What type of CPU/Motherboard/etc hardware are people using these days?

[Jakobud]

I'm building a new Mame cabinet for a friend and I'm looking through Newegg trying to figure out what I need.  He really just wants to play classics on the cabinet.  Maybe some newer games like up to 1995 era like maybe UMK3 or something like that.  But probably not any 3D games like Virtua Fighter and stuff like that.  

How fast of a processor and motherboard do I really need these days?

Does anyone have benchmark tests or experience with Mame running on Intel Atom mini-itx motherboards?

[Rusty Shackelford]

3Ghz for the same reason you stated, the best of both worlds

[SailorSat]

Pentium Dual-Core E6500 (2,93 GHz), 2GB DDR2-800 RAM, some ASRock board based on i965 chipset, a ATI Radeon HD4350 (passive!) and some harddisk (depends on how many capacity you need).

This combo is pretty cheap, quiet (only two fans, one on the cpu, and one inside the power supply) and should be fast enough for pretty much every classic out there.

Those Atom based stuff is fast enough for the classics, however I wouldn't go that way as you never know what comes up next in terms of emulation.

[Epyx]

E5200 2.5ghz running at 3.5ghz to get Starblade running at 100% (my personal benchmark for MAME must have FPS).
WG D9800 27" Multi Sync Arcade Monitor
ArcadeVGA (soon upgrade to a modern STIV capable version or other card using Soft 15khz)

I play quite a few consoles and PC games on the cab so like a fast Processor but for MAME my cutoff for the last 2 years has been 100% for Starblade.

[mphuie]

As cheap as possible.  Just picked up a single core AMD Sempron @ 2.7ghz w/ motherboard for $25 at Fry's last week. 

http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads/2010/03/26/47319/AMD-Energy-Efficient-Sempron-140-Processor-BioStar-MCP6P-M2-Motherboard

[Blanka]

I like Nvidia's new 240GT.
One of the most powerful vidcards without external power and in passive flavour too. Almost 9600GT like speed, but in a tiny form factor with 40nm chip.

[WhereEaglesDare]

wow you guys are nuts

I dont do a lot fo the new mame games, i do a lot of the classics like UMK3 just like the guy is asking about...  2GHz Processor, 512MB-1GB RAM and a Geforce 2MX card work great for me....  you can get an old Dell GX240 for 40 bucks on craigs list and it will play all the classics and some of the newer ones.

[BadMouth]

Athlon X2 2.8GHz, cheapest motherboard I could find, 8600gt video card.

It will play 2D games perfect, including UMK3.
3D games are a mixed bag.  None of the known processor hogs are playable (Gauntlet Legends, San Fran Rush, NFL Blitz, etc).
CarnEvil is about the most intensive 3D game that will play perfect (after disabling all unnecessary services in XP).
Tekken 1 & 2 will play fine.  Tekken 3 has sound skips and slight slowdown.  Dead or Alive is too slow to play.

You may want to try other emulators if you want the ability to play 3D games.  

The Zinc Emulator plays a lot of the 3D fighting games like Tekken & Bloody Roar.
Nebula's Model 2 emulator plays all the Sega Model 2 titles, including Virtua Fighter & House of the Dead.

I also tested MAME on my 2.1Ghz Sempron jukebox since it's hooked up to a 52" tv.
That system has a super cheap 8400GS video card.
All the 2D games play just fine.

[dmarcum99]

I just boutght an AMD Phenom II X2 555BE (3.2 ghz) and mobo from Microcenter for $153 after tax!!   The gigabyte mobo still uses DDR2 memory so you can still recycle parts and don't have to pay out the wazoo for the upgrade.  The 555BE & the 550BE unlocks to quad-core and can overclock like a banshee.  But just on stock it kicks major butt per dollar!     I'm now an AMD fan again!!(bandwagon geek)

It made a night and day difference on my build which had a intel core2 E4400(2.0ghz).  I don't usually play games like NFL Blitz and Gauntlet Legends, but on the E4400, they were so unplayable it was pitiful.  Now these games seem to play smooth almost like butter.  I might start playing these now...I still need to learn how to bench the games...and hopefully I can post the difference.

It's running the 550BE
gigabyte amd785 mobo with ATI4200 on-board graphic chip
4gb ddr2 667
WinXP 64bit edition
Hyperspin 1.1 front end with all the extra transitions

[sunnywala]

This post is on point...

almost everything seems to play fine for me...
BUT I have a very old romset so most of the 3d games are not included.

UMK3 stutters for me...

I just got my cabinet up and running this past weekend so it really hasnt bugged me yet
it will eventually
Its a p4 1.8 ghz and ati 9200se running soft15

how do we benchmark these? and should mine be stuttering?