Building a PC for Gaming and Emulation: A Comprehensive Review

When it comes to a single core but we're at 1627 and multi-core is looking awesome at 8,298 moving over to some GPU benchmarks here we have 3D Mark night raid with a 4,138 next on the list we have fire strike with a 12,584 and finally time spy with a 5,687 so just judging by the benchmarks here we should get some pretty good 1080p gaming out of this thing.

Let's dive into the actual performance of our build. The first benchmark we'll test is Call of Duty: Warzone at 1080p High settings. I'm impressed with the average frame rate of 89 FPS, which is definitely playable on a machine like this. Not only that, but the upper right part of the monitor shows how many enemies remain, providing an immersive gaming experience.

Next up, we have GTA V at 1080p Very High settings, and I must say that I probably should have just jacked this up to Ultra, as I got an average of 132 FPS out of this one. This is a testament to the build's performance capabilities, showcasing its ability to handle demanding games with ease. Moving on to Doom Eternal at 1080p Ultra settings, we get an average of 92 FPS, which is incredibly impressive.

We also have Forza Horizon 4 at 1080p 105 FPS on average, and finally, Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p Low-Medium settings with a respectable 89 FPS. While I had to drop some settings down to make it work, the game still looks pretty good and is playable in this configuration.

For PC gaming, our build seems to be doing a great job, but now it's time to move on to higher-end emulation. When it comes to emulation on a build like this, I prefer using a nice launcher and my favorite emulator, BigBox or Launchbox. These emulators provide an easy-to-use interface for importing games, downloading box art, and videos, and handling various effects without any issues.

Let's take a look at the handheld section of our build. We'll start with PSP emulation, testing Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition using PPSSPP with the Vulcan backend. I was able to upscale this game all the way up to 10x resolution inside the emulator, which is impressive for a machine like this.

Moving on to PS2 emulation using PCS X2, we can use the Open GL backend instead of Direct X11 and upscale these games to 4K with no issues at all. This is because our build features an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 graphics card. We tested Skate 3 with RPCS3 for PS3 Vulcan backend upscaled to 2K, and it ran smoothly even in large crowds.

The CPU utilization was around 70-71% during this test, showcasing the build's ability to handle demanding games and emulators without any issues. The highest temperature I saw throughout my tests was 73 degrees Celsius, which is a testament to the build's cooling system.

Overall, our build seems to be doing great for PC gaming and emulation. While it might not have been easy to find an RTX 3060 at retail price, we were able to luck out with the GTX 660, which has served us well in this build. If you're interested in putting together a similar build yourself, I'll leave links to my favorite resources in the description below.

When it comes to PC parts, right now it's difficult to find an RTX 3060 for close to retail price. You might need to overpay for these components if you want to get your hands on one right away. However, with a build like this, you can still achieve great performance and smooth gameplay.

In conclusion, our build has performed exceptionally well in gaming and emulation tests. The GTX 660 graphics card has proven itself to be a reliable choice for high-end emulators, while the AMD Ryzen 5600X CPU has demonstrated its ability to handle demanding games with ease. If you're looking to create a similar build, I hope this review has been helpful in guiding your purchasing decisions.

The future of PC building is uncertain due to current market conditions and GPU prices. When it comes to finding GPUs right now, local listings like Craigslist, offer up, or Facebook Marketplace might be the best option. Sometimes, you can luck out and find a decent deal on a popular GPU model.

