Building a mini itx emulation rig need input

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trentonsk85

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I plan on building a mini itx rig to play ps2/gamecube and everything before it. Would a a10 7870k be a good choice im unfamiliar with apus and how integrated graphics perform. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
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Mr5oh

Mr5oh

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Do some research before buying an AMD chip for an emulation rig. I just built one here recently, with little intention on playing anything newer than N64, primarily NES, SNES, Genesis stuff. I quickly found out Intel HD Graphics were not powerful enough and still ended up buying a GTX 750 TI. On top of that emulation takes quite a bit CPU power, Dolphin one of the major GameCube emulators specifically recommends Intel.

From Dolphin's Site:

Which CPU should I use?

Dolphin is a dual core application that relies upon IPC (Instructions Per Clock) for performance. Additional cores will not make Dolphin go any faster, though an “extra” core that Dolphin isn’t using may help slightly by keeping background tasks from using the same cores as Dolphin.

Intel: Newer Core i5 and i7 processors such as the i5-4670K and i5-3570K are extremely fast and very affordable considering their relative power. The K series allows for overclocking, which can further improve the performance of those CPUs. Core i7 variants yield almost no benefit in IPC over the i5s they are based on, so save the cash if you’re building a Dolphin machine. For laptops, you can rely on the i7-4700MQ and i7-4930MX for the absolute best performance. Most games will run very well on any of those processors.

AMD: Due to very low IPC, AMD CPUs are poor choices for Dolphin. The FX8000 line of processors is the best they have, and even then most of those processors will be around half the speed of the 4670K’s performance with Dolphin.
Click to expand...

Trust me I read all over that even a Raspberry Pi can be an emulation machine, however I found you need quite a bit more horsepower than that, especially if you want to do 3D stuff, and especially if you plan on doing this at 1080.
 
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Mr5oh

Mr5oh

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What are you going to use for GameCube emulation? If it's Dolphin, the AMD is not recommended.

Most emulation relies on strong single core performance, which is not something AMD is good at these days.
 
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trentonsk85

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Ill do some gamecube emulation but ill be doing mostly ps2 and ps1. I dont have the money to get another i5 i just got 1 for my main rig. Would the build i posted above run ps2 smoothly? I can live without gamecube emulation. But ps2 is a must.
 
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Mr5oh

Mr5oh

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I feel you, that's why my desktop is for PC games. However you still need a surprising amount of horsepower for emulation. PCSX2 doesn't come out and say it the way Dolphin does, but they do say:

Another important factor determining PCSX2 performance is that Intel Processors almost always perform better than AMD Processors. This is primarily because Intel's are more appropriately designed for running advanced computer softwares, whereas AMD's are more ideal for PC gaming. PCSX2 is definitely the former, since it is designed to run non-PC-formatted games.
Click to expand...

You really need to look at Intel for an emulation machine, and you are still going to need a decent GPU particularly for some games.
 
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Mr5oh

Mr5oh

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Depends on what components you pick. I would look at HTPC cases if you are still want a small form factory.

Just as an FYI, this was one of the few "gaming" cards that can be used in cases that require the half height PCI slots. The smaller bracket is included, and visible in the NewEgg images:

GIGABYTE GV-N75TOC-2GL GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB
 
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