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Possible Bartop
BurgerKingDiamond:
Hey everyone. I've been reading a lot of posts lately and it's really making me itch to build another cab. I'm not quite happy with my upright cab right now. I want to put in a bigger monitor and laminate the sides, but that's another story... Anyway, after I get that taken care of I want to build a bartop (more affordable, takes up less space etc...) I haven't put together any drawings yet but I plan on using the 17" monitor that I have in my full size cab right now. I want to mount it vertically (that will probably make for a slightly bigger than normal bartop) for games like Dodonpachi, gunbird, and other vertical shmups (I'm thinking of doing a Dodonpachi theme with the golden bees and stuff like that...)
The main point of this post is that I'm trying to come up with an idea of how much this will cost me, but I don't know what kind of computer I should buy. I already have a monitor and the computer doesn't have to be very powerful since I really only plan on playing 2-D vertically scrolling shmups and some older classic vertical games. So if anyone could give me some tips on buying a very cheap, small computer that would be well suited for a bartop that would be great. Also, I have never messed with a de-cased computer and will probably need some help with that (getting 5V and 12V from the power supply, hooking up a master on/off switch), but I'm not really at that point yet.
Thanks,
BKD :burgerking:
apfelanni:
in the end any selfbuild cabinet comes up to few hundred bucks cost minimum , no matter if its bartop, fullsize or cocktail . go with a cheap micro atx board with all on board ( if the onboard graphic card is soft 15 compatible it can be transplanted into any arcade cabinet if needed ) . another option is 2 take a used computer , maybe a barbone from dell , hp or ibm . those p4 are small and powerful enough for 9x % of all emu games and wont cost much more than 50 credits. i usually take dell optiplex 270 , 280 gx for emulation . they have additional agp or pci xpress slots, in case they have to be adapted to different arcade envirements.
IG-88:
Can't say I totally agree with the above post. I got a vertical bartop that I built for under $50 but it's really basic. It all depends on what you have lying around to use.
The computer in it is 400mhz with 64mb of ram running spystyles boot cd. It runs all kinds of shumps just fine. I got it from a garage sale for $5.
As far as the power goes, what exatcly are you going to use the 5v and 12v for? All you need is a way to plug in the computer, monitor, speakers and marquee lite (if you use one). I plugged in all mine to a common outlet splitter that I got from the hardware store for around $3. You shouldn't have to use the computer's PSU to power anything other than the computer itself.
I think the most expensive item on the whole thing was the encoder. $20-$25. You could use a keybaord hack too if you want to save some more, just remember they can be time consuming to make.
BurgerKingDiamond:
--- Quote from: IG-88 on March 15, 2010, 07:47:27 pm ---
As far as the power goes, what exatcly are you going to use the 5v and 12v for? All you need is a way to plug in the computer, monitor, speakers and marquee lite (if you use one). I plugged in all mine to a common outlet splitter that I got from the hardware store for around $3. You shouldn't have to use the computer's PSU to power anything other than the computer itself.
--- End quote ---
I thought that you needed 12V for a led marquee light. I was reading some other posts and I thought I saw that you can get 12V from somewhere on the computer.
IG-88:
Now that you may have too. I have never used a 12v led in a marquee before. I've always used florescent lamps that run on 120v. I wouldn't think it would be an issue tho if you used some led's. Just use one of the molex plugs that typically run a cd-rom or hard drive.