Which System to go for? (N64 prefered)

Lexx

Hello Retropie Community!

I hope I am in the right section for that question.
So I want to build a Retro-Gaming Setup. The games I am looking for are on the N64, but also SNES, NES and some on Sega.

The first thing I learned about a couple of days ago is the Raspberry Pi3 with Retropie, which sounds pretty good.
But after digging a bit into this topic, I came up reading that the Pi3 is just not strong enough for most(some) of the N64 games.

So my Question:
Are there other, faster, Systems than the Pi3 where I can easily run Retropie on, but get more speed for N64 games? I'd go up to 150-200€ if necessary. I'd appreciate some kind of list or anything like that. Pretty much all I want is a System which I can fire up and jump right into a game without caring if it has enough power to play game XYZ.

There are some Systems that I came across, like the Odroid XU4, but unfortunately I can't find a shop in Germany who sells them. The CSL Narrow Box was another thing, but that seems to be a little expensive, if you need a little more storage.

I hope you guys can help me :)

<3
lexx

lilbud

Might want to try building a Ubuntu machine and put Retropie on that.

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/RetroPie-Ubuntu-16.04-LTS-x86-Flavor

Lexx

I guess that would work, thank you.
But I don't really know what kind of hardware I'd have to buy.

Would an Odroid XU4 be strong enough for, let's say, Conker's bad fur day? If so, do you guys know a reliable shop where to get it in the EU?

lilbud

@Lexx Try the system they listed there: Intel NUC Kit NUC5CPYH

Not sure how much it would be over in Germany though. You have to supply a copy of ubuntu, and I believe a Hard Drive.

obsidianspider

The Udoo X86 looks like it could be promising, but it's not available yet, and is considerably more expensive than a Raspberry Pi 3. If you wanted to build something right now, you're basically looking to build a Linux computer, in whatever form factor works best for you. If I were looking to make something as a more powerful RetroPie-running alternative I'd go the NUC route.

Lexx

@lilbud I'm absolutly sorry! I really did not see the System that was listed there.

So the NUC is basicly a barebone System with Ubuntu installed, right?
Is there something specifically about the NUC, like the CPU, why you guys recommend this one or is it just because lots of people use it?

If you're telling me any barebone would work when I install Ubuntu on it to use Retropie, that would give me some more options :)

obsidianspider

@Lexx A NUC is a small desktop computer. I only recommended it because it's relatively small in size and usually uses less electricity than a full desktop.

Lexx

Thank you guys.

I think I'll buy the Gigabyte Brix 3150. Just need to find out if it would also work without a SSD, so I can boot from a USB Stick.
Does someone know if that would be possible?

PetroRie

The slow N64 emulation problem is caused by software and not hardware. Once they optimize the code for the emulator we'll have a good emulator. Some systems are a pain in the *ss to emulate.

Some N64 games run perfectly on the RPi3, I believe it's just a matter of time.

blanka

Olde Core2Duo MacMini 2009 remains the best. It still runs all modern stuff, does decent N64 including upscaling to 1920x1200 and it is easy to configure and boots nice (with space invader replacing the apple off course).