I bought the same model, but barebones with no CPU, RAM or SSD for $20 shipped and slapped in an i5 6500, 2 x 8GB, 256GB M.2 SSD and a 1TB SATA SSD which I had in my stash of spares. Running Batocera on it off an external drive and Windows off the internal M.2 Excellent little system.
Does batocera makes performance better? Isn't it just a pretty front for the emulators? I'm having issues with some games on PS2 on 1080p, 720 works fine but That's just not enough
You know what's crazy? I genuinely was looking for a little PC to catch me up on rendering old videos that could help while not crossing over whenever I was live, that I could eventually use to do 24 hour streams. And I landed on the Ryzen 2400G and 2400GE. I bought both just in case, and for the most part it is a life saver for just having some tiny workhorse that I can leave on with no regrets. It's definitely not as fast as my other computers, but leaving one of them on while I sleep is something I'm exponentially more okay with than the latter. After looking it up, TH-cam flooded my recommended with videos showing what everyone is doing with these small computers, even comparing it to other things like raspberry pi, and it's very informative to see what these little machines can do with a good idea and some spare time. Thank you!
Mate, yes there are many videos on the same subject out there - us as consumers select which ones to watch. Don't sweat it. YES, as a provider you need a "USP", but for 90% of your work? Its been done, so we're here for YOUR version, thats all. Dont get all caught up in being unique... This is about opinion, not being special.
Hey man, new subscriber here! Don't worry if someone has already done this type of video already, and no need to say they have done a better job. Some of these content creators have been at it for years, and you are just getting started. Just about any video on Retro gaming or Arcade builds I will watch. You are adding to the Retro collective, and that is just fine with me. I have bought several of these HP and Lenovo mini PCs for arcade builds, and they are way more powerful than the Raspberry Pi 4, and cheaper too. I have not had one fail on me yet. Great content. Do you use Batocera as a front end? Just curious is all.
I truly appreciate the kind words! I do use Batocera actually. I have a flash drive loaded up that I use on the go. It turns every computer I use into a gaming machine!
Great video. Subscribed😊 Not to shabby the i5 Processors for retro gaming. But i really loved the ryzen 2400g before i switched to the ryzen 5800h which again was a big difference. If your thinking about bying an older cheap Mini PC for retro game emulation and ask yourself about the needed processor power, here‘s a benchmark comparison: Intel i5-6500 = 5.6 Intel i5-6500T = 4.8 Intel i5-6600T = 5.7 Intel i5-7500 = 6.0 Intel i5-7500T = 5.3 Intel i5-8500 = 9.6 Intel N100 = 5.6 AMD Ryzen 2400GE = 7.5 AMD Ryzen 2400G = 8.7 AMD Ryzen 5800H = 21.2 😳 I recommend the original i5-6500 because it‘s faster than the i5-7500T and also usually comes with the better intel 630 graphics. Also recommend the i5-8500 and the 2400G, 5800H. Considering at least a 6500T with 8GB RAM and the slow intel530 graphics it’s ok for everything up to PS2 i would say (not all PS2 games but Dreamcast and mostly Gamecube and Wii). For the Ryzen 2400G it‘s much better of course and allows up to play Wii/U, Switch and it often comes with the better Vega11 graphics. With the Ryzen 5800H or most of the 5-series it‘s nearly flawless, up to many PS3 games. 16GB at least recommended. Prices in Germany for used devices varied from €50 up to 300€. I recommend the HP series 400/800/705 G2/G3/G4 or the Trigkey S3/S5. Beelink SER5/6 also very good but still a bit overpriced imo. I settled with a used Trigkey S5 and a 4TB Seagate PS4 Gamedrive. Actually pretty cheap everywhere. Still not sure what setup is best. Thought about Batocera, Retrobat or ES-DE (Emulationstation Desktop Edition with Retroarch). Settled for the last and it runs great imo. But i have no comparison and google didn‘t help. Seems to be a matter of taste…
the youtube channel servethehome is basically dedicated to this formfactor pc and did all sorts of product reviews on different incarnations of this and other competitors in its class. his channel is basically that and i.t. networking devices, so i can see how retro gamers may have not known about this type of product before.
ok with the future you telling me to check out other people, you got me. i will subscribe, even tho this is my first time seing u :) i love this authenticity
If I can point you all in the direction of better content, I have no issue with that at all! Hopefully, one day, I will be the better content. I do appreciate the sub and comment!
