Small budget home theatre pc that can handle ps2 emulator

Have not done anything with ps2 emulator for years. If I remember correctly it does not need much GPU power, cannot use more then one core on CPU, but needs all the CPU speed it can get.

CPU Athlon II X2 245/250 or Phenom II X2 545/550, 785G m/b

From my experience the PS2 is not yet emulatable properly and with a large enough games compatibily to warrant it on a serious scale, Unless something has seriously changed since i last tried PCSX2, which is largely considerd to be the most advanced PS2 Emulator.
Most computers these days will be more than capable of Emulating PS1, N64 and previous consoles definitly. I have not tried a Dreamcast emulator, but this will probably be emulatable on most computers too.

Ill try the latest PCSX2 (any excuse ^^) and report back later, see how it is these days.

Sorry for double post, but it wont let me edit my post.
I tried Tekken Tag Tournament (PAL) using the latest PCSX2, which is listed as playable in the compatibility list. However it is far from "Playable" The only part that comes anywhere near to PS2 in terms of performance is the intro video.
My system:
Intel E7200 @ 3.166Ghz
4GiB RAM
Nvidia 9800GT 512MiB
Windows 7 Release Candidate, Build 7100

what kind of emulators can I run with athlon xp OC'ed to 3.2 ghz somewhere around that, with 2gig or more of ram 7800gs graphics card. also if anyone knows it would be nice to know what kind of power suply going for under 400 watts hopping around 280 whats using a mcro atx mother board most likely

looks playable to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgyXToPKnMA

Thats nice Shrex, that game does look playable, Awesome! But ive tried a few games that are listed as playable on the website from my extensive PS2 collection (PAL) and not found one that comes close to playing it on the playstation yet.
Comprare that with emulating other systems, PS1, N64, SNES, Mega Drive etc etc, you really wouldnt know, in some cases games even get enhanced by emulators through the use of upscaling, texture filtering and anti-aliasing.

Smartkid95:

That computer should be able to emulate any system from the 20th Century
And all portables, maybe not the PSP and DS though. but Certainly the Game Boy Advance.

That's cool I guess I would just buy the pc version. At least I could still play crash bandicoot warped. But This would just be a simple pc that could do a little gaming I would ike to build to compliment my HDTV when I get It.

My all out gaming rig with amd phenomII x3 Black edition, 4 gig of ram, ati radeon 4850 crossfire I'm sure could handle it am I right? or is that still pushing It.

You might be able to emulate some PS2 games with your gaming rig, as the video posted in this thread would suggest.
However to get any where close the PS2, i would just buy one. Modchip it if you have to.  .
That way you can build a lesser PC to handle other emulation and movies and whatever else you will want it to do. Like the one you mentioned.

I dont know what you mean by "any where close to the ps2". The emulated game is graphically superior by several orders of magnitude. It is being played at 10x higher resolution than the ps2 can with a high level of antaliasing.

Last time i played the ps2 the graphics was so crap it was unplayable. Its not bad if you still have a crt tv, but on hdtvs it looks awful.

Compatibility on the pcsx2 has alot to do with what plugins you use and what settings you have on or off.

Shrex, could you please enlighten me to these plugins, ive been using the recomended settings and plugins provided in the guide on the forums of PCSX2's website. Tekken Tag Tournament i could get to the game, but none of the characters loaded, or anything 3D for that matter. so the game was not playable. Tekken 5 causes the emulator to crash when reading the memory card.

Gran Turismo 3. yeah i could play it, but with graphical glitches, random lag and choppy sound, id rather play it on my PS2.

Timesplitters: PCSX2 froze on loading.

The Getaway: Probably not on their "Playable" list, ran at 6FPS. *** loads of DMA errors in the monitor.

Shrex i have to ask you, are you watching idealistic Youtube videos of PS2 emulation, or are you seriously experinecing diffrent results to me. Don't get me wrong, i REALLY want PS2 emulation to be a reality, there is so many good games on PS2, and being able to play them with the enchanced graphical tweaks and decreased loading times that emulators can bring would be fantastic. However at this moment in time, i could not replace my PS2 with an emulator, like you could with your PS1, N64, SNES, Gameboy etc etc etc.

Ok, here we go:

PCSX2 is the only option for PS2 emulation. Its getting there, but still has issues in many games (ranging from minor graphical annoyances to the game being unplayable). Its hit or miss right now really...

To start with, I STRONGLY recommend a Quad. PCSX2 uses as many cores as its given, and a Quad is almost a necessity to stay at a constant speed. GPU is not as important, although still helps.

The current version of PCSX2 (not counting BETA builds) is 0.9.6. I'm currently using the GSDX build 1479 plugin for video (there's probably a newer one though) and SPU2X 1.1.0 for sound. I also note: DX10 mode seems a LOT more accurate then DX9 mode for GSDX; FFXII was a graphical mess in DX9 mode, but was perfect in DX10 mode the last time i tried it out, for instance. I also note I havent tried to ZeroGS plugin in a while, but I had constant framerate jumping issues the last time I used it (hence why I favor GSDX).

Again, games are hit and miss right now. Some work perfectly, some not at all, and most run to some degree, but at various framerates with various graphical issus.

The only games I'd play would be smackdown vs. raw and a few others that aren't yet ported