Question regarding emulator system requirements

[BradJohnson]

I get rapidly confused trying to compare system specs.  Right now the system I'm using is a dual core 2.8ghz Intel G640 with 6gigs of RAM.

I'm expecting a new video card on Wednesday, and as far as I can tell, this the best card the little HP slimline s-5 1226 with 220 watt PS can handle...:

GeForce GT 520 Profile Graphics Card 1GB 64-Bit DDR3 GT-520M-ZN

I'm really hoping this setup will run Sega Saturn...?  Also PS1 and GameCube would be great.

Can anybody please shed some light here?

 

Thanks

 

ETA: Win 7 SP1 x64

Edited April 25, 2017 by BradJohnson
OS

[Lordmonkus]

PS1 won't be a problem, Gamecube emulation with Dolphin should be ok but it could be on that edge but using the Ishiruuka build (https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version) could get you there. Saturn emulation though maybe tricky depending on the emulator you want to use. Mednafen (both the stand alone and Retroarch core) will most likely be out of reach but who knows. You would be fine with the emulator SSF though but you will have the added step of mounting disk images which isn't a terribly big deal but is something to keep in mind.

[BradJohnson]

Thanks, lordmonkus.

I guess I had it backwards... thought it would go Saturn < GameCube < PS1.

Anyway, I followed the Youtube tutorial for Saturn, using Mednafen/Beetle and the stock Intel mobo graphics just said, "Lol, NO."

I don't have a problem mounting images, however, I seem to have three different types of Saturn ROMS, Cue/Bin ; .NRG ; and Mds/Mdf.

My gut says I'll need a Fat32 partition, and be limited to Cue/Bin or Cue/ISO?

Thanks again

Edited April 25, 2017 by BradJohnson
typo

[Lordmonkus]

SSF is a little more forgiving with its images and mounting disks isn't hard with a batch file to mount the disk, launch the game and unmount the image when you close out there game. I don't think @SentaiBrad did a tutorial guide for it or not. The biggest problem is the fact you will have to install and use DaemonTools which you have to be very careful installing to avoid the adware it installs.

I don't recall having to have cue + bin for SSF though Mednafen does. It's been a while since I have used SSF now and I have since upgraded all my disk images for Mednafen because it is much pickier over the disk images.

Saturn emulation is more system intensive because of the systems complexity. The system was an awkward beast back in the day with 2 cpus and 2 video processors, even Segas own developers had a difficult time programming for it back in the day.

[BradJohnson]

Thanks again, IIRC, Brad's Saturn first tutorial was Yabause, version 2 was Mednafen, and by the time I got to it, it had become Beetle.?

I'm not familiar with SSF so will have to do some Googling, but any further links you or anybody could provide would be appreciated.

 

Once again, I love Launch Box, and if I can't make this machine work, it's still strong enough for my day to day business and I could swap my core i5 2.8ghz 8 gig  tower and put a much faster video card in it.  I just prefer this little one if possible because of size and power consumption.

I'm probably an idiot for not just buying an old Saturn, but I MUST HAVE ROAD RASH, on my flat screen.   :-D

 

[Lordmonkus]

This might be the best site for SSF info now: http://www.segaretro.org/SSF

Brad did do a Yabause and Mednafen tutorials but Yabause is not very good and Mednafen is pretty system intensive but maybe you will have luck with the stand alone version of it over the Retroarch version which does tend to be more resouce hoggish than their stand alone counterparts. Like I said earlier though Mednafen is very picky about your disk images compared to SSF and Yabause.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any recent tutorials on it that I can find. Maybe someone will see this thread and throw one together or maybe if the mood strikes me I will throw one together.

[BradJohnson]

Gracias

[SentaiBrad]

I specifically didn't choose the one where you had to mount things, because it's an utter pain in the ass. Then Mednafen came around. Your GPU might help with Saturn, but a better CPU would probably be the thing that needs upgrading the most. Your PC doesn't need to be FAT32, NTFS is fine for pretty much everything (unless you're working with an actual console or system that needs FAT32). You might want to find a trurip or redump rom set for Saturn games. Having them be a bunch of different file types is going to make things harder in the long run, especially when you want to use Mednafen.

[BradJohnson]

I want to thank you both again. 

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this little PC's CPU can be upgraded to an Intel Core i7-2600 Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155, and I found one for $100.

In my experience off-the-shelf PCs like this are hardly upgradable at all, but between the video card and CPU this thing is gonna be pretty darn fast.

What else might I be able to emulate with this system, perhaps something even beyond Saturn?

 

ETA: I received the new GPU today, and am running PS1 very smoothly through retroarch, which is awesome. Holding off on Gamecube and Saturn until next thursday when I get the CPU.

Also I have 3DO going strong and the Road Rash on there isn't quite half as bad as Saturn, and I'm loving it

 

Edited April 28, 2017 by BradJohnson
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