Totally worth it. I have a HP Elitedesk 705 g2 mini that I turned into an emulationstation. It plays PS2 games without a hitch. haven't tried Saturn, Dreamcast, GC or Wii yet. I need to rip some of those games in my collection to see how good they play. Keep up the great work.
Dreamcast emulation is actually not very demanding. I have played I'd say about 80% of Dreamcast catalogue on a firestick with a little tweaking of the settings. Only the windows ce Dreamcast games struggle
The thing people need to remember with emulation is what the original hardware was. Back in the 6th gen game console era (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, Dreamcast). The original hardware was running around 300Mhz-ish range with around 50MB of ram. The power jumped exponentially with the 7th gen stuff. PS3 as an example, was a monster for it's time! 3.2Ghz 6 core processor, 512MB or ram, and a G70 dedicated GPU. Even at those specs. You can still get decent mini-PC's that could run PS3 games in the $300 range.
That EliteDesk also has an M.2 SSD NVMe slot, and an M.2 WiFi slot, both hiding under the SATA caddy. I love these machines… A 256Gb/512GB Samsung NVMe 970 EVO for the boot drive, and a 2TB Silicon Power SATA for internal storage. Pumped up to 32GB RAM, and this set-up flies for any thing I want…. Linux Boxen, ProxMox, NAS.. But NO I don’t ‘game’ on these (I stopped gaming back when Duke Nukem II and Doom III and their ilk came out, with their total focus on PVP…)
I just bought the Generation 4 model and plan to add another stick oh M.2 NVMe memory. Are there some settings I need to change in Windows before I add the memory, or will it be recognized automatically without me doing anything? I'm updated to Windows 11. Thanks!
@@Raymond_Petit …late reply.. I don’t know about Windows , as I washed them clean after Win7… I run MacOS on Mac Minis and iMacs, and Linux on everything else. I also got a Gen 4, and installed NVMe on the M.2 slots… a 500GB Samsung 970 EVO to boot, and a 4TB Crucial for storage/cache… Then two 16TB NAS in RAID 0 for redundancy, and a BluRay player round out the three SATA plugs. Intel i7-7700 CPU. And 64GB RAM (yes, 64GB. Prime Day Deals can be SO sweet… but I’m sure ‘Black Friday’ will be fine.) This beast is taking care of backing up ALL my optical media (music, DVD, BluRay, 4K) to my 160TB NAS Monster.. Oh, I forgot the second optical drive hooked to the UCB-C. Still using my Gen3 for other stuff. It will get some ‘upgrades’ soon…
What's Up Ben! New Sub, Dryden, MI Well, Done Sir! I Personally Recommend using AMD systems & Batocera is Amazing. Linux-based systems tend to get better overall performance, & Linux with AMD is always a Clean Setup
Congrats on 100 subs. Just found your channel and I enjoyed the video. I have the same pc and was wondering if it could run psp. Have you tried ps2 yet? Or GameCube?
I got the i7 8700 non t version, and tbh, it ran very similar to that. I will add, it's worth reapplying the cpu paste, as mine dried out and nearly fried it, shortly after i bought it
@@retro-bengaming…YES, something that MUST be checked on any computer. I always disassemble, clean, then reassemble every machine I buy. Helps get rid of any oxidation on connectors (RAM, SATA, M.2, power, etc.) and of course new high-quality thermal paste.
Thank you for the support! I wanted to link, but almost every listing for these are different. The seller I used only had the one unit, so the link would have been useless.
I tried Wii games and the performance was the same as the Game Cube. I have not tried a WiiU game yet, but i am currently doing a follow up to the video and i will include some WiiU gameplay!
Could play the wiiu version of mario kart 8 on my laptop and happy with that. Little slow playing breath of the wild. But i heard its possible if performance was pushed to the max on the chipset. But im not going to. Ryzen 5.
So far watching what you've shown everything looks impressive and i might have to buy myself one. However... 🤔 there's still one question... can it play the arcade teknoparrot emulator good?
