Hello all! I want to build a PC that would be dedicated to running only emulators on Linux. The computer will be a "sudo" console and hooked up to my tv at all times. Would this build work? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/X6PNWZ Also, any good tips when building a computer to just run emulators?
This build is going to be fine for just emulation. I strongly recommend you to get a 7200 RPM drive instead of a 5900 RPM drive.
7200 should be used regardless. When you run an emulator, isn't the ROM loaded into memory? There should be little HDD activity then.
If budget allows, I'd recommend a SSD for speed and a HDD for storing ROMs/ISOs. SSDs are also silent if that's one of your concerns. The A6 you picked out should be plenty for emulation of the systems you listed, even if you go the hardcore route with higan. You may want to invest in more/faster RAM though, as the Kaveri architecture is pretty RAM dependent. 8GB/1866 should be plenty. Also, I'd recommend a decent power supply - I don't know much about Logisys, but a $15 PSU would frighten me. You won't need much for that system, so you could get a low-wattage high quality PSU. This is the cheapest Seasonic I found: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151072 If you're really budget-constrained, I'd seriously recommend forgetting about everything else I just mentioned and getting a higher quality PSU. The rest can be upgraded later, but if your PSU craps out it may take the rest of your system with it.
That's fine for a dedicated emulator machine. It doesn't need to be a powerful beast of a machine to run N64 + PS1 games. I think SSD would be overkill and a waste of money on an emulator machine but if you got the money to spend for it of course then go for it. As Taemos wrote, I would also highly recommend getting a better PSU. It's one of the things that too many people go cheap on because they feel they won't be getting better performance (faster computer) by getting a higher end one, but I've replaced far too many crappy no-name power supplies to know that there's a difference. Spend a little extra on PSU and possibly save yourself from having to replace the PSU later or have it eat your hard drive when it dies.