In the meantime, our build continues to deliver great performance for PC gaming and emulation. With proper cooling and maintenance, this build will continue to serve us well in the months to come.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's going on everybody it's ETA Prime back here again today we're going to be putting together a ryzen 5600x powered PC now one of my main focuses with this unit here is emulation but it doesn't mean that we won't be able to do a lot of great gaming on here and when it comes to these new 5000 series ryzen chips I've been really trying to get my hands on one at retail and I was finally able to achieve that I actually picked up the 5600x at retail from best buy as for the GPU I did have to overpay a bit because we're in a weird place with gpus right now but I was lucky enough to find a 1660 on my local Craigslist for $70 over retail it is used but I was able to see it running before I picked it up so that was a big plus I wanted to make sure that it worked before I overpaid for a GPU but the main attraction to this build is the ryzen 5 5600x like I mentioned I've been really trying to get my hands on one to test it out it's got phenomenal single core and multi-core performance and I believe believe that these will be perfect for higher end emulation like Wii U switch and PS3 and with those extra threads it really helps out with rpcs3 we have six cores 12 threads at up to 4.6 GHz and when it comes to PC gaming the 5600x can definitely hold its own and as for the case I'm going to be using this is The Cooler Master masterbox nr200 been really wanting to do a build in this and I finally got around to doing it it will support up to a three slot GPU so with this 1660 if I did want to upgrade down the road I got plenty of room in here it's relatively small when you compare it to Tower cases we got plenty of air flow and in my opinion it's a really good looking case as for the other parts used in this build I'll go over them as we're building so let's go ahead and jump right into it when it comes to the motherboard I chose to use the Rog stricks b550i this is a mini ITX board we have two m.2 slots on here that support nvme drives speaking of storage for my operating system I'm going to be using the Silicon power 5 12 GB nvme drive and I'm also going to be throwing in a 3.5 in 3 TB Western Digital drive to hold all of my games ROMs and launchbox because that's what I'm going to be running on this build here as my emulation front end so now that I have the SSD installed it's time to get the CPU in here like we saw I'm using that 5600x six cores 12 threads I'm really excited about this chip here when it comes to Ram I opted for 16 GB of ddr4 running at 3 600 MHz this is team group tforce dark Ram I'm a big fan of Team group Ram I use it in all of my PCS I've really never had issues in the past and this can be overclocked to 4,000 MHz and I'm pretty sure that's what I'm going to be doing to keep the 5600x cool I went with the ID cooling SE 225 XT this is a massive dual fan Tower cooler and I think it's going to get the job done we have five heat pipes and even with a little bit of an overclock on this 5600x I think this is going to do just fine I was going to go with water cooling but this was a lot cheaper and in the long run it's going to be more reliable so now that I have my storage Ram CPU and cooler installed on this mini ITX motherboard it's time to throw it inside of this nr200 case so I got my back IO shield in here and in order to get this motherboard in here the first time I did remove the 80 mm fan that comes with the nr200 I'll put it back in later but I wanted to drop everything in here first fits in here nicely I mean this case was designed for a mini ITX board one thing I'm not sure about is the clearance here it looks like it's going to fit but I forgot to check that when I was buying all of the parts I need to put this side panel on and just make sure sweet just snaps right down and it's not making contact with the side panel so the 225 XT does fit in here nicely I'm going to go ahead and get all my mounting screws and the motherboard and then we'll install the power supply the nr200 was designed for an sfx power supply and that's what I'm using but I've seen people 3D print brackets to fit a fulls sizee ATX in here I've also seen some people just kind of zip tie it in there but I went with a cic focus 650 fully modular power supply so I should be able to get this Cable Management looking pretty good in this case so I'm going to go ahead and install this I'll get my cables run and then we'll install the GPU and that's about it so far I think it's turning out pretty decently I was worried about the cable management at first just seeing how open this case is but as you can see here with that modular power supply everything tucks away pretty nicely all right so now it's time to throw that 1660 in here and one thing I really love about this case is it does support full-size gpus up the three slots so when GPU prices come down if I want to upgrade this GPU I don't have to be too picky about what I put in here I'll plug this a pin power into the video card