Hello, Do you know if a elitedesk 800 g4 with i5-8500 will perform good too? I saw mostly ryzen based review, I don't want to invest in the wrong cpu. I would like to play mostly up to dreamcast and GameCube. Thank you
Thank you from France for answering, one more subscriber! I saw tests based on ryzen cpu. I was getting confused by the elitedesk models number. I was guessing that 800 g4 was better than 705 g3 but wasnt fully sure about it. I'm thinking about putting batocera on a bigger internal ssd and play directly on my TV. Thanks for your reply
Baring ps2 games and above. Raspberry pi4 4GB can run everything under the sun competently. I love the form factor and the fact that it sips power is a huge bonus for me. Heck It even plays windows games as well through wine....😄
Any good emulators for N64 that I can install on PC and not suffer BSOD or the system shutting down on me, I just happen to have the whole collection of N64 game roms downloaded from... somewhere.
@@retro-bengaming Thanks, I got that one setup, the only emulator I knew is Project64, I'm gonna bet its a fork, probably more stable than what Project64 did to my old Pentium 4 3.2GHZ of the time.
I bought the same model, but barebones with no CPU, RAM or SSD for $20 shipped and slapped in an i5 6500, 2 x 8GB, 256GB M.2 SSD and a 1TB SATA SSD which I had in my stash of spares. Running Batocera on it off an external drive and Windows off the internal M.2 Excellent little system.
The G3 is amazing. You did not waste your money. I turned mine into an emulation station using batocera. For that price it's unbeatable.
Does batocera makes performance better? Isn't it just a pretty front for the emulators? I'm having issues with some games on PS2 on 1080p, 720 works fine but That's just not enough
You know what's crazy? I genuinely was looking for a little PC to catch me up on rendering old videos that could help while not crossing over whenever I was live, that I could eventually use to do 24 hour streams. And I landed on the Ryzen 2400G and 2400GE. I bought both just in case, and for the most part it is a life saver for just having some tiny workhorse that I can leave on with no regrets.
It's definitely not as fast as my other computers, but leaving one of them on while I sleep is something I'm exponentially more okay with than the latter. After looking it up, TH-cam flooded my recommended with videos showing what everyone is doing with these small computers, even comparing it to other things like raspberry pi, and it's very informative to see what these little machines can do with a good idea and some spare time.
Thank you!
Mate, yes there are many videos on the same subject out there - us as consumers select which ones to watch. Don't sweat it. YES, as a provider you need a "USP", but for 90% of your work? Its been done, so we're here for YOUR version, thats all. Dont get all caught up in being unique... This is about opinion, not being special.
Hey man, new subscriber here! Don't worry if someone has already done this type of video already, and no need to say they have done a better job. Some of these content creators have been at it for years, and you are just getting started. Just about any video on Retro gaming or Arcade builds I will watch. You are adding to the Retro collective, and that is just fine with me. I have bought several of these HP and Lenovo mini PCs for arcade builds, and they are way more powerful than the Raspberry Pi 4, and cheaper too. I have not had one fail on me yet. Great content. Do you use Batocera as a front end? Just curious is all.
I truly appreciate the kind words! I do use Batocera actually. I have a flash drive loaded up that I use on the go. It turns every computer I use into a gaming machine!
Great video. Subscribed😊
Not to shabby the i5 Processors for retro gaming. But i really loved the ryzen 2400g before i switched to the ryzen 5800h which again was a big difference.
If your thinking about bying an older cheap Mini PC for retro game emulation and ask yourself about the needed processor power, here‘s a benchmark comparison:
Intel i5-6500 = 5.6
Intel i5-6500T = 4.8
Intel i5-6600T = 5.7
Intel i5-7500 = 6.0
Intel i5-7500T = 5.3
Intel i5-8500 = 9.6
Intel N100 = 5.6
AMD Ryzen 2400GE = 7.5
AMD Ryzen 2400G = 8.7
AMD Ryzen 5800H = 21.2 😳
I recommend the original i5-6500 because it‘s faster than the i5-7500T and also usually comes with the better intel 630 graphics. Also recommend the i5-8500 and the 2400G, 5800H.
Considering at least a 6500T with 8GB RAM and the slow intel530 graphics it’s ok for everything up to PS2 i would say (not all PS2 games but Dreamcast and mostly Gamecube and Wii).
For the Ryzen 2400G it‘s much better of course and allows up to play Wii/U, Switch and it often comes with the better Vega11 graphics.
With the Ryzen 5800H or most of the 5-series it‘s nearly flawless, up to many PS3 games. 16GB at least recommended.
