Rate my MAME build before i buy it please

[racecar]

hi all im looking at changing my cabinet from a xbox to a mame machine this is what i was thinking of putting in it

AMD Athlon II X2 255 Socket AM3 Dual Core Regor Processor & fan
ASUS M4N68T-M V2 AMD Socket AM3 Motherboard
Kingston KVR1333D3N9/2G 2GB PC3-10600 DDR3 ValueRam Desktop System Mem
Gigabyte GZ-M3-BPD GZ-M Mini Tower Black Case
Antec NEO-ECO-450C NeoPower Series Desktop Power Supply
Western Digital WD5001AALS 500GB Caviar Black HDD
Pioneer DVR-218L SATA DVD-RW Optical Drive
eVGA NVidia e-GeForce 8400 GS 512MB PCIe Video Graphics Card.

i can get all this built into a machine at a local pc shop in australia for $500 bucks

looking to play games like street fighter 3 and all other neo geo an capcom fighting games, metal slug games an mortal kombat games

thanks any ideas of change would be a big help

[mytymaus007]

What front end will you be using. If you are using Hyperspin you'll want more memory if you intend to run alot of other emulator but should be fine if you just want Mame. I was just running Mame untill I started using Hyperspin now im in the process of install as much emulators as possible to show them off in Hyperspin which is unreal.

[racecar]

what is hyper spin? if i should use it i will,

does that mean ill need 4gb of ram then?

i also want emulators like snes nes N64 things like that

[LeedsFan]

Hyperspin is one of the many frontends that are available. Hyperspin is considered to be the best looking of them all, but it comes at a price of needing good hardware. Many of the features can be turned off to make it run on older machines though and it can still look nice. For a beginner it can be a little daunting to set up. But there are some good tutorials available on this site together with videos of Hyperspin running etc.etc.

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/

I'm currently building a system using Hyperspin and so far I'm extremely happy with it. But there are other frontends you could consider like Mala, GameEx etc.etc. which require less high specs to run fully and are considered easier to setup. But Hyperspin is worth the time and effort for the results.

[DirtyDachshunds]

I'm running Hyperspin with perfectly with a 2gb ram machine.

[Garza]

Not sure if you can build your own computer or not, but if you can You may want to try to order a Barebones system maybe at Tigerdirect.com They are always having great sales that are cheaper than 500 bucks for a complete new system with AMD inside.... Just a thought might save you money to put tward your Cabinet 

[jipp]

you can get some good deals at newegg.com too.  def check them two..  you will be able to compare systems.. read feedback.  you maybe suprise what you can get for 500.00 from there.

chris.

[racecar]

after looking on google im liking the look of hyperspin.. looks great!

with the pc specs i have posted, are they good enough for mame and emulators or not?

looking to buy within the week, i have a sf2 lowboy i want to put it in

[bkenobi]

You can run MAME on a PocketPC, so that setup is certainly enough.  BUT, the real question is what games do you want to play.  If you want older stuff, that system is overkill.  If you want to run stuff through ~2000, you should be fine in general.  If you want to play the most demanding stuff (NFL Blitz for example), nothing will be sufficient.

[JODY]

If you can build it yourself you'll save money.  Also, insalling it into a cabinet directly means you could ditch the case.  You would need a remote power button to start it but that is cheaper than a case.

[JODY]

If you want to play the most demanding stuff (NFL Blitz for example), nothing will be sufficient.

I disagree.  It s very playable on an AMD X3 system I built a few months ago and dare I say runs full speed on an AMD X4 system that is about 20 - 25% faster than the X3 one.

[racecar]

games im looking to play

metal slug series
street fighter series
mortal kombat series
king of fighter series

and emulator wise
snes
nes
N64
sega master system
sega genesis
and dreamcast for nfl blitz and marvel vs capcom 2

[JODY]

I think you'll be pleased with the performance of the system for the games and emulators you intend to play.  Depending on how many others you intend on putting on the machine, I would consider a larger hard drive.  I've seen deals on terabyte drives for less than 500GB ones from time to time.  Even if it was an extra $20 the extra space might come in handy....

To get the best performance in MAME use the 64 bit version.  It runs many games 20% or so faster than the 32 bit one.

[racecar]

thanks i might look into a 1TB drive for everything i do want to collect down the track

what mame games would this machine not handle?

theres also a local pc fair this weekend so ill try get all the parts there

[JODY]

thanks i might look into a 1TB drive for everything i do want to collect down the track

what mame games would this machine not handle?

theres also a local pc fair this weekend so ill try get all the parts there

Some of the newer games would not run at full speed.  I can't say how playable or not they actually would be.  Examples would include NFL Blitz, Cruisin' USA, Crusin' World, and others that I don't recall at the moment.  If you plan on one 2GB memory card you won't get the benefits of dual channel memory.  I would do 2 1GB cards or 2 2GB cards.  Also, check into the memory speed supported by the motherboard.  You may be able to get faster RAM for about the same amount of money.  Memory is cheap these days.

[racecar]

thanks for that i dont really play any of those games so thats fine

i think this machine will do just fine for older games an the "newer games" like king of fighters 98 etc

ill also make sure i get two 1gb sticks

the rom set i will be running will be .140 with hyperspin

[bkenobi]

KOF 2003 will play just fine as will all earlier versions.  You are really only going to have a problem with 3d games.  Any 2d game should play perfectly (well, as perfectly as the emulation anyway).

[BadMouth]

You are really only going to have a problem with 3d games.  Any 2d game should play perfectly (well, as perfectly as the emulation anyway).

I'm running similar processors in both my setups, so here's my $.02

I'm running a 2.9Ghz X3 on my main setup and can run anything but the known processor hogs (blitz, gauntlet legends, san fransisco rush)
It replaced a 2.8Ghz X2 and that ran everything just as well.  Tekken 3/Tag may have less sound skips now.
I used the 2.8Ghz X2 in my driving cab for a while before replacing it with a 3.2Ghz X2.
Cruisin' USA and Cruisin' World ran perfectly fine on it.  
I don't use the computers for anything else and have all unnecessary background services turned off.
You should be fine with that processor.

AS far as Blitz goes....
My hard drive died a couple weeks ago, so I experimented with XP64 while waiting for a warranty replacement.
Blitz went from freezing up to bouncing between 85-100%.  Not perfect, but playable.
I played a full four quarters and had no issues aside from the sound stutters and occasional slowdown.
Sure those are issues, but with XP 32, it would just freeze up after you picked your teams and that was it.
It felt kinda nice to play a game of Blitz on a $250 computer after all the discussions of the high specs needed.  
California Speed went from running at 85% to a solid 100%.  I was amazed at how much of a difference it made.

Nice to know, but I restored my old backup image which is only the 32 bit XP.
I'm waiting for the 64bit version of Demul .5.6 to come out before I redo everything.
(Driving and shooting games weren't supported in previous versions)
Not sure how well other emulators work with it, but if your main focus is MAME, definitely start out with a 64bit OS.

[racecar]

thanks everyone 

main focus is to get my mame set up all up and running and certain old emulators like snes an nes etc

anything else i should change in the rig?