I got a little more cable management to do and I also need to add my 2 tbte Western Digital 3.5 in drive so now I got to get some software installed and then we're going to jump right into some testing I got a lot of stuff to cover here we're going to run some benchmarks we'll test out some PC games and then we'll move over to some emulation all right so we got everything up and running as you can see we got that ryzen 5 5600x 16 GB of ddr4 and I did overclocked this to 4,000 MHz in the Bios and the GTX 1660 only thing that I've really changed here is overclocking that Ram from the BIOS this is going to be sitting at the stock clocks later on down the road I can overclock it if I want to but the way it's sitting right now before we jump into some gaming and emulation I did want to run a few benchmarks so first on the list I just ran PC Mark 10 we came out with a total score of 6,828 looking pretty decent so far next on the list geekbench 5 and I was really impressed with the single core score of this 5600x I figured we'd be in the 14400 range when it comes to a single core but we're at 1627 and multi-core is looking awesome at 8,298 moving over to some GPU benchmarks here we have 3D Mark night raid with a 4,138 next on the list we have fire strike with a 12,584 and finally time spy with a 5,687 so just judging by the benchmarks here we should get some pretty good 1080p gaming out of this thing so let's go ahead and jump over to now first one on the list is Call of Duty war zone 1080p High settings I got an average of 89 FPS out of this one definitely playable on a machine like this and it looks really good well done the upper right part of your H shows how many enemies remain next on the list we have GTA 5 1080p very high settings and I probably should have just jacked this up to ultra because I got an average of 132 FPS out of this one Doom Eternal 1080p ultra settings got an average of 92 FPS out of this really impressed with the performance out of the 1660 next on the list fors of rizen 4 1080p 105 FPS on average and finally for PC gaming we have cyberpunk 2077 1080p I did have to drop a lot of these settings down the low so we got kind of a low medium mix but I got to admit mostly low with this one still looking pretty good and it is playable like this as for PC gaming on this build I think it's doing a pretty good job but now it's time to move over to some higher-end emulation and when it comes to emulation on kind of a build like this I like to have a nice launcher and I prefer using big box or launchbox and big box if you're not familiar with launchbox and big box basically this is an emulation front end you can easily set it up with all of your favorite emulators and then you can import your games and will automatically download box art and videos for you you we have a nice little interface here there's tons of themes to choose from the one I have here is the colorful light theme and I got a ton of stuff on this unit and with a build like this it's going to handle big box with all of the effects on no issues whatsoever I'm going to head over to the handheld section we're going to get started off kind of light here with the emulation testing we'll go with PSP we'll do one of the harder ones to emulate Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition and here it is we're using PPSSPP the Vulcan backend and I was able to upscale this all the way we can only go up to 10x resolution inside of the PPSSPP emulator and we are maxed out here with one of the harder ones to emulate so when it comes to PSP emulation on a machine like this you're not going to have any issues as long as the game's compatible with the emulator moving up a little bit to PS2 using PCS X2 and since I'm using that 1660 graphics card I can use the open GL backend instead of direct X11 and I'm also able to upscale these games to 4K with no issues at all your maximum nanot level has increased tested for this video was rpcs3 for PS3 Vulcan back in upscaled to 2K we have Skate 3 here running at a constant and even in large crowds it's going to run just fine and if we take a look at that CPU utilization we're at around 70 to 71% this definitely takes advantage of those cores and extra threads and this was the highest temperatures that I saw out of the CPU through all of my tests at 73 so yeah definitely a great little build for PC gaming and emulation I was really hoping that I could find an RTX 3060 for close to retail but with GPU prices right now it was basically impossible and if I was able to get my hands on one I know that we could go up to 4K with PS3 and even simu but I did kind of luck out finding that gtx660 for a little bit over retail I really hate overpaying for these parts but uh I mean in the climate we're in with these PC parts if you want to get your hands on something right now that's probably what you're going to have to do but that's going to wrap it up for this one really appreciate you watching definitely happy with the performance out of that 5600x if you're interested in putting something like this together I will leave links in the description but when it comes to a GPU your best bet right now is