Super Cheap old school emulator box

[ptsawyer]

Hello -

I am trying to spec out as cheap of a machine as possible to emulate old consoles and DOS games, nothing newer than Super Nintendo. I may consider emulating Nintendo 64... If it doesnt increase my cost/system requirement.

This is a pretty low power build...probably could use parts that arent even made anymore. If anyone has a suggestion on where to get older/cheap parts, I am all ears. My only modern requirement is it needs to output via HDMI to integrate into my current home theater setup.

Thanks.


Approximate Purchase Date: before Christmas
Budget Range: as cheap as possible
System Usage from Most to Least Important: old school emulation, (atari, NES, SNES, Genesis, DOS....MAYBE N64)
Parts Not Required: Monitor
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: any (used?)
Country: USA
Parts Preferences: N/A
Overclocking: no
SLI or Crossfire: no
Monitor Resolution: 1080p (tv)
Additional Comments: as small of a form factor as possible. Must output via HDMI

 

[ptsawyer]

--bump--

 

[cutebeans]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A6-5400K 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.98 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M-DGS Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: AMD Entertainment Edition 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($12.92 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Athena Power CA-GSB01DA (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $267.83
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-12 09:22 EST-0500)

 

[bambinobomber]

Go for the AntecVP350. From what I've read the new builder series have a higher failure rate than the V1s, and the Antec is just slightly more expensive than it.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-vp350

Anyway, you don't really need an APU for SNES emulation. Back in the day I could emulate it just fine with a P4 and a dirt cheap radeon, so I'd say you will be fine with a cheap celeron and it's integrated graphics.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80623g465

 

[jmsellars1]

Looking at the system requirements, a Celeron would do the job fine. Even the recommended specs for Project 64 don't mention more than one core. It recommends a 1.5Ghz Pentium 3 and some 9-10 year old 256MB GPUs with 512MB RAM.

This setup would be fine and have ultra low power consumption, we are talking 20W under full load. Also would be a hell of a lot smaller and quieter than pretty much any PC out there. The only source of noise will be a single ~40-50mm fan.

ASRock E350M1 AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core)
Mushkin Enhanced 1x4GB 1066Mhz CL7
Crucial V4 64GB
Antec ISK 110 with 90W PSU

Total - $258.97 on Newegg

If you cheap out on the case and PSU you could make it closer to $200. Not something I'd usually recommend though.

 

[ptsawyer]

Ok. Lets say I drop the N64 requirement... and I will only be emulating old DOS games (primarily pre-2000) and Super Nintendo or earlier.

Any way to drive the cost of this down? Anyone have a good source on obsolete parts? The smaller form factor I can cram this into, the better.

 

[FinneousPJ]

If you want a new system with new parts then less than $200-something isn't feasible.

 

[FinneousPJ]

This is what I got

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A4-3400 2.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($47.61 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar A75MG Micro ATX FM1 Motherboard ($59.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: AMD Entertainment Edition 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($34.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec 350W ATX12V Power Supply ($23.17 @ NCIX US)
Total: $216.72
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-13 15:22 EST-0500)

 

[jmsellars1]

A used PC or a cheap prebuilt with semi decent integrated graphics would be the only way to get it cheaper I think. Any AMD A (or E) series or Intel 1155 socket CPU should do the job without a graphics card.

 

[twelve25]

I'd just get a small form factor refurb system and throw in a cheap MIR deal graphics card with HDMI.

Example: http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=TCM57-DC180-NOOS-R&cat=SYS

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102882&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Or the Newegg daily deal might be up your alley: http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=ShellShocker-_-1133685-_-11132012_1

 

[ptsawyer]

Best answer selected by ptsawyer.