Prices in Germany for used devices varied from €50 up to 300€. I recommend the HP series 400/800/705 G2/G3/G4 or the Trigkey S3/S5. Beelink SER5/6 also very good but still a bit overpriced imo.
I settled with a used Trigkey S5 and a 4TB Seagate PS4 Gamedrive. Actually pretty cheap everywhere.
Still not sure what setup is best. Thought about Batocera, Retrobat or ES-DE (Emulationstation Desktop Edition with Retroarch). Settled for the last and it runs great imo. But i have no comparison and google didn‘t help. Seems to be a matter of taste…
the youtube channel servethehome is basically dedicated to this formfactor pc and did all sorts of product reviews on different incarnations of this and other competitors in its class. his channel is basically that and i.t. networking devices, so i can see how retro gamers may have not known about this type of product before.
Really cool. I would've liked to see footage of the the game running from real life perspective, along with the specs of the monitor you were using
ok with the future you telling me to check out other people, you got me. i will subscribe, even tho this is my first time seing u :) i love this authenticity
If I can point you all in the direction of better content, I have no issue with that at all! Hopefully, one day, I will be the better content. I do appreciate the sub and comment!
nice video... if i could make a recommendation... a little background music for the gameplay segments would be cool
Totally worth it. I have a HP Elitedesk 705 g2 mini that I turned into an emulationstation. It plays PS2 games without a hitch. haven't tried Saturn, Dreamcast, GC or Wii yet. I need to rip some of those games in my collection to see how good they play. Keep up the great work.
Thank you!
Dreamcast emulation is actually not very demanding. I have played I'd say about 80% of Dreamcast catalogue on a firestick with a little tweaking of the settings.
Only the windows ce Dreamcast games struggle
@@markthoel9437 thanks for the info. Will be trying them out later on
Very nice review. Great, informative work.
lovely content keep it coming verry helpful.
Review the kimhank mini mp100
Great video and great content very helpful and enjoyable
Thanks for the material!
The thing people need to remember with emulation is what the original hardware was.
Back in the 6th gen game console era (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, Dreamcast). The original hardware was running around 300Mhz-ish range with around 50MB of ram.
The power jumped exponentially with the 7th gen stuff. PS3 as an example, was a monster for it's time! 3.2Ghz 6 core processor, 512MB or ram, and a G70 dedicated GPU.
Even at those specs. You can still get decent mini-PC's that could run PS3 games in the $300 range.
That EliteDesk also has an M.2 SSD NVMe slot, and an M.2 WiFi slot, both hiding under the SATA caddy.
I love these machines… A 256Gb/512GB Samsung NVMe 970 EVO for the boot drive, and a 2TB Silicon Power SATA for internal storage.
Pumped up to 32GB RAM, and this set-up flies for any thing I want…. Linux Boxen, ProxMox, NAS..
But NO I don’t ‘game’ on these (I stopped gaming back when Duke Nukem II and Doom III and their ilk came out, with their total focus on PVP…)
I just bought the Generation 4 model and plan to add another stick oh M.2 NVMe memory. Are there some settings I need to change in Windows before I add the memory, or will it be recognized automatically without me doing anything? I'm updated to Windows 11. Thanks!
SATA SSD are enough to emulate games.
@@Raymond_Petit …late reply.. I don’t know about Windows , as I washed them clean after Win7… I run MacOS on Mac Minis and iMacs, and Linux on everything else.
I also got a Gen 4, and installed NVMe on the M.2 slots… a 500GB Samsung 970 EVO to boot, and a 4TB Crucial for storage/cache…
Then two 16TB NAS in RAID 0 for redundancy, and a BluRay player round out the three SATA plugs.
Intel i7-7700 CPU.
And 64GB RAM (yes, 64GB. Prime Day Deals can be SO sweet… but I’m sure ‘Black Friday’ will be fine.)
This beast is taking care of backing up ALL my optical media (music, DVD, BluRay, 4K) to my 160TB NAS Monster..
Oh, I forgot the second optical drive hooked to the UCB-C.
Still using my Gen3 for other stuff. It will get some ‘upgrades’ soon…
What's Up Ben! New Sub, Dryden, MI
Well, Done Sir!
I Personally Recommend using AMD systems & Batocera is Amazing.
