I found a PC for $100 and I'm wondering if it could serve as a decent budget emulation rig. I'm mainly interested in playing retro games like NES and SEGA, but I also want to emulate PS2 games. Here are the specs: it has an Intel Core i7-6700 (4 cores, 8 threads), 8GB of DDR4 RAM, a 256GB SSD for quick performance, and it comes with Windows 10 Pro installed and activated. Additionally, it features an AMD 2GB graphics card. Do you think this setup will work for what I need?
5 Answers
Definitely, the GPU could be a bit of a bottleneck, but it should still get the job done. If you can, drop around $50 for an RX580 or GTX 1060; those would handle Xbox and Wii games easily without much hassle.
For $100, that's a decent deal! Emulation isn't super intensive, so you could always upgrade the GPU and RAM if needed. The SSD will also help with loading times.
You should be good to go! Just a tip: if it's just for emulation, consider trying Batocera instead of Windows. I set up a mini PC with an i7 7700t, and switching to Batocera made a huge difference—especially for PS2 games, which looked fantastic at higher resolutions.
Sounds like a solid build for emulation! I've been planning to build my own emulation machine too, it's great to get more people into gaming!
PCSX2 mainly relies on CPU power, and your i7 should handle PS2 games fine. However, the AMD 2GB graphics card is a bit questionable. If it doesn't perform well, you could look for a used GTX 1060 for around $50; it might be a worthwhile upgrade.
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