to check your local listings like Craigslist offer up Facebook Marketplace sometimes you can luck out and find a decenthey what's going on everybody it's ETA Prime back here again today we're going to be putting together a ryzen 5600x powered PC now one of my main focuses with this unit here is emulation but it doesn't mean that we won't be able to do a lot of great gaming on here and when it comes to these new 5000 series ryzen chips I've been really trying to get my hands on one at retail and I was finally able to achieve that I actually picked up the 5600x at retail from best buy as for the GPU I did have to overpay a bit because we're in a weird place with gpus right now but I was lucky enough to find a 1660 on my local Craigslist for $70 over retail it is used but I was able to see it running before I picked it up so that was a big plus I wanted to make sure that it worked before I overpaid for a GPU but the main attraction to this build is the ryzen 5 5600x like I mentioned I've been really trying to get my hands on one to test it out it's got phenomenal single core and multi-core performance and I believe believe that these will be perfect for higher end emulation like Wii U switch and PS3 and with those extra threads it really helps out with rpcs3 we have six cores 12 threads at up to 4.6 GHz and when it comes to PC gaming the 5600x can definitely hold its own and as for the case I'm going to be using this is The Cooler Master masterbox nr200 been really wanting to do a build in this and I finally got around to doing it it will support up to a three slot GPU so with this 1660 if I did want to upgrade down the road I got plenty of room in here it's relatively small when you compare it to Tower cases we got plenty of air flow and in my opinion it's a really good looking case as for the other parts used in this build I'll go over them as we're building so let's go ahead and jump right into it when it comes to the motherboard I chose to use the Rog stricks b550i this is a mini ITX board we have two m.2 slots on here that support nvme drives speaking of storage for my operating system I'm going to be using the Silicon power 5 12 GB nvme drive and I'm also going to be throwing in a 3.5 in 3 TB Western Digital drive to hold all of my games ROMs and launchbox because that's what I'm going to be running on this build here as my emulation front end so now that I have the SSD installed it's time to get the CPU in here like we saw I'm using that 5600x six cores 12 threads I'm really excited about this chip here when it comes to Ram I opted for 16 GB of ddr4 running at 3 600 MHz this is team group tforce dark Ram I'm a big fan of Team group Ram I use it in all of my PCS I've really never had issues in the past and this can be overclocked to 4,000 MHz and I'm pretty sure that's what I'm going to be doing to keep the 5600x cool I went with the ID cooling SE 225 XT this is a massive dual fan Tower cooler and I think it's going to get the job done we have five heat pipes and even with a little bit of an overclock on this 5600x I think this is going to do just fine I was going to go with water cooling but this was a lot cheaper and in the long run it's going to be more reliable so now that I have my storage Ram CPU and cooler installed on this mini ITX motherboard it's time to throw it inside of this nr200 case so I got my back IO shield in here and in order to get this motherboard in here the first time I did remove the 80 mm fan that comes with the nr200 I'll put it back in later but I wanted to drop everything in here first fits in here nicely I mean this case was designed for a mini ITX board one thing I'm not sure about is the clearance here it looks like it's going to fit but I forgot to check that when I was buying all of the parts I need to put this side panel on and just make sure sweet just snaps right down and it's not making contact with the side panel so the 225 XT does fit in here nicely I'm going to go ahead and get all my mounting screws and the motherboard and then we'll install the power supply the nr200 was designed for an sfx power supply and that's what I'm using but I've seen people 3D print brackets to fit a fulls sizee ATX in here I've also seen some people just kind of zip tie it in there but I went with a cic focus 650 fully modular power supply so I should be able to get this Cable Management looking pretty good in this case so I'm going to go ahead and install this I'll get my cables run and then we'll install the GPU and that's about it so far I think it's turning out pretty decently I was worried about the cable management at first just seeing how open this case is but as you can see here with that modular power supply everything tucks away pretty nicely all right so now it's time to throw that 1660 in here and one thing I really love about this case is it does support full-size gpus up the three slots so when GPU prices come down if I want to upgrade this GPU I don't have to be too picky about what I put in here I'll plug this a pin power into the video card I got a little more cable management to do and I also need to add my 2 tbte Western Digital 3.5 in drive so now I got to