Hardware Best Laptop to Buy For PS2 Emu

[potato3334]

Looking to get a laptop that will be able to play most ps2 games with good consistency and in HD, gamecube as well. Not looking for an ultra super gaming laptop, unless that is whats required for emulating ps2 and gamecube games as well. i don't want to spend over $1500 unless thats really necessary, in general im looking around a $1000 price range.

I know building a desktop would be a lot cheaper, but I'm not in a living situation where a desktop would exactly be practical, just throwing that out there.

thanks

 

[DamianNuez]

I have the lenovo Y50-70 and it works great for ps2 emulation, I can even run Shadow of the colossus, which is a very demanding game at 60fps with some speed hacks enabled, you can also try the Lenovo Y70, which has a 17.3 inch screen, all the other specs are the same :

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-15-6-I...TF8&qid=1429401313&sr=1-1&keywords=lenovo+y50


Core i7 4710HQ 2.5 ghz , 3.5 ghz turbo
8GB ram
Nvidia Geforce 860m and intel HD 4600
1TB Hybrid drive with 8GB SSD cache
wifi AC (sometimes N)
some versions include an external DVD drive
If you choose the Lenovo Y50, you might need to calibrate the screen, it's not that great. I have some ICC profiles in case you do get it, so it looks tons better calibrated

The battery is average for a gaming laptop, 3 hours max on power saving mode

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Generally for emulation you're going to want a fairly beefy CPU, and quite frankly Intel CPUs work with emulation infinitely better than AMD does.

This will give you a good idea of what you'll want already, generally an i5 or an i7 along with a good amount of RAM, 8-16GB would be fine. HDD vs SSD won't matter much, since generally SSDs don't offer much of a speed boost as loading from HDDs would, emulator wise anyways, but I would recommend one regardless purely because SSDs are awesome . Graphics won't matter too much, but at this point you might as well get something with a dedicated GPU if you want to go all HD with emus. Unfortunately, all of these options will most likely pose a cooling issue, you'll find very few high-end laptops that don't have bad cooling somewhere along the line so I'd recommend a cooling pad of some sorts along with a laptop. Screen size is also something you'll want to think about as well, something between 15"-17"

My personal recommendations would probably be something like this if you don't care about an SSD and want a 17.3" screen:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152554

or this if you do care about SSDs, want a 15.6" screen and you're ok with dealing with known cooling issues:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834233059

 

[the_randomizer]

Also, I can't emphasize this enough, but get a laptop cooler, if not for the actual cooling but also to help elevate the bottom for airflow. My laptop will get up to 80 Celsius easy without proper cooling.

 

[sarkwalvein]

And clean your laptop air filters often, my laptop CPU went up to 100°C often and underclocked itself when playing PS2 or Wii, but after cleaning the filters it does not even reach 80°C anymore.

 

[the_randomizer]

And clean your laptop air filters often, my laptop CPU went up to 100°C often and underclocked itself when playing PS2 or Wii, but after cleaning the filters it does not even reach 80°C anymore.

Most laptops will have a threshold of 105-110 Celsius (considering 100 C is boiling point, yeah, not good), glad it worked out for ya after cleaning it out though

 

[potato3334]

Thanks for the quick replies guys! So far the Lenovo Y50 looks the most appealing, due to price and form factor, but I'm still quite torn over what to get lol. But my options have been narrowed down pretty well thanks to what I've learned. And yeah, I'm definitely getting a cooler.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Most laptops will have a threshold of 105-110 Celsius (considering 100 C is boiling point, yeah, not good), glad it worked out for ya after cleaning it out though

Yeah, I was really worried. There was so much dust stuck into the filters that the air didn't even flow. I suppose I am lucky and Intel's automatic thermal underclocking of the system saved it, because I noticed it after a couple of month of noticing it "getting suddenly slower".

 

[the_randomizer]

Yeah, I was really worried. There was so much dust stuck into the filters that the air didn't even flow. I suppose I am lucky and Intel's automatic thermal underclocking of the system saved it, because I noticed it after a couple of month of noticing it "getting suddenly slower".

Once more, I'm glad you had it taken care of, that really could have been bad. I haven't had it shut off from that yet but the highest temp I ever got was around 90 C, I had it diagnosed at a computer shop they cleaned that sucker out and redid the thermal paste. Haven't had a prob since

 

[obs123194]

Generally for emulation you're going to want a fairly beefy CPU, and quite frankly Intel CPUs work with emulation infinitely better than AMD does.

This will give you a good idea of what you'll want already, generally an i5 or an i7 along with a good amount of RAM, 8-16GB would be fine. HDD vs SSD won't matter much, since generally SSDs don't offer much of a speed boost as loading from HDDs would, emulator wise anyways, but I would recommend one regardless purely because SSDs are awesome . Graphics won't matter too much, but at this point you might as well get something with a dedicated GPU if you want to go all HD with emus. Unfortunately, all of these options will most likely pose a cooling issue, you'll find very few high-end laptops that don't have bad cooling somewhere along the line so I'd recommend a cooling pad of some sorts along with a laptop. Screen size is also something you'll want to think about as well, something between 15"-17"

My personal recommendations would probably be something like this if you don't care about an SSD and want a 17.3" screen:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152554

or this if you do care about SSDs, want a 15.6" screen and you're ok with dealing with known cooling issues:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834233059

hey I'm about to get an MSI laptop on craigslist for 1,450. do these specs seem alright?

15.6" 3k screen with a resolution of 2880x1620
2.5 ghz i7 haswell
Nvidia 870m with 3gb ddr3
16gb ram
128gb msata2 ssd hd
1tb 7200rpm hd
Windows 8.1

Is the GTX870m able to run GTA 5 at 60 fps 1080p

 

[sarkwalvein]

hey I'm about to get an MSI laptop on craigslist for 1,450. do these specs seem alright?

15.6" 3k screen with a resolution of 2880x1620
2.5 ghz i7 haswell
Nvidia 870m with 3gb ddr3
16gb ram
128gb msata2 ssd hd
1tb 7200rpm hd
Windows 8.1

Is the GTX870m able to run GTA 5 at 60 fps 1080p

I don't have a clue how good may GTA5 run there, but those specs are pretty impressive IMHO.

 

[SLiV3R]

hey I'm about to get an MSI laptop on craigslist for 1,450. do these specs seem alright?

15.6" 3k screen with a resolution of 2880x1620
2.5 ghz i7 haswell
Nvidia 870m with 3gb ddr3
16gb ram
128gb msata2 ssd hd
1tb 7200rpm hd
Windows 8.1

Is the GTX870m able to run GTA 5 at 60 fps 1080p

I think the cpu could be a bottleneck. But that cpu can be overclocked. You'll need at least a 3 Ghz processor. 3.5 Ghz or over and 90 % of ps2/gc will be fullspeed!