Is there anything I shouldn't attempt with this small PC??

[Pepperami]

Hey Guys

So the old MoBo combo I had in my Bartop died, and due to space limitations I looked at a small self contained PC and got myself a Lenovo Thinkcentre M700

For its size, the specs are quite good (I think lol)

Intel Core i5 (6th Gen) 6400T / 2.2 GHz with a Max Turbo Speed of 2.8 GHz

8GB DDR4 Ram 2133 MHz

256GB SSD

Windows 10

I have decided to use the 4TB External Drive I have for the actual Emulators, Roms, associated Media as there is a fair bit of space required, specifically for the MAME CHD files!

Arcade is a definite want as I had it before and love all the games I grew up with, but I would also like to have the Laser Disk ones like Dragons Lair, NES and SNES, Amiga is another one 100% I would like to have

So, is there systems I need to stay away from that this PC will not really run very well??

Any help appreciated!

Cheers guys 
 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Pepperami

[Melonbread]

I have a similar build as your’s, with a small form factor Lenovo with an Intel Core i5-4570T.  Same RAM and a 500gb internal HD with a 1TB external.

I use Retroarch for all of my systems, and find that Playstation 1, Saturn, and Dreamcast run great, even with upscaling.  Gamecube is hit or miss, but I get the best performance at Native resolution.  Haven’t found anything that won’t run, but I have very few of these games.

Playstation 2 is where my system really shows it’s limited capacity as I can get a game like Tales of the Abyss running with the PCSX2 emulator with 2x resolution.  Shadow of the Colossus is a complete no-go.

PSP runs well enough, though I’ve only tested 3rd Birthday, Patapon, and FF Tactics: War of the Lions.

NeoGeo, N64, and the 8 and 16-bit era consoles have run smoothly.  CPS1 and CPS2 run well too.  I haven’t been able to get MAME or Naomi to run, but that has more to do configuring LB than my system.

Haven’t tried Wii, DS, or 3DS.  I expect those won’t run as well given the early state of Citra and that it needs a bit more power than my system.

Hope that helps.

Edited September 16, 2019 by Melonbread

[OKTrashPanda]

The CPU and RAM, while important, are going to matter less than the GPU and VRAM when emulating anything past 4th gen.  My graphics card might as well be held together by paper clips and duct tape and while I can get decent performance from most PS1 and Saturn games, that's where the smooth emulation ends.  Oddly enough though, Dolphin works great.