Ultimate Emulator Box

Hey there everyone!
So I have to do that thing where the brand new user account makes a post showing this as their first, and feel scrutinized for downloading a crap-ton right out the gate... but hey! At least I take the time to MAKE this post? :P

Anyways!
So I've come here to continue my quest to create an end-all-be-all emulator box and am hoping to get some feedback, suggestions, ideas, etc.

First of course comes the hardware for the 'box'.
Given that some emulators I know require some pretty beefy insides (ie Dolphin), the more power the better, obviously... but I'm also not made of money! It's certainly not going to be as ridiculous as my PC Gaming rig. (I went all out for it this year!)

So I was hoping for some feedback on that at first...

I've been thinking of going for the Intel Core i7 4790k Devil's Canyon CPU. From what I know, this seems to be the beast of the previous generation, and the ability to overclock it means that it'll continue to pump out some extra power. Now, I realize that emulation really won't take too much advantage of the Quad-Core (it seems to me that emulators may only at most take advantage of 2 cores), but realize that the hope of this is to also play PC games as well (as I have quite the extensive Steam library). Obviously doesn't need to be at Ultra Murder Your Face settings, but playable while still looking decent.

Motherboard I still haven't decided upon. At first, the project considered a mini-ITX, but I figured that if I'd ever upgrade it or truly want to push it to the limits, I'd need a little more strength behind it. I then started to look into microATX, but I find myself coming back to considering ATX.
A lot of this part has to do with the expandability (particularly concerning hard drives), as I don't want to bottle neck that much just to keep it from becoming just another PC.
This is also tied into finding a good case... I have lots of problems with this area, mostly because I know that this is what everyone sees. This is what a person will see when they come in to view the 'box'. ... Originally I WANTED it to be a box, or a cube case, as it were, but there really aren't that many options for it, and it seems like a lot of the GOOD options, are either for mini-ITX or just have too many negatives going along WITH the positives (like not having any 3.5" bays).

GPU is a bit up in the air still. I'm looking more to get the base build off the ground first, then upgrade later. At the moment I do have two 560 Ti's that I was using in SLI decently enough for a long time, and I figure one (or two, depending on SLI-ability of the motherboard) will be able to do more than enough to handle things for now...

Same with RAM, I do have 16GB of Corsair 1600 MHz RAM.
I have a 120GB SSD for things like OS and programs and such, as well as 3 2TB HDDs to use for now.

---

So I guess I leave it open now? Is there anything anyone might suggest for what I might need to do to continue this project?

Thanks in advance!

Well one suggestion I have is this,

http://www.lakka.tv/

if you click on a OS you are using you will get a list of compatible devices for Lakka and Retroarch.

I love Retroarch on windows and having a Retroarch box is just as awesome. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Warrior

Well one suggestion I have is this,

http://www.lakka.tv/

if you click on a OS you are using you will get a list of compatible devices for Lakka and Retroarch.

I love Retroarch on windows and having a Retroarch box is just as awesome. :)

---

I'll definitely have to look into that!
As much as I'd love for there to be one program that does 'it all', I know that's just not feasible. I need to work more with some custom shell programs to build up a seamless UI to launch things depending on what needs to be emulated.

I'm not a programmer/coder but you can learn things by talking to the devs of these emulators/frontends (Retroarch is a very advanced frontend for libretro in case you didn't know).

I talk to them because I love emulation, I learn various things and help fix bugs too. :wacko:

You may want Kodi if your doing separate emulators Kodi has a couple of nice emulator front ends that work with it. If your not using retroarch this would give you a great interface. If you never played with Kodi type it into youtube with the word rom after it. All that power you might as well be able to store you movies too. Kodi has both Steam plugins, and a launcher for all your game, comicbooks, heck you can even launch emulation station from it you might want to check it out. As for your processor Im jelly. I've only got a AMD. Its a black edition 4.4 8 core. I know the I7 will smoke mine. Just a warning on motherboards. Stay away from gigabyte... I've never had one last more than 3 years. I go through hardware like a fat girl go's through chocolate. oooh Now I want chocolate... You might want the new steam controller thats coming out too it will soon make everything including games not made for a controller playable with a controller.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by miyuneko

You may want Kodi if your doing separate emulators Kodi has a couple of nice emulator front ends that work with it. If your not using retroarch this would give you a great interface. If you never played with Kodi type it into youtube with the word rom after it. All that power you might as well be able to store you movies too. Kodi has both Steam plugins, and a launcher for all your game, comicbooks, heck you can even launch emulation station from it you might want to check it out. As for your processor Im jelly. I've only got a AMD. Its a black edition 4.4 8 core. I know the I7 will smoke mine. Just a warning on motherboards. Stay away from gigabyte... I've never had one last more than 3 years. I go through hardware like a fat girl go's through chocolate. oooh Now I want chocolate... You might want the new steam controller thats coming out too it will soon make everything including games not made for a controller playable with a controller.

