Batocera Mini PC Setup Guide

In today's video I'm going to show you how to take one of those inexpensive mini PCs you can find on Amazon and transform it into a retro gaming console. All in all, this setup can give you the most bang for your buck, and provides a lot of flexibility.

This PC was a review unit sent to me by the manufacturer. All opinions are my own, they did not see this review ahead of time, and no money was exchanged in any way.

Timestamps:
00:00 introduction
01:39 mini PC options
02:38 unboxing and impressions
04:19 HDD installation
07:18 Windows setup & Batocera installation
09:55 Batocera setup
14:39 gameplay performance
19:16 summary & conclusion

Intro theme song sampled from "Hexadecimal Genome" by Bit Shifter:

Note that this description may contain affiliate links. By clicking on an affiliate link and buying something, I may earn a small commission of the sale at no extra cost to you.

This video is for entertainment and educational purposes only.

#Batocera #RetroGaming #MiniPC

[skunkmaid]

Just bought this about a year ago, it's been sitting in it's box waiting for me to finally get around to setting it up. The 2tb hd is installed and I just need to follow this guide. Thank you for making such a guide!

[redherring]

I love these mini PCs, I introduced my boss to them a while back and he's stoked as hell "you can put em up for everything!"

[buddyfx]

I won't stop till you see this lol. If your lights are warm, set the camera's WB to 3200 and if you're lights are closer to daylight/outside light; 5600 for you WB. NO MORE AWB, YOU'RE A PROFESSIONAL YOUTUBER NOW!!! Love your content as always :)

[carbon]

Love your videos Russ, wish I had your gaming brain for about 3 hours! Man I would create the baddest gaming PC! Again thanks for all you do man you're very appreciative in the community!!!

[Junier-Hussein]

Amazing! I love the whole setup process I know many don't but I love the whole process of building something from scratch to making it functional it's satisfying. Hope the weekend is going well for you mate.

[gzero]

Thank you for this video. Really informative. And it helped with the audio issue on my batocera PC. Now to just figure out why I have no internet connection hahaha. Good work and please never stop!

[trelainshinholster]

I am STILL on the lookout for that storage case they use for the Super Console X mini pc they had EVERYTHING sold independently except that! Great video as always one of the BEST Youtube channels to feature mini pcs and Batocera, etc

[davidlhsl]

After your review of the Super Console X Mini PC, I seriously considered it. Then I opted instead to try putting Batocera on a 2TB external USB drive and booting into that on my Lenovo Flex 5 laptop. I had trouble getting it to even recognize my 8BitDo controller. I tried to access the main menu to see if I could map the buttons, but I had no idea how to access the menu with my keyboard (discovered later it's the spacebar). Finally I plugged it in via USB and got it recognized and mapped and finally configured it wireless. Some of the game systems didn't look good to me, so I've been tinkering with the RetroArch settings to get them to look better, with some results working better than others. I've found PS1 games in particular to look like garbage. PSP has been the best for me, because they look incredible on the screen and mostly perform much better than my Anbernic handhelds. N64 runs some games that don't even run on the Pi4 (I have one of those as well). I may do a dual comparison of the video setting in RetroArch on my Pi4 to see if I can get SNES, PS1, etc. to look better. I can't remember what I did, but Genesis looked bad until I did *something*. :) Thanks for the inspiration, and I'd love a video on getting the best settings (similar to what you did for the RG351P).

[zenfinity]

This one is cool too. You have a gift for setting things up and explaining the nuances of each device. Outstanding as usual !

[orakaa]

*Thanks for your detailed video.*
I'm a graphic designer (so I use computers a lot), but when it comes to computer handling and manipulations (installing a brand new OS, etc), I get overwhelmed pretty quickly and generally don't feel confident enough. I'll watch your video again and will probably try to buy a brand new PC and install Batocera on it.

[smokers]

I like tinkering stuff so id go this route, I’ve been hooked in retro games because of watching you Etaprime and taki udon. Please Keep making these videos.

[jepoyburner]

One thing to note. You should have sprung for the J4125 variant rather than the J3455 variant. Those have more oomph for the same power draw.

[BrianMills]

The deeper I go into retro emulation the more I realize it's the PS2 specifically that I want to play the most. Just no clue what is the "best" "affordable" "smallest" option to get PCSX2 running smoothly with some upscaling.

[IcoKirov]

Also a note, some PCs have a boot menu key, when you press it it does not go to bios just shows the boot options, and you can choose different boot device for this one boot time. Next time the default one will boot again.

[fonzitheman]

Nice vid 👍
I was originally going to get android box but in the end went the pre owned Lenovo Tiny PC route and never looked back. Didnt want to spend a great deal either so its good value too.
I just wanted a 'console' to run the systems that my PS Classic and the android boxes struggle with, namely N64, Dreamcast, PSP and so the Lenovo does that great..and these can also be upscaled and still run great. The bonus part is I now can also play Saturn as well and even a lot of gamecube, and many PS2 and some xbox and Wii even. Thats just a bonus.
I specifically bought the Lenovo for this, as a retro emulation console.
I did plan to have it all installed on the internal HDD but thought it handy to keep windows on it should I ever need a spare PC. (Which did come in handy once when I needed it)
And so I now boot Batocera off a flash drive and have the roms on an attached portable HDD.
Works very well.
I know youve mentioned this in a previous vid but incase anyone missed it, checkout Batocera Nation yt channel, he has many tutorials on Batocera for PC.

[potatojoe]

I just bought a mini pc a little bit more powerful than this. Can play xbox and ps2 perfectly fine. Just waiting for the delivery.
I'm hoping this video will help me install batocera and everything else I need. Great video thank you.

[deadaiir]

For more demanding systems like Saturn, try using European roms and isos. They'll probably run at full speed then.

[michaelleiper]

You can pick up a Dell / Lenovo / HP mini business PC - slightly larger, but an i5 rather than a J chip for less than that.
Admittedly it would be a used PC rather than a new one - but it would generally be better built (built for business use rather than home use), and faster as well as cheaper.
i.e. I picked up a Dell 3050 micro with an i5-7500t last year for £112 (delivered) on Ebay - with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD (2.5" SATA one oddly - rather than NVMe), but if I add an old NVMe drive (I upgraded the one in my main PC), I can use one for Windows and one for Batocera - and both would be SSDs.

[Curryking]

I would definately consider this option, the big plus side is its portability, plus if you're using it on a big tv in your livingroom, you don't want a big clunky pc taking up all the space, a mini pc you can hide.

[noephinway]

I would love to see you build a bartop arcade machine 💜