Tiny Emulation Build for Sub €150

IrishMetalhead

Looking to build a machine to run a distro of Linux called Lakka.
It's a OS dedicated to running Emulators, I love my retro gaming but the problem is I'm not going to be able all my consoles and games to my mates house or bring it up to my in-laws when we go into Dublin to visit.
I have my PSP with CFW on it but the problem with that is that it's no go for local multiplayer hence defeating the purpose of bringing it round to my mates gaff.
So with a OS dedicated to running emulators I'm guessing I won't need as much power as needed to run on a Windows machine which is handy so I can make the machine quiet small.
The question is tho is it better to build one from scratch or use a Gigabyte Brix or a Zotac Zbox? I already have 6GB of SODIMM RAM and 2.5" drives lying around.
Also how much processing power do you guys recon I'd need for this build? looking to play up to PS1 and N64 generation, I know you can on the Raspberry Pi 2 with the Raspberry version of Lakka but I don't think I can use a hard drive on that to hold all my PS1 games.
Any Emulator gurus out there to help me on this?

Digital Solitude

If a pi can do it you want piss all power behind it.

€20 case
€30 for 4gb ram (sodimm is no good)
Pentium €40
H81M board €40
250w PSU €25
As far as I'm aware the PS1 and N64 can be run on anything reasonably fast, but I'm not to be quoted on that.

That's priced at €155, really no more corners to cut.

Any questions ask away, its highly likely someone here has more knowledge than me and will tidy up my spec a bit

Digital Solitude

Quick Google says that spec will run a PS2 emulator no bother, so I'd say you're grand at that. I'll see if I can get a cheaper processor

IrishMetalhead

Was thinking would a Celeron J1900 do? I don't think I'll be using it for PS2 or GameCube games since there pretty big and will take too much hard drive space, There's some J1900 boards that take sodimm so that would help shave a few quid off also was hoping to use a tiny itx case that uses a external PSU since I think internal ones take up too much space

Digital Solitude

Yeah that would be more than enough.

Chieftec do a few cheap cases at mITX size

External PSUs are actually fair expensive, I'd say getting a case with the PSU included is a better idea.

Lu Tze

You can get ITX motherboards that support laptop ram which you already have - just depends whether or not its an overall saving compared to getting a standard board and new desktop ram.

They list on skinflint when you filter for "thin-mini-itx"

http://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=mbp4_1150&xf=4400_7#xf_top

They dont seem to use the standard atx power supply connector either, so make sure you are sorted on that front know what you need if you go that route.

Some of those small pcs like the brix take laptop ram as well

ED E

Why not just grab an old refurb laptop? Will be a neat enough package to lug around.

TerrorFirmer

Also look at AMD's AM1 platform, Kabini processor would be good either.

If you already have laptop ram and 2.5 drive though, a NUC would be good though, and ultra-portable. If if's for bringing places with you, a NUC just makes the most sense as you can practically put it in your pocket.

If you want more raw power to play better emulators, there's actually a Gigabyte Brix which has an A8 Quad and a R9m275 for under €300. That's a lot of power for a tiny handheld machine!

IrishMetalhead

Already have a laptop with emulators on it taking enough bag space, it has emulators on it but I just want something dedicated for it with a menu where I can just control it with a controller and that's why Lakka grabbed my attention.
Was thinking about getting these two if they'd be any good:

http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90553934/asus-j1800i-a.asp
http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90361812/lc-power-lc-1340mi.asp

Cheap, nice small case with external brick should do nicely, if not I may just bite the bullet and just get a Raspberry Pi 2 with a 64GB SD card and just leave a couple of PS1 games off it, after all it's only the multiplayer games I really want on it

Solitaire

ED E wrote: »

Why not just grab an old refurb laptop? Will be a neat enough package to lug around.

The ratio of IGPU:CPU power has improved greatly over the last few years. Its not an issue with 2D emulation, but to run an emulator with a decent 3D renderer requires a relatively huge increase in CPU muscle for software or at least some kind of okayish IGPU for hardware graphics. I'm not 100% certain that older refurb laptops can handle 3D emulation without chugging a bit in terms of graphics quality and/or FPS, especially when the renderer is upscaling the older consoles' tiny native display resolutions to anything up to 1080p

IrishMetalhead

sugarman wrote: »

Just get a cheap caddy for the 2.5" drives you have and use that with the pie.

This actually seems like a good option, have caddies here already but wasn't sure if Lakka support extneral storage on the PI but after reading through the documentation it does, so what I might do is put the most important games on the SD and the lesser ones on the hard drive, The PI is looking like a more attractive option to me now because I can just put it my pocket and my Xbox wireless receiver in the other and bring them to one of my mates house without needing a bag only problem is that N64 emulation on it is abut crappy at the momment but I doubt I'll be playing an N64 games on a XBox controller anyway

ED E

Solitaire wrote: »

The ratio of IGPU:CPU power has improved greatly over the last few years. Its not an issue with 2D emulation, but to run an emulator with a decent 3D renderer requires a relatively huge increase in CPU muscle for software or at least some kind of okayish IGPU for hardware graphics. I'm not 100% certain that older refurb laptops can handle 3D emulation without chugging a bit in terms of graphics quality and/or FPS, especially when the renderer is upscaling the older consoles' tiny native display resolutions to anything up to 1080p

True, but surely if a Pi can do it....

Solitaire

Pi2. Its several times more powerful than the old one :P And it can run emulators, but I'd be surprised if it could run 3D emus that well, unless the emu in question is very well optimised for mobile processors - which is not unrealistic nowadays. I suspect running on a thin Linux shell covering an ARM processor is much closer to home turf for PS1/N64 code than trying to run on x86/64

IrishMetalhead

Well looking at this it does seem a PC would be a better choice for more system supported but the Pi2 doesn't support the systems that I don't have anyway
https://github.com/libretro/Lakka/wiki/Hardware-support

Tempted to get the Pi even more now as the wife informed me I can use a second SD card with Pi Android installed to use when we go to the in laws to watch our stremaing services. Altho keeping a second micro SD card in a safe place till we need it might be tricky as they love to get lost.