Anyone built a small form factor PC just for emulation?

[speedlolita]

The AMD APU's GPU will be as or more power than you will find of a low profile seperate GPU.

I recently specced my friend one for his light gaming build on a budget and it seems to work pretty well.

Not sure how it would fare with PS2 but should play Cube fairly well.

[niftyifty]

Great info so far
Does anyone have ideas as to control method on a windows emulator box? My current method on my nexus 10 is the sixaxis app with my dualshock 3 - this works like a charm. Ideally a wireless joypad would be great but can live with a wired one as I hear the xbox360 wired controller is well supported - rubbish dpad though

[sj33]

The easiest controller to use is the 360 controller, because you just plug it in and it works. Everything is designed to work with it, so it's no hassle.

There are a few different ways to use a Dual Shock 3, all of which are unofficial so require a bit of faffing around. The best way to do it is to use this unoffcial driver, although it requires you to have a dedicated Bluetooth dongle for the controller.

http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-XInput-Wrapper-for-DS3-and-Play-com-USB-Dual-DS2-Controller?pid=186161#pid186161

Another more common method is to use MotionInJoy, which is simpler but the software is rubbish.

http://www.motioninjoy.com/

Offline tool for MotionInJoy. http://betterds3.ciebiera.net/

It's not too hard to find generic USB adaptors for basically every classic retro controller ever made, too.

[Colin]

Would a streacom F7C be big enough to accommodate one of these builds? (About ?75)

http://www.quietpc.com/st-f7c

Let's be clear that I know NOTHING about building PC's, but I dare say there's a local computer shop I could pay to build it.......

[speedlolita]

Yes. It would need an ITX motherboard and an i5 would be a nice CPU to go with IMO.

If you don't want 3D then an i3 would be even better. With a Pico PSU and a low power i3 you could have it almost silent.

Well, you know, depends on your needs.

[Colin]

Haha, that might as well have been in mandarin.

Considering one as a retro box, 16-Bit era gaming and MAME, booting up to a nice front end pretty much as the OP of this thread stated. Maybe with a bluray drive as well so that it doubles as a player. Do the math speedster and explain what it would need/cost. The VSHG would work as the controller, right?

[25.05.2005]

The easiest controller to use is the 360 controller, because you just plug it in and it works. Everything is designed to work with it, so it's no hassle.

But as niftyifty said, rubbish dpad...in fact, it is just unusable for me. Considering most of these games would be using a dpad, that puts it out for me...(even though I think it is the best pad ever for everything else).

My personal choice would probably me a simple PS2 pad with converter. Great dpad, sticks, nice buttons and loads of them to map too.

If you wanted to go all out, you could get a multi USB adapter that support a number of different classic pads, but then that means having the pads handy if you do that.

Only thing wrong with the PS2 option is that they aren't wireless. I do have wireless PS2 pads of course, but they're not official and aren't as nice. Which means, I'll definitely look into what you say about the DS3.

That looks good ikobo, one to consider. Looks like that would support a dedicated graphics card too if going down that route. Just a little bit bigger than the size of a Dreamcast maybe looking at the specs.

[25.05.2005]

Do the math speedster and explain what it would need/cost?

You need:

Motherboard
CPU
Hard Drive
Optical Drive
RAM
OS
Software Front End (if not free).
Cables (if not supplied with components)

Optional: Extras: Wi-Fi (depending on motherboard), card readers, whatever you want
Optional: GPU (you won't need it if you're sticking to 16bit era and earlier)

Cost depends on what components you'd choose, I'd estimate around ?300? Maybe.

All the parts sound a lot, and it sounds complicated, but it really isn't too bad. You've just got to make sure that you get components that will work together and fit in your chosen case.

[speedlolita]

Looks quite pricey tbh Colin.

http://i.imgur.com/0dICRmR.jpg

And that's without a GPU. You won't need a GPU for what you want though, the i3 has a HD2500 which is more than enough for MAME and 16bit.

[sj33]

Being more of a Sega guy, I use a USB Saturn controller as my 2D controller. For anything 3D, I use either a wired 360 controller or a Dual Shock 3. I'm not that much of a fan of the Sony D-Pad (too mushy for me), but I know many like it. I have the same criticism of Nintendo D-Pads.

That's the beauty of PCs though - you can use whatever controller you want.

[Baseley09]

Agree with Shakey on the Saturn pad front, quite natural for jamma and 8/16 bit sega gaming.

I pair that with a buffalo snes USB pad and a 360 pad for mame racing titles and you've got it covered.

[Colin]

?500? Ummm, no. An Ouya can do what I want for under ?100. (?300 and I'd have been in)

[speedlolita]

Would be a budget squeeze for ?300 I think. Especially with the Blu-Ray drive.

Case + PSU + Blu-Ray drive is ?200 alone.

[Colin]

The bluray is non essential, the box will be sat next to my standalone bluray player anyway, just seemed daft to have the slot sat unused.

[25.05.2005]

Would be a budget squeeze for ?300 I think. Especially with the Blu-Ray drive.

Case + PSU + Blu-Ray drive is ?200 alone.

Crap, didn't see the BLU-Ray.

Without that though, reckon it can be done for ?300.