Family emulation station

[Lahrs]

First, Launchbox license. With the lifetime license I bought, I can run Bigbox on multiple computers in my home at the same time, correct? If not, I need to buy more licenses. 

I have all my ROMS on a central NAS server. Each family member is able to pick the files they want and copy them to their computers whenever they want. Hopefully in the future I can finish up the emulation station I have in my head and build a PC that boots into Big Box onto a 4k TV. The idea is there, the knowledge is not. What kind of hardware should I be looking at for the best experience? I don't think I need the latest and greatest tech for a PC build considering emulation isn't quite pushing the bounds of current high end PC tech, at least not yet. What should I focus on, beefy CPU, many core CPU, graphics card, or a low-mid combination of CPU and videocard? I would love to stay under $500 for a dedicated machine, but that may not be realistic, I don't know until I have an idea of what I need. It's a shame I can't get it all up and running on an Xbox Series S.

Edited June 11 by Lahrs

[Lordmonkus]

14 minutes ago, Lahrs said:

First, Launchbox license. With the lifetime license I bought, I can run Bigbox on multiple computers in my home at the same time, correct?

Correct.

As for the hardware you need to run the emulators, that depends on what you want to emulate. The more modern emulators like for PS3, Wii U and Switch you will need quite good hardware.
My general advice would be this, get the best CPU you can with as much hard drive space as you can get. Multicore CPUs generally don't have much benefit in emulation, it's all about the single core clock speed and instructions per clock cycle but they don't make single core CPUs anymore. You don't need a super fancy GPU but you will want a reasonably decent dedicated GPU, a 60 series Nvidia card would be fine without being too much money, a 70, 80 or 90 series card would be overkill. The GPU will help with Launchbox performance and will help if you decide you want to use shaders or uprezzing your games.

[Lahrs]

I'm rocking a massively powerful GTX 1660 Ti (I say with sarcasm), but it actually does well in emulation all things considered for a four-year-old, middle of the pack at that time GPU. The rest of my current system is newer, though nothing cutting edge. I've had no problems with Switch and older systems, PS2 on down. I have not tried any PS3 emulators to gauge my system's performance on more recent consoles. I definitely have a better idea of what to look for.

I suspected single core would be the main factor for the processor. Looking at CPU usage during emulation shows little to no activity beyond the first core, and I'm guessing any activity on the other cores is from a different program utilizing the processor in the background.