---

Thanks for the suggestion! Kodi sounds pretty great as far as handling the software side of things, but I'm still making final decisions about the hardware end. :P I still can't decide on a decent case... T_T

But really, that CPU isn't what you should be jealous of... but then again, I saved for 3 months to buy parts for my gaming rig :P
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme
CPU: i7-5930k [6/12 Cores] (Overclocked right now to 4.4)
RAM: 32GB DDR4 3000 G.Skill Ripjaws 4
GPU: EVGA 780 6GB SC w/ACX x2 in SLI
HDD: 3 TB Hitachi (Storage)
SSD: 1 TB Crucial (OS/Programs)
OPTICAL: Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Drive (DVD+RW Burner)
COOLING: Corsair h100i GTX Water Cooler
CASE: Cooler Master 935 (with extra 915F below)
PSU: Thermaltake 1350W

Attachment 44646
(I moved the top part to be below instead of double-stacked on top)

I've moved your thread to the computer corner since it's more about building a suitable computer than it is general gaming itself! :)

Also to the guy who said Gigabyte motherboards never last more than 3 years, I've had loads over the years that have easily lasted longer than that. I'm using a 2010 Gigabyte motherboard right now. :P

What exactly are those things stacked on top of your PC? o_O

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Inferno.

I've moved your thread to the computer corner since it's more about building a suitable computer than it is general gaming itself! :)

Also to the guy who said Gigabyte motherboards never last more than 3 years, I've had loads over the years that have easily lasted longer than that. I'm using a 2010 Gigabyte motherboard right now. :P

What exactly are those things stacked on top of your PC? o_O

---

Well it's only for right now the computer build part, but I also want input on handling the piles of various emulators this'll need on the software end of things as well.
Then it gets into gaming and emulation for as many things as I can make it do!
Just.. seems like no one's ever going to see it in this sub-thread. :P

And as for what's stacked on top? Those ARE the PC. It's the Cooler Master HAF Stacker, it's a modular tower. (i.e. it can become infinitely bigger. :P)

With a setup like yours you will have zero issues running mednefen psx with any shaders. :lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Warrior

With a setup like yours you will have zero issues running mednefen psx with any shaders. :lol

---

That's my gaming computer, not the Emulator Box which I am building. :P

I'm not looking to rebuy all of that stuff to put into an emulator box.
Do I want it powerful? Sure! Do I need it to beast everything 8-bit at 4K resolution? Hell no! :P

Right, well you definitely want a high end CPU to have it flow with no hiccups (at least when running mednefen psx core)

Oh you could join the Retroarch forums and ask there on a ideal emu box rig, I bet that is the best place to get a proper answer. :)

Yeah that's why I think the 4790k would be more than enough to handle any that could be thrown at it.
For Emu's, yeah, could probably go lower, but hey, I figure if I'm gonna spend the time and money to make a project, better make it right, even if I have to save a little bit longer to do so.

I'll look into their forums, see about posting this up there as well somewhere.

I've been eyeballing this case for myself for my emulator/kodi box http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163174. I'm using a microboard in mine. AMD again. I have a shitty gigabyte motherboard who I threatened at least twice a day. (motherboard is less than a year old and is going out.) I know it looks like a VCR but actually that's the kind of look I want. considering its going on the mantel of my fireplace and the prissy ass girl in me hates wires showing when I have company. It can hold your blueray player several hard drives. The graphics card needs to be a low profile. I've had no problems with my current rig playing ppsspp or Ps2 emulators.

Sadly that case would only hold 2 3.5" HDDs. For general emulation, that's probably plenty, but not enough for 'ultimate'! >:3
I'm literally making it able to play anything. I want someone to be able to come over, say "I want to play XXXXX" and then BAM, it's there ready to go.
This means I need to be able to have a decent amount of HDDs.

Originally I was looking into Cubes with Mini-ITX or MicroATX, but there's always one caveat or another about them...