Linux-based systems tend to get better overall performance, & Linux with AMD is always a Clean Setup
Thank you for the sub and the advice, I appreciate both!
I ordered a G4 ryzen 2400g fingers crossed 😀
Congrats on 100 subs. Just found your channel and I enjoyed the video. I have the same pc and was wondering if it could run psp. Have you tried ps2 yet? Or GameCube?
So PSP runs great on the system with the PPSSPP emulator. I played GOW: chains of Olympus... and ace combat in the video, and they played perfectly.
It does work for ps2 gamecube, it starts hiccups with some xbox games then wiiu xbox360 ps3 and switch you need a better pc
As an enthusiast I can confirm we enjoy seeing numbers.
Good Stuff Keep Going!
I got the i7 8700 non t version, and tbh, it ran very similar to that. I will add, it's worth reapplying the cpu paste, as mine dried out and nearly fried it, shortly after i bought it
That is an excellent suggestion, and I will be doing that!
@@retro-bengaming…YES, something that MUST be checked on any computer. I always disassemble, clean, then reassemble every machine I buy. Helps get rid of any oxidation on connectors (RAM, SATA, M.2, power, etc.) and of course new high-quality thermal paste.
Small critique put a link to the specific item in the description! Love the video tho!!
Thank you for the support! I wanted to link, but almost every listing for these are different. The seller I used only had the one unit, so the link would have been useless.
@@retro-bengamingcan you put links to other ones you recommend?
I stumbled across your video and enjoyed it. I would have liked to have been your 100th sub but ill take the 99th sub. lol Keep it up!
Thank you very much for the support!
You jumped from GameCube to Switch. Did you try any Wii or WiiU games? If so, how'd that go?
I tried Wii games and the performance was the same as the Game Cube. I have not tried a WiiU game yet, but i am currently doing a follow up to the video and i will include some WiiU gameplay!
Could play the wiiu version of mario kart 8 on my laptop and happy with that. Little slow playing breath of the wild. But i heard its possible if performance was pushed to the max on the chipset. But im not going to. Ryzen 5.
So far, the only system I have seen great performance with switch was the steam deck. You are right about the WiiU version, though!
So far watching what you've shown everything looks impressive and i might have to buy myself one. However... 🤔 there's still one question... can it play the arcade teknoparrot emulator good?
What’s your thoughts on the Ryzen g4 model?
Nice, but buying this will always have the games? Like from amazon? Or we need to add the roms?
You will need to add your own roms.
Why not put the name of the console in the title?
Have you tried wii games on this system?
Seriously, you didn't look under the sata drive!?😮
Nope.
Add a RAM module in the empty slot and you will play Switch games without any problem.
Hello, Do you know if a elitedesk 800 g4 with i5-8500 will perform good too?
I saw mostly ryzen based review, I don't want to invest in the wrong cpu. I would like to play mostly up to dreamcast and GameCube. Thank you
Absolutely, with the right programs and settings, those systems should play flawlessly.
Thank you from France for answering, one more subscriber! I saw tests based on ryzen cpu. I was getting confused by the elitedesk models number. I was guessing that 800 g4 was better than 705 g3 but wasnt fully sure about it.
I'm thinking about putting batocera on a bigger internal ssd and play directly on my TV. Thanks for your reply
@@papatartou26 you should be golden with batocera! And thank you for the follow!
for me better i7 6700t i think you can upgrade the cpu
Baring ps2 games and above. Raspberry pi4 4GB can run everything under the sun competently. I love the form factor and the fact that it sips power is a huge bonus for me. Heck It even plays windows games as well through wine....😄
Did you have to add the games to the mini PC yourself?
Yes sir.
From where???
Subbed
Any good emulators for N64 that I can install on PC and not suffer BSOD or the system shutting down on me, I just happen to have the whole collection of N64 game roms downloaded from... somewhere.
I've always had success with Mupen64+.
@@retro-bengaming Thanks, I got that one setup, the only emulator I knew is Project64, I'm gonna bet its a fork, probably more stable than what Project64 did to my old Pentium 4 3.2GHZ of the time.
100+ subs, fam
Got something big planned! ...well 100 subs big, don't get too excited.
miyoo mini plus
Added to the list!
welp when you do get it, put onion on it, there are youtube videos, its pretty easy, linux ftw@@retro-bengaming