Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hi guys, newbie here. I have actually just learnt about Dolphin and loving the idea to play Wii games on my HTPC.

Question one - is Intel NUC5i5RYK (with i5 5250U) good enough for this?

Question two - can you please point me to the direction to find out what else I need (apart from games) to play Wii games on my machine?

Thanks heaps!

Nope. Any Ultra Low Wattage CPU is too weak for dolphin.

Actually, some of the ULV models from Broadwell will run Dolphin fairly well, though they all generally have a TDP of 28W or more. The 15W TDP ones top out at around 2.2 GHz, which is enough to play light-weight games

@lomenak - The key, is to look at the base frequency. Never assume you'll consistently hit the top turbo frequency. See here for your options (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwell_...tecture%29) The thing is, good luck finding things like the i5-5300U, or i5-5287U in any pre-made HTPC box. You'll have to source the parts yourself. If you end up building an HTPC yourself, just go with the Pentium G3258. It can overclock without any additional coolers (the stock one is just fine for pushing it to 4GHz) and it's dirt cheap. It'll run circles around any current ULV from Intel (and AMD for that matter).

As for what else you need, a good USB joystick is recommended (usually just use your DS3/4 or 360/Xbone controller). Some Wii games play better with a real wiimote, but most you can get by using a controller instead. Of course, you'll need something to dump/rip the Wii games for you, and the easiest option is using the Homebrew Channel on a Wii (google CleanRip).

@Shonumi - thanks for that - not what I was hoping to hear but good to find out now. I have a celeron based nuc that is stuttering with some HD streams so I wanted to updated this for the one mentioned above. I may just look into building one myself tho.

Just to follow up on this. Would the i3 4170 with 8GB RAM with SSD and the integrated HD 4400 be enough for this? I think this is as far as I would like to go for the HTPC build.

That largely depends on which games you actually want to play. It'll definitely handle lighter to medium ones fine, but might struggle beyond that.

Quote:Just to follow up on this. Would the i3 4170 with 8GB RAM with SSD and the integrated HD 4400 be enough for this? I think this is as far as I would like to go for the HTPC build

What is your budget ? My system costs $400 , it has ITX formfactor

Intel HD 4400 has issues playing games and bugs in their drivers

The thing is that I would really like to go with the integrated graphic chip as I want to keep the size of the build very small to fit this case (http://www.streacom.com/products/f1cws-evo-chassis/).

It won't be cheap
Broadwell Quad Core i5 5675C with top of the line HD 6200 Iris Pro ($391) which is on par with my GTX 750
Gigabyte H97N ITX (Broadwell fully supported - $105)
Silverstone low profile cooler for super thin ITX ($32)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB Kit Low Profile (Low height) for $48
Total cost without case , PSU and SSD : $576
I recommend this case since it will include thin ITX H97 mobo (no need to buy separated mobo), it will use DC Adapter instead of PSU (Power Supply)
http://www.amazon.com/SHUTTLE-Barebone-S...hin+itx+97
However if you can affort this much , 95% of games will run full speed at very high resolution (full HD or higher like 3xIR , 4xIR) . PC games will run like a charm too

Basically , smaller formfactor = higher budget