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Is this PC overkill
newmanfamilyvlogs:
--- Quote from: vorghagen on June 15, 2011, 03:43:22 am ---I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the case yet. A Coolermaster HAF 922 ?!? Why get a fancy looking case when it's going to be INSIDE your cabinet? Just get a basic steel frame with half decent airflow and you're done. Some people don't ever bother with that, they just attach components directly to the cabinet.
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I mentioned
--- Quote ---http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower - $60
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The 300 comes with two very large fans that can be set at three different speeds, exhausting heat right around the CPU. It also has an internal rack for somewhere around 6 hard drives. That seems pretty reasonable for me at $60.
Personally I chose to put mine in a case versus mounting to the inside because I never seem to stop tinkering with my system so I like being able to pull the whole thing out as a single unit.
Corbo:
--- Quote ---Personally I chose to put mine in a case versus mounting to the inside because I never seem to stop tinkering with my system so I like being able to pull the whole thing out as a single unit.
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You can if it's on a removable board, but each to their own of course.
newmanfamilyvlogs:
--- Quote from: Corbo on June 15, 2011, 08:21:11 am ---
--- Quote ---Personally I chose to put mine in a case versus mounting to the inside because I never seem to stop tinkering with my system so I like being able to pull the whole thing out as a single unit.
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You can if it's on a removable board, but each to their own of course.
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Indeed. I should have further clarified that when I remove mine, it's usually to do something with it at my office, where the protection of a case is better. But yes a chunk of wood with some standoffs that slides in and out would work just as good, and probably be cheaper.
On the subject of cooling effectiveness there might be some caveats though... Passively cooled components are going to expect some airflow over them which might not happen when not within a case. Obviously active cooled components like the PSU and the CPU will be fine, but 'silent' video cards might end up a little warm. It's at least worth checking post installation.
Vigo:
A couple of my thoughts about whether or not to use a case.
* A bare computer on a board will have nothing protecting the video card, sound card, and other PCI devices plugged into your mobo. If you are digging around the back of your arcade cabinet, one clumsy hit and you could easily break both your video card and motherboard in one swoop. Just be careful! ;)
* A bare mobo will probably collect dust quicker, but will be easier to blow off than a motherboard inside a computer case inside a cabinet. A unmaintained computer case can be affected with a serious case of massive dust that screws with ventilation.
* You will have to strap down the computer case well, or you will need to remove the computer when moving your cabinet.
* Taking the side panel off a computer case, then putting it in your cabinet can give you best of both worlds when cooling. It will be opened up, and you will have fans creating airflow. Cheap and improperly placed fans can get annoyingly loud, though.
GameGeezer:
I run a Dell Optiplex 755, which is a perfect slimline system, in my MAME cab. It cost me a whopping $60 and runs everything perfectly. The only thing I had to add was a video card (the previosu owner pulled it and I was stuck with integrated video) so that stuff like overlays and bezels didn't slow down games... Direct3D9 required more guts than the built-in video, and you could pick up a similar system, with a decent card for under $90. Add abother $30-60 for a bigger drive (a SATA-II 500GB mech is huge for this purpose, unless you're emulating post-2000 systems).
The nice thing about the Optiplex is that it takes up 1/3 of the drawer that I built into the cabinet, and the keyboard and all accessorizes fit in that, rather than being in the main cabinet compartment. this makes alterations quick and painless. The entire PC is about 14" x 14" x 4" in size... You may want to look for one or something similar... It's a 2.4GBz Intel Dual-Core system with 2GB RAM. (That's almost overkill in itself.)
You shouldn't have to put more than $100-to-$150 into your PC setup for an emulation system. -GG