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AmericanAl · (This post was last modified: 2012-12-18, 04:17 by AmericanAl.)

(Crosspost from The Dolphin Forums)

Hey all, a couple of months ago I had an idea about building an HTPC for my living room that could also run high end game emulators like Dolphin and PCSX2 - and I did, thanks to some awesome help from all the HTPC / Emulator communities I frequent.

I wanted to post to show it off, and also so I can outline exactly how I put the build together, for future reference, and to any newcomers to PC building, HTPC, or Dolphin setup. (Also I just wanted to show it off and show off Dolphin, but that's beside the point :p)

I'll try to post a new aspect of the setup periodically, then put it all together into a .PDF file at the end. For starters, here's the first video I've made of it. A second video, with commentary, will probably be out soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRjVK05qS1c

And here's how it looks in our TV stand: (yes it's an old TV, but it works :p)

Feel free to ask any questions while I add in the build log.

*EDIT* Since Dolphin's Forums gave me more freedom in editing my posts, I've finished the guide there. Here's the link to it, and the guide is there. PDF coming soon, now that I've got everything written up.

*EDIT 2*

Demo Links!

MOVIES

GAMES

Xexiz · 2012-10-29, 19:20

That's hell of a build! Smile

Very inspired by it. I'm currently building my HTPC too and was planning on adding ROM emulation in there but maybe not as far as you since I only have a A6-5400K, So modern games might not run as flawless as your 300$ graphic card Smile

Definitively bookmarked your post and will come back when it will be time for me to setup the ROM emulation part of XBMC Smile

Great job, and awesome post!!! Thanks for taking time to share with us!! This community is really nice.

**Beer40oz** · 2012-10-29, 19:24

Woah! Very nice indeed. Thank you for your efforts on showing us your build. The emulators are pretty nice. Wink

AmericanAl · 2012-11-03, 20:11

(2012-10-29, 19:20)Xexiz Wrote: That's hell of a build! Very inspired by it. I'm currently building my HTPC too and was planning on adding ROM emulation in there but maybe not as far as you since I only have a A6-5400K, So modern games might not run as flawless as your 300$ graphic card Definitively bookmarked your post and will come back when it will be time for me to setup the ROM emulation part of XBMC

Great job, and awesome post!!! Thanks for taking time to share with us!! This community is really nice.

Thanks! The A6 should be able to handle up to the N64 Emulation, and maybe some Playstation Emulation as well. However, at default system resolution, the only real bottleneck to current emulators is processor speed. So if you can break 3.5GHz or so, you can emulate quite a bit.

(2012-10-29, 19:24)Beer40oz Wrote: Woah! Very nice indeed. Thank you for your efforts on showing us your build. The emulators are pretty nice.

Thanks! It's the exact opposite of smaller builds like your A6-Pack, but I needed to make it larger to accommodate the needs of the emulators and higher end gaming :p

I'm hoping to finish the configuration section in a day or two, and then I'll update / break up the first post into more than one post to make it readable.

lagledavid · 2012-11-04, 01:04

Very nice. I have subscribed to this thread and have been looking into emulatirs for my living room HTPC (see sig)
im hoping that my system will be powerful enough to play these, I belive it should.

**A-Swiss** · 2012-11-05, 22:58

Hi There - great story so far - due i'm actually preparing my next HTPC. (i have a ASRock CoreHT100 now which is planned to be replaced this month)
I already discovered certain things you mentioned in your system, which is missing on my initial order - but more or less - it will be something like you built.
I don't know, if i should make my own thread, or leave some infos and pics here, when i'm done.

You gave me also some more ideas (i'm not a gamer - but is good to see, that there are so much more possibilities)

Planned HW:
Case: Silverstone GD06
MB: Asus R.O.G. Maximus V, Z77
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP blue, 4x4GB, DDR3-1600, [email protected]
Boot Drive: OCZ Agility 4 256GB, SATA-3, 2.5 Zoll
Optical: LG BH10LS BD-ROM/DVD-Burn
PSU: Seasonic X-460 Gold Modular Fanless
GraCard: not planned so far - will try first Intel HD4000 - but possible later for a dedicated
all based on Win7 Home Premium x64.

will also be continued - if there is an interest.
good work so far - Thanks a lot.

AmericanAl · 2012-12-16, 07:53

Just posting to say that I've finished the guide - better pictures and videos coming soon Big Grin

QLink · 2012-12-17, 10:22

Great Guide ! Nod

I like it very much. Nice to see everything is working fine.

I really want to know how much power this beast consumes.

Have you measured the power drain in different states ? Huh

How many watts does it use in standby/idle/xbmc music playback/xbmc movie playback (1080p)/gaming dolphin/gaming PC ?

best greetz

bluesky2006 · 2012-12-17, 13:23

If you don't mind me asking, roughly how much did you spend on this build? I'm curious to know how much an HTPC that plays Dolphin/PCSX2 might cost me to build...

Digital Vortex · (This post was last modified: 2012-12-18, 00:57 by Digital Vortex.)

Wow! Very similar idea to my htpc. But I would love to know how you can just tap the A button on Wiimote to get to sync !! help!

What I've done is I keep my ROMs on the network server.. so I only have a SSD inside and it's quiet.

AmericanAl · (This post was last modified: 2012-12-18, 04:06 by AmericanAl.)

(2012-12-17, 13:23)bluesky2006 Wrote: If you don't mind me asking, roughly how much did you spend on this build? I'm curious to know how much an HTPC that plays Dolphin/PCSX2 might cost me to build...

