Jimbo Jr Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 (edited) Hello folks, I’m an absolute complete noob, plenty of cabinetry skills, zero computer skills. I have been researching for a bit now, the question I have is what can I expect out of a bog standard HP with no frills (see specs in pic), with maybe a video card addition and doubling the RAM? Could I expect to run up to PS2 games with this hardware? PS, I’m blown away with the community here. You guys are awesome! Edited February 10, 2018 by Jimbo Jr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 Without any first hand experience with that CPU my guess is that it isn't quite fast enough for PS2 emulation but you should be fine up to the N64. You would also run into issues with Saturn and SNES with the more accurate emulators for those systems (Higan/BSnes and Mednafen), Snes9x will be perfectly fine with it and maybe you could get away with SSF for Saturn. Playstation with Mednafen or Retroarch may run ok on it but if it doesn't ePSXe would be fine. A video card and rom upgrade unfortunately won't help you with emulator performance because it is far more CPU dependent. Graphics cards do help when you start getting into things like shaders and upping the internal resolution of the 3D systems like N64. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Jr Posted February 10, 2018 Author Share Posted February 10, 2018 Cheers Lordmonkus. Speedy reply! So I might use this one to play around with launchbox, and upgrade shortly. So what CPU clock speeds should I be looking at for that generation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 My honest opinion is to get the best you are willing to spend the money on. The newer the generation and the higher the clock speed the better along with instructions per clock cycle. I always tell people that more CPU power does not go to waste with emulation. With more CPU power using Retroarch you can tune the settings to reduce input lag by boosting the frame delay setting and this requires more CPU power the higher you push it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brenavich980 Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 For reference I'm doing a custom arcade build myself with a Craigslist HP 6300 i5 3.7gHz, 4gb RAM, and a piece of crap $45 video card just for HDMI output. I can do any console up to Dreamcast before I start getting frame dips. Perhaps start there and work backwards if you need to. You'd be surprised what a low spec machine can do. If you're building a cab, I highly recommend installing an SSD on your system to speed up boot times. It sucks having to wait for the damn thing to load up while showing your friends this amazing thing you've been working on for months! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Jr Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 Awesome, cheers for the tips. Yep, building a cab is the intention (and the much easier bit for me). A friend has offered an HP i7 4th generation SFF (not sure yet of exact specs), that has had the HDD ripped out. Is it easy enough to put in an SSD and put new drivers & OS from there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 1 minute ago, Jimbo Jr said: Is it easy enough to put in an SSD and put new drivers & OS from there? Yeah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 lol I don't know who told you a PC with a 4th gen i7 is a shitty PC but that isn't true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Jr Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 You may wish to re read first and last posts. Different computer. I may be a complete noob, but I can use google. Haha inital post was about a q9400. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 my bad I missed that part Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Jr Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 1 minute ago, DOS76 said: my bad I missed that part All good. I did say i was green. I’m determined to have my tech knowledge match my cabinetry skills by the end of this process! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brenavich980 Posted February 14, 2018 Share Posted February 14, 2018 5 hours ago, Jimbo Jr said: building a cab is the intention You've made a good choice with BigBox then! A lot of cabinet builders skimp on doing their research when it comes to frontends and default to the sugar rush nightmare that is Hyperspin. The key for a great cab is making it easy to use for someone who isn't you. Good luck on your build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Jr Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 Cheers man! I know I said it earlier, but I am loving this forum & community. Plenty of help and encouragement for a new starter! The key is to make it easy for me to use too! And it looks like bigbox is a tonne more intuitive, with a better brains trust to draw on. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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