Best PSX emulation for low money

[SoslanVanWieren]

Wii, no, Raspberry Pi 3 is far more powerful and better for PSX emulation; the Wii is pretty weak.

wii can do n64 full speed which is a more powerful console then the ps1

 

[mightymuffy]

wii can do n64 full speed which is a more powerful console then the ps1

The Pi3 can do N64 full speed rendered at 1080p on certain titles... although if I had to choose between the two for N64 only I'd pick a Wii myself as there's a few extra games running on it. Between the two for PSX though (what the OP wants), no contest here, Pi3 all the way!
(Although I'd ACTUALLY pick a [used?] PS3 before both of them..)

 

[SoslanVanWieren]

just use your computer just plug it into a tv.

 

[the_randomizer]

wii can do n64 full speed which is a more powerful console then the ps1

But it has many issues with graphical and audio glitches, so...... until the plugins are updated, yeah. You're better off with Beetle PSX or Mednafen PSX.

 

[BORTZ]

The Raspberry Pi 3 is a good choice, but some "heavier" impact games can be a bit laggy, but those are pretty few. Setup is pretty straightforward, though if you don't know anything about computers it might be a bit "out there" for some people. I think adding shaders like scanlines also cause a performance hit as well, though I don't know by how much.

I am going to quote tom here because he generally has everything laid out in a way that is easy to understand. I suggest the Pi 3 even if some of the bigger games are kinda laggy. I have a Pi 3 running some PS1 games and it really works well. I played some THPS2 just the other night with little to no issues.

 

[Sakitoshi]

wii can do n64 full speed which is a more powerful console then the ps1

in the world of electronics 1+1 doesn't always equals 2.
the wii can do n64 full speed on select games because nintendo engineered an emulator and tweaked it so it can run those specific titles.
the raspberry pi 3 is more powerful than a wii in raw numbers but it doesn't have the level of software optimization to achieve good n64 emulation, but still the rpi3 is powerful enough to run select games at full speed with minimal glitches.

now the thing about ps1 emulation is that pcsx-rearmed has a heavily optimized (for arm with neon) dynarec core while the wii can't run pcsx-rearmed because it uses a completely different cpu architecture. something similar goes for the 3ds, it has an arm cpu but lacks neon support.

I am going to quote tom here because he generally has everything laid out in a way that is easy to understand. I suggest the Pi 3 even if some of the bigger games are kinda laggy. I have a Pi 3 running some PS1 games and it really works well. I played some THPS2 just the other night with little to no issues.

what heavy games are we talking about here?
I have played metal gear solid completely lag free and with all the visual effects intact, considering that mgs is very intensive with its frame buffer usage I would say that every game should play perfectly fine save a few exceptions. in fact, the only exception that I have seen is sheep raider that has slowdowns in specific situations (if you are curious, leave the demo play the 2 levels it shows).
all with stock settings for pcsx-rearmed.

EDIT: oh and I guess the main menu of soul blade too, is very intensive and lags for some reason, on my laptop with mednafen I even have to put the high performance profile to run that menu without lagging.