Oooh, I spent quite a bit in total. Looking at my build log, it was around 1000$, because I waited until everything was on sale before I bought it. However, it plays everything well. Even Steam games at max settings. So I'm quite happy with it, despite it costing double that of what Lifehacker made for their HTPC guide. However, the Processor / Graphics Power needed for Dolphin / PCSX2 is what made the build cost a bit more.

(2012-12-18, 00:54)Digital Vortex Wrote: Wow! Very similar idea to my htpc. But I would love to know how you can just tap the A button on Wiimote to get to sync !! help!

What I've done is I keep my ROMs on the network server.. so I only have a SSD inside and it's quiet.

Ah yeah, that is the best part of my Wii emulator. However, this only works if you use the Wii remote only for the PC. If you sync them with a Wii / Wii U, it won't work. Here's where I figured that out. (Ignore the BT Host Name requirement thing, because mine didn't meet it and it works just fine. If you use the BT dongle I listed in my build log, it should work fine.

My next goal is to make a home server to store the games and such, so I can play / watch stuff anywhere.

Digital Vortex · 2012-12-18, 07:25

Many thanks! The wiimote syncing is the weakest link in my setup..

For your home server I'd suggest this XBMC post

HP Microserver's are awesome - 4 to 6 disks capacity, small space requirement - full gigabit speeds (not NAS limited!) - mine runs around 40-50 watts with 3 disks active, so low power requirement. It's not silent, but lives in another room away from the HTPC - so the lounge room is quiet.

bluesky2006 · 2012-12-18, 11:42

(2012-12-18, 04:05)AmericanAl Wrote:
(2012-12-17, 13:23)bluesky2006 Wrote: If you don't mind me asking, roughly how much did you spend on this build? I'm curious to know how much an HTPC that plays Dolphin/PCSX2 might cost me to build...

Oooh, I spent quite a bit in total. Looking at my build log, it was around 1000$, because I waited until everything was on sale before I bought it. However, it plays everything well. Even Steam games at max settings. So I'm quite happy with it, despite it costing double that of what Lifehacker made for their HTPC guide. However, the Processor / Graphics Power needed for Dolphin / PCSX2 is what made the build cost a bit more.

Damnit, I was really hoping it wouldn't be that costly but I guess it makes sense! Will have to wait a few years then til prices drop. Nice work by the way!

QLink · 2012-12-19, 10:11

(2012-12-17, 10:22)QLink Wrote: Great Guide !

I like it very much. Nice to see everything is working fine.

I really want to know how much power this beast consumes.

Have you measured the power drain in different states ?

How many watts does it use in standby/idle/xbmc music playback/xbmc movie playback (1080p)/gaming dolphin/gaming PC ?

best greetz

did you see my post ? Huh

i would be glad if you could answer my questions ...

AmericanAl · 2012-12-23, 08:31

(2012-12-19, 10:11)QLink Wrote:
(2012-12-17, 10:22)QLink Wrote: Great Guide !

I like it very much. Nice to see everything is working fine.

I really want to know how much power this beast consumes.

Have you measured the power drain in different states ?

How many watts does it use in standby/idle/xbmc music playback/xbmc movie playback (1080p)/gaming dolphin/gaming PC ?

best greetz

did you see my post ?

i would be glad if you could answer my questions ...

Oh sorry! I didn't see your post. I've never measured power draw before, any ideas of how I should going about doing it?

I'll tell you this though - the HTPC replaced a cable box, a VHS, a DVD player, a Wii, and a PS3. All in all, the power draw of the HTPC is less than those combined I'd estimate. It's also quieter than they all were, unless everything's running at max or I'm ripping a blu-ray while watching a movie.

(2012-12-18, 07:25)Digital Vortex Wrote: Many thanks! The wiimote syncing is the weakest link in my setup..

For your home server I'd suggest this XBMC post

HP Microserver's are awesome - 4 to 6 disks capacity, small space requirement - full gigabit speeds (not NAS limited!) - mine runs around 40-50 watts with 3 disks active, so low power requirement. It's not silent, but lives in another room away from the HTPC - so the lounge room is quiet.

I really want an HP microserver. I was doing the math and it would cost me about 300-400 to build a home server for myself, so getting an already established setup would be nice. 4-6 disks would be what I could get with the smaller mobos anyways, so yeah. I'd be hooking it up directly to our router, for the fastest transfer speed, meaning when it's really running everyone would be on the other side of the house anyways. I'm already racing against the clock - I never realized how much space my parents would take up recording shows. They never wanted to spring for a DVR before I built this :p

I'm also debating on whether or not to just pick up cheap wii remotes from gamestop or something so I have one set for our new Wii U and one for always being synced to the HTPC.

(2012-12-18, 11:42)bluesky2006 Wrote: Damnit, I was really hoping it wouldn't be that costly but I guess it makes sense! Will have to wait a few years then til prices drop. Nice work by the way!

Yeah, it was sort of a snowball effect. I could've made a system that would do all of the above sans PS2/Wii/GC emulation for around 400-500$, and a lot smaller too.

But, I wanted to be able to play PC games in hi-def from the couch, so I already knew I'd need to spend 200$ on a processor and 200-300$ on a graphics card. So, I just made sure to pick one up that tailored emulation as well, and then got a cooler + heatsink that would make it all quiet. Those were the biggest costs in the build. If you don't mind lower-end graphics, and emulation at 1x native system resolution, you could easily skimp on the graphics card and cut the cost down a couple hundred.