BillK01 Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 (edited) So I've ordered a Recroommasters 32" cab and emulator plus controller (due to arrive early March) - I have got most of Launchbox, MAME & ROMS working on a external HD to my liking. I'd eventually like to add Daphne and maybe some older retro consoles like ColecoVision, Vectrex, SNES, Genesis etc. (nothing new as I already have an xbox one x, ps4 and switch on the big tv). I've been using a really old (like 10 years old) gaming PC from back in the day when I built my own gaming pc's and had the time for that stuff (heck I don't even remember the specs it's that old). Anyway - it seems to run everything ok other than scrolling through the games on LB is slow (could be because of the external HD though). I plan to upgrade to BigBox soon - but think I may be looking at a new PC build. I was hoping to get some recs from the experts on the cheapest way to get a good PC built to run this without a bunch of slowdowns and hiccups when scrolling to all these old arcade games. I've been looking at Intel i5 systems but really would rather not drop close to a grand on a pc for this build. Not sure how the newer AMD cpus are for BigBox/MAME stuff but it seems some of the premade "gaming" ones are really inexpensive if they're AMD vs. Intel. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks. Bill Edited February 19, 2020 by BillK01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 1 hour ago, BillK01 said: Not sure how the newer AMD cpus are for BigBox/MAME stuff Newer AMD CPUs are fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 1 hour ago, BillK01 said: So I've ordered a Recroommasters 32" cab and emulator plus controller (due to arrive early March) - I have got most of Launchbox, MAME & ROMS working on a external HD to my liking. I'd eventually like to add Daphne and maybe some older retro consoles like ColecoVision, Vectrex, SNES, Genesis etc. (nothing new as I already have an xbox one x, ps4 and switch on the big tv). I've been using a really old (like 10 years old) gaming PC from back in the day when I built my own gaming pc's and had the time for that stuff (heck I don't even remember the specs it's that old). Anyway - it seems to run everything ok other than scrolling through the games on LB is slow (could be because of the external HD though). I plan to upgrade to BigBox soon - but think I may be looking at a new PC build. I was hoping to get some recs from the experts on the cheapest way to get a good PC built to run this without a bunch of slowdowns and hiccups when scrolling to all these old arcade games. I've been looking at Intel i5 systems but really would rather not drop close to a grand on a pc for this build. Not sure how the newer AMD cpus are for BigBox/MAME stuff but it seems some of the premade "gaming" ones are really inexpensive if they're AMD vs. Intel. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks. Bill 33 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said: Newer AMD CPUs are fantastic. Yep, even my 1st GEN 1700X is great in that regard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillK01 Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 (edited) Thanks for the replies. So do you think something along these lines would suffice for my setup? https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-1400-8gb-memory-amd-radeon-rx-560-256gb-solid-state-drive-black/6377561.p?skuId=6377561 Or would this be better? https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-3-2300x-8gb-memory-amd-radeon-rx-570-1tb-hdd-240gb-ssd-black/6362425.p?skuId=6362425 Edited February 19, 2020 by BillK01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 I'm always very hesitant to recommend anything with a Radeon graphics card for emulation because of their crap OpenGL drivers and may cause issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillK01 Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 Ok then - perhaps the first one I listed and just grab a nvidia gpu and disable to onboard graphics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Well i'm not saying that you would have issues with a Radeon GPU based system, I used one for a while without issues but it is something to keep in mind with a new system and it can potentially be an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillK01 Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 I understand. Personally I've always preferred Intel and Nvidia to AMD stuff but can appreciate they've come a long way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Yeah AMD has made huge strides on the CPU side lately, they are great, I have a 2700X and love it but they are still way behind on the GPU side of things. Their GPUs are perfectly adequate for low to mid range gaming PCs but lacking in the higher end and emulation because of the bad OpenGL drivers. Bad OpenGL drivers isn't really too much of an issue when it comes to modern PC gaming since the vast majority of games use DirectX or even Vulkan nowadays but a lot of emulators do use OpenGL for legacy hardware and cross platform compatibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 For the basis of my cabinet I bought a used i3-7100 system for $300 Canadian. I upgraded the motherboard and GPU to a Nvidia 970 GTX for about $200. No problems handling emulation up to the Nintendo switch emulator Yuzu, and newer titles through Teknoparrot as well. You don’t have to break the bank, especially if your happy with latest consoles for newer titles. I probably spent more on constantly changing joysticks, buttons, etc than the underlying hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItchyRobot Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 (edited) It sounds like you are looking for a pre-built system. Obviously you wont get as much for your money with a pre-built; but I imagine you understand that already. I personally would look for something with a NVIDIA 1660 (affordable but still powerful). Here is one from Best Buy, but it is about 250 more than your links. It may be overkill, but it at least will be somewhat future-proof, and give you room to grow into it if you decide to start emulating other systems that need a little extra power. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypower-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-3600-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1660-1tb-hard-drive-240gb-solid-state-drive-white/6360954.p?skuId=6360954 I unexpectedly got interested in Visual Pinball X after buying my PC, and was glad I had the extra power. Same with upscaling graphics of older systems, like PSP, N64, GameCube. The emulators allow you to tweak a lot of setting to ramp up the resolution and textures, but need extra graphics power to do so. This may be overkill though. You can emulate most everything on a fairly small system, if you don't want to upscale the graphics any. If you decide to build your own, go with PC Part Picker. Edited February 19, 2020 by ItchyRobot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillK01 Posted February 20, 2020 Author Share Posted February 20, 2020 (edited) Just a quick update. I purchased LB/BB premium and tried it with my old gaming PC (checked it and it's an old Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4ghz with 4gb of ram and old Radeon R5 200 gpu. Shockingly - BigBox worked really well with it and the MAME games work fine. The biggest downfall is not having an SSD for Windows, so bootup is slow. I'll probably still buy or build something more current but for now at least I know I don't "have" to buy something for it to at least work. I'll probably just keep an eye on Best Buy and Costco for a really good gaming pc that's on sale. Thanks again for the info! Edited February 20, 2020 by BillK01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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