Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I am buying an used laptop to hopefully save some money and the ones I currently are looking at is:

Toshiba Qosmio X500-140 - GeForce GTS360M - Intel Core I7 - 740QM - 4 GB RAM
Asus G55VW - GeForce GTX660 2GB - Intel Core i7-3610QM - 12 GB RAM
MSI GE70 - GeForce GTX850M 2GB - Intel Core i5-4200H - 8GB RAM OR MSI GE70 ONC - GeForce GTX660M - Intel i5 3210M - 8GB RAM
(all windows 7 64)
I will also use this laptop as a HTPC, so it will be connected to a 1080p tv most of the time to watch movies and sometimes play games. Witch is one of the reasons to why I do not feel the need to buy a brand new laptop for 70% movie /series and just 30 % games. So I hope the fans won't be that loud when watching movies / tv series.

I must say that I have never tried the Dolphin emulator before because my current laptop is not powerfull enough.
I want the laptop to be able to run full-speed and 1080p, games like zelda mario and SSB. And if possible more demanding games on PCSX2 and also Wii games too.
Do I have to get a newer one or would one of these be good enough, as I might be able to save a few hundred dollars on a older laptop.
Any tips are welcome and much appreciated

Thank you all for taking time to read my and all the other posts :D
fyi, posting this before work, so I wont be able to respond for some time so I hope I provided enough info.

Out of those you should pick the MSI GE70 with that intel 4200H its got a great turbo speed architecture (2 cores at 3.4GHZ on a haswell processor is awesome) well suited for dolphin you should get full speed with the games you mentioned ( possibly along with zelda tp with the hack used) not sure about PCSX2, the graphics are pretty good the 850M appears to be a very good performer for a laptop.

The only thing would be to make sure that laptop can handle temps of the high end gpu and cpu

Will you use it as a laptop away from the TV? Because if not, why not build a dedicated Dolphin PC. You can make a way stronger desktop for a lower price

(09-16-2014, 10:04 AM)KHg8m3r Wrote: [ -> ]Will you use it as a laptop away from the TV? Because if not, why not build a dedicated Dolphin PC. You can make a way stronger desktop for a lower price

So, I have been thinking now. And I am going to build a HTPC, thanks :)

But the case is very important, one of the reason I use a laptop atm is because it is hardly noticeable. So I need a case that fits into a H15 cm x L40cm space, is that to narrow? If I have to I could maybe "modify" my tv-cabinet to fit a Fractal Design Node 605 size cabinet, just maybe though.

Would a small motherboard have any performance hit when running dolphin? I really have no idea what to look for now or where to start.
I have a desktop that I wanted to start upgrading, but I think I need to now. Can I use any of these parts for a HTPC that will run Doplhin smoothly?
Nvidia GeForce GTX 650Ti 1GB
MSI MS-7599 870A-G54 rev-3.0
2x4GB ram DDR3
AMD phenom II X4 965 3.40GHz
I also have a creative soundcard that I want to use if it will fit :)

Also: cooling, will it be a problem?

Definitely the GPU if you don't need it in the other PC. It would be better to get the 750 Ti, as it uses less power/puts out less heat/is quieter/better graphics.

Get a small (mini or micro, whatever works for you) Z87/Z97 motherboard and a Pentium G3258, and then overclock it to about 4.6/4.7. It will be on par with the i5-4690K/i7-4790K at the same clock speed in Dolphin.
The AMD Phenom won't get anywhere remotely close to the G3258 overclocked.

RAM can probably be used again.

Just look around for a case that fits your needs.