which os for mame cab

[gazz292]

i'm going to be getting the computer for my mame cab soon, it's not new, about a 3 year old one my parents had, not even sure of the processor speed, but it rn vista fine when they had it.

i am only going to have mame on the computer, running mala as the FE, and i was thinking of using one of the cut down versions of windowz.

i will use a lan connection to load on the roms, and any aditional bits and pieces, so wont have things like wifi, a cd drive etc,
i dont even want it to have any way to get on the internet, so no need for a browser etc.

Any suggestions for the smallest and fastest loading os i can use, i've heard of tinyxp and micro xp, and some others, but have no idea what their merits are,

i'll be using an arcade vga card in the PCIe slot, disabeling the onboard graphics card, and i'll use the onboard sound card, and for input it will be a mini-pac opti,

[dosmame]

if you want some of the more resource hungry games to run, then 64bit is the way to go to get some extra HP out of your system

otherwise regular xp or 7 with all the unnecessary services disabled should do ya (after all that's all these other distros are)

there are plenty of articles out there

http://www.techknowl.com/disable-unwanted-services-and-speed-up.html

[nickynooch]

 

[nipsmg]

This answer really does depend on your processor.  If you're not running a 64 bit processor and it's an older/slower machine, install TinyXP and you should be good.

If you've got a powerful system, you're going to want to run XP 64-bit or Windows 7 64-bit (I prefer Windows 7 64-bit, personally).  Both run with about the same speed.  Stay away from vista at all costs.  Make sure you disable all unnecessary system services.  Also, if you don't have Professional or higher , (i.e., a home version), read up on how to hack it to allow remote desktop connections.  Administering your box over RDP is way easier than setting up something slow like VLC.

[Donkbaca]

I say if you have a 64 bit processor, go Win 7 64 bit, next best are XP and win 7.  I would stay away from XP 64, crappy driver support.  I would also warn against Tiny XP, it can be a pain to set up

[nipsmg]

I agree with going to windows 7 x64 for the same reason.

[gazz292]

it's a 32 bit system,
all i know is it's a pentium 4, between 1.5 and 2 gig speed, it's not a dual core, but has something doubled/dual.... could be hyperthreading or something like that.

i plan to use 2 monitors on my cab, the main CRT 15khz arcade monitor, and a widescreen lcd panel in the marquee area (golden tee cabinet with the double height marquee housing)

but appart from dual monitors (using both outputs on the arcade vga 3000 card) i just need the absolute minimum needed to run mame via mala,

i'm thinking i'll need to compile my own version of tiny xp?

[Donkbaca]

I would just go with xp pro. Unless you are cool spending a lot of time messing with tiny xp

[gazz292]

okiedokie, will do that,

i guess i can just remove/disable all the bits i dont need on the mame cab, prolly easier than having to add stuff on when things dont work.

[gazz292]

right, i have the computer now,

it is a 64 bit system after all, (P4 524(p) running at 3.06 gig with hyperthreading, 533mhz fsb) it's a hp computer, so no way to overclock it seems.
it has 2 gig or ram, and hp rekon that all it'll support.

i am now thinking of going with win 7, 64. but am worried it may slow the system down, it's a 2006 computer, and had xp on it origionaly,

[WhereEaglesDare]

Why???  If you are putting it in a MAME cab XP 32 bit run great.

[Donkbaca]

I have a p4, 3.0 ghz. I am currently running xp. I asked on the forums if upgrading to a 65 bit OS was worth it. For that processor, the short answer is no. If you run a 64 bit OS with MAME 64 , MAME will run faster, but not fast enough to make things that weren't playable under XP 32 bit playable. If you have win 7 64 already use it, it will run faster than XP 32.  But if you were going to get win 7 64 just for this build, it's probably not worth it

[gazz292]

okiedokie,

see i am not a software bloke, wiring, circuits, soldering, making sawdust with many different tools, that's what i'm comfortable with,

the software side i have to take advise of others and follow walk throughs to set things up.

i havent even loaded mame onto this computer yet, so dont know how it runs the games, on my old computer i had a fair few games that were playabe in a way, bit of sound stuttering etc, and i was hoping the games that would be struggeling slightly on mame 32 (not mame ui btw) would run nicely on mame 64.

i just figured as this processor can run 64 bit, i would take advantage of it,

[WhereEaglesDare]

I have gone back and forth with 64 bit on my PC.  I have 64 bit on my laptop and it did run better than the 32 bit, but it made all the MS-DOS Apps I need for work unusable because 64 bit doesnt support the DOS emulator like it should.  Also, you will find you will have a harder time finding drivers for a 64 bit operating system.

[Donkbaca]

Mame UI really doesn't tax your system anymore than command line mame.  Its just a simple GUI, as far as I know it doesn't affect gameplay at all. 

I think what you should do is set up mame 32.  See what runs well, what doesn't.  It could be that everything that you want to play runs ok.  Like I have said in other posts, some things in MAME just aren't playable because the emulation isn't great.  Mostly Blitz, and Gauntlet Dark Legacy, those type of games.  Games like Tekken and others can be played just fine using the Model 2 emulator.

Personally, if it were me, I would see what the system can do now before spending the time and money to upgrade to a new OS.  Then you need think if a 5-10% speed upgrade will really open up any new doors in terms of playability.  Personally, I only care about playable games, I wouldn't be interested in upgrading my OS and such to just to have slight bump in framerate, or slightly less stuttering.  I would rather spend the money on stuff like LED pushbuttons then that

[gazz292]

when you put it like that.... 

btw, none of the os's cost me owt, my dad has the small companies multi user licence thingy from microsoft, he gets all microsoft software and about 10 licences every year, tho i do know he only gets so many licences for win7 - 64 ultimate, and i know my brother has one of them, no one else in the family use 64 bit stuff.

but yeah, i'll set this pooter up in xp 32, see how it runs, i guess i could make a partition on the HD, do a dual boot jobbie, and try it in 64,

the driver thing is whats holding me back, had a hell of a time finding a working driver for the avga card i have that would work with my anolouge lcd monitor i'm using to set the system up, but finally found a working driver and have it all set up now, and that's only on xp 32.

not sure if i use anything that runs on dos, i run mala as my FE, but i dunno if it uses any dos commands for launching the games etc, but all i need drivers for are the gfx card, the mini-pac opti, erm, owt else? i guess lan would be handy to load roms on etc without having to faff about with memory sticks.