get some software installed and then we're going to jump right into some testing I got a lot of stuff to cover here we're going to run some benchmarks we'll test out some PC games and then we'll move over to some emulation all right so we got everything up and running as you can see we got that ryzen 5 5600x 16 GB of ddr4 and I did overclocked this to 4,000 MHz in the Bios and the GTX 1660 only thing that I've really changed here is overclocking that Ram from the BIOS this is going to be sitting at the stock clocks later on down the road I can overclock it if I want to but the way it's sitting right now before we jump into some gaming and emulation I did want to run a few benchmarks so first on the list I just ran PC Mark 10 we came out with a total score of 6,828 looking pretty decent so far next on the list geekbench 5 and I was really impressed with the single core score of this 5600x I figured we'd be in the 14400 range when it comes to a single core but we're at 1627 and multi-core is looking awesome at 8,298 moving over to some GPU benchmarks here we have 3D Mark night raid with a 4,138 next on the list we have fire strike with a 12,584 and finally time spy with a 5,687 so just judging by the benchmarks here we should get some pretty good 1080p gaming out of this thing so let's go ahead and jump over to now first one on the list is Call of Duty war zone 1080p High settings I got an average of 89 FPS out of this one definitely playable on a machine like this and it looks really good well done the upper right part of your H shows how many enemies remain next on the list we have GTA 5 1080p very high settings and I probably should have just jacked this up to ultra because I got an average of 132 FPS out of this one Doom Eternal 1080p ultra settings got an average of 92 FPS out of this really impressed with the performance out of the 1660 next on the list fors of rizen 4 1080p 105 FPS on average and finally for PC gaming we have cyberpunk 2077 1080p I did have to drop a lot of these settings down the low so we got kind of a low medium mix but I got to admit mostly low with this one still looking pretty good and it is playable like this as for PC gaming on this build I think it's doing a pretty good job but now it's time to move over to some higher-end emulation and when it comes to emulation on kind of a build like this I like to have a nice launcher and I prefer using big box or launchbox and big box if you're not familiar with launchbox and big box basically this is an emulation front end you can easily set it up with all of your favorite emulators and then you can import your games and will automatically download box art and videos for you you we have a nice little interface here there's tons of themes to choose from the one I have here is the colorful light theme and I got a ton of stuff on this unit and with a build like this it's going to handle big box with all of the effects on no issues whatsoever I'm going to head over to the handheld section we're going to get started off kind of light here with the emulation testing we'll go with PSP we'll do one of the harder ones to emulate Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition and here it is we're using PPSSPP the Vulcan backend and I was able to upscale this all the way we can only go up to 10x resolution inside of the PPSSPP emulator and we are maxed out here with one of the harder ones to emulate so when it comes to PSP emulation on a machine like this you're not going to have any issues as long as the game's compatible with the emulator moving up a little bit to PS2 using PCS X2 and since I'm using that 1660 graphics card I can use the open GL backend instead of direct X11 and I'm also able to upscale these games to 4K with no issues at all your maximum nanot level has increased tested for this video was rpcs3 for PS3 Vulcan back in upscaled to 2K we have Skate 3 here running at a constant and even in large crowds it's going to run just fine and if we take a look at that CPU utilization we're at around 70 to 71% this definitely takes advantage of those cores and extra threads and this was the highest temperatures that I saw out of the CPU through all of my tests at 73 so yeah definitely a great little build for PC gaming and emulation I was really hoping that I could find an RTX 3060 for close to retail but with GPU prices right now it was basically impossible and if I was able to get my hands on one I know that we could go up to 4K with PS3 and even simu but I did kind of luck out finding that gtx660 for a little bit over retail I really hate overpaying for these parts but uh I mean in the climate we're in with these PC parts if you want to get your hands on something right now that's probably what you're going to have to do but that's going to wrap it up for this one really appreciate you watching definitely happy with the performance out of that 5600x if you're interested in putting something like this together I will leave links in the description but when it comes to a GPU your best bet right now is to check your local listings like Craigslist offer up Facebook Marketplace sometimes you can luck out and find a decent\n"