still capable of hitting all the marks.

[Thmoviestr]

The i7-4790 would be a bit weaker than the i3-9100F for Dolphin. Dolphin generally uses 2 threads for the bulk of its performance, so more cores/threads don't really help a great deal (unless you have a ton of processes in the background, but that's unlikely for a gaming HTPC setup). The i3-9100F is using a newer architecture, so even with each core running at the same speed as the i7-4790, it'll be faster. Having said that, the i7-4790 isn't exactly slow. It's old, but it should run just about anything you throw at it in Dolphin (with the exception again being those few games that don't run well on anything).

The i3-9100F should have a lower thermal footprint, so less heat meaning you can store your build in smaller, more cramped spaces without worrying about heat. Another thing to consider is that Meltdown and Spectre mitigations have less performance impact on newer generations of Intel hardware, so the i3-9100F won't take much of a hit compared to the i7-4790. That may be irrelevant if you disable those mitigations yourself, but most people don't mess around with that stuff normally.

So, I dunno, it depends on whether you feel like you'd want the beefier i3-9100F for other purposes (e.g. if you expand your interests to other emulators). Otherwise it's up to you whether you want something newer and a bit faster, or want something older, slower, but still capable of hitting all the marks.

Thanks so much for all this info I really appreciate it!