Specific mobo suggestion for cabinet?

[pmc]

I have been fairly happy playing Ms. PacMan at 300MHz with MAME 0.36 and Mamewah.... but I recently played "In the Hunt" and MKII at 1.7GHz with an ATI Radion 8500 and I decided that the MAME cabinet needs a new PC! I have an Athlon 1400+ and a 256MB stick of DDR PC2100 I can use in the machine (by upgrading my regular box to a 2500+ Barton with 512MB PC2700). I'd like to be able to take advantage of the horsepower and play more advanced games on the cabinet too. I've been focused on Asteroids and Galaga and that kind of thing for a while now so I haven't thought out all the possibilities. And I could run Emulaxian too!

I have two routes of interest right now:

1) Use a Shuttle micro-ATX barebones base. I can easily pull the machine for other temporary purposes as needed (like a stereo component MP3 player). I love the look and size of those little boxes. I think the Shuttle XPC SN41G2 which newegg has for $265 is perfect. Onboard video and audio looks great and it already has S-Video out which I'll want down the road. It'll likely wind up being better than my regular PC and won't need any AGP or PCI cards at all (I think).

Comments on the video (for MAME) on that box? It's the Geforce4 MX and uses 128 MB VGA share memory so I'll need to buy video memory. OK for MAME (especially down the road)? How's the S-vid look? Audio is adequate?

2) Cheapy option. ATX mobo and cheapy case and/or power supply. This is where I'd love a mobo suggestion. What I'd ideally like is a Socket A board with adequate video and audio to run MAME for now. I'd add an AGP card (with or without S-Video) down the road as needed. I have other audio cards that I can put in if I need to. I'll put the 1400+ and 256mb PC100 on this board. Suggestions on a good board that has all this? I'm trying to be as cheap as possble, but would hate to undergun it enough to suffer performance issues.

Bascially, I'll price the two options against each other and buy based on that.

I'll re-read other threads on this topic, but would appreciate any specific mobo suggestions or experience with Shuttle or other micro-ATX boxes.

Thanks

- Patrick

[pmc]

I think the Shuttle XPC SN41G2 which newegg has for $265 is perfect. Onboard video and audio looks great and it already has S-Video out which I'll want down the road. It'll likely wind up being better than my regular PC and won't need any AGP or PCI cards at all (I think).

Found this review....

http://www.amdzone.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1259&page=13

[gtjoe]

I am using an nFORCE 2 based motherboard.

MSI K7N2G-L  ($100) has the onboard nvidia mx440 video with composite and s-video output, sound, and ethernet.  There is also a higher version K7N2G-ILSR (that has dolby digital support, serial ATA and firewire)

Works great for MAME output to TV and I also use it as an mp3 and dIVX movie server.

What's nice about this setup is that I only had to buy the motherboard, cpu, memory, power supply and hard drive.  Complete solution with no need to plugin in any agp/or pci cards.  I added a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse as well.

[pmc]

What's nice about this setup is that I only had to buy the motherboard, cpu, memory, power supply and hard drive.  Complete solution with no need to plugin in any agp/or pci cards.  I added a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse as well.

That's what interested me in the Shuttle (plus it's in the tiny box). Sounds like the MSI is just like the Shuttle mobo only I can build a box around it for less than the micro-box. I'll check it out!

[Wienerdog]

I really need to stop spending money...

Check these out for barebone mini-systemshttp://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=Go&description=chyang%2Cfun

[Vol]

Newegg has the Asus A7N266-VM nForce 1 mobo w/ onboard sound and GeForce 2 MX graphics for $65.

[Chris]

Newegg has the Asus A7N266-VM nForce 1 mobo w/ onboard sound and GeForce 2 MX graphics for $65.

This is what's in my cabinet now, and it works great.  The only issue I have with it is when a new ROM starts up, the first sounds played causes the game to stutter for a moment or two.  For games that play a sound on credit entry or in the attract mode, though, it's not anything that interferes with play.

--Chris

[Tiger-Heli]

>Comments on the video (for MAME) on that box?
> It's the Geforce4 MX and uses 128 MB VGA share memory so I'll >need to buy video memory. OK for MAME (especially down the road)? >How's the S-vid look? Audio is adequate?

I used a 4M Rendition Verite (old chipset) PCI in MAME with no real problems.  I think video won't be your problem.  Not sure how the S-video out would be.

I'm using the onboard sound with a Realtek ALC650 codec.  No complaints in MAME, but I'm not real fussy, though.

>2) Cheapy option. ATX mobo and cheapy case and/or power supply. >This is where I'd love a mobo suggestion.

I bought a refurbed Shuttle AK38N KT333 mobo from www.newegg.com for like $23 with shipping.  It's worked flawlessly and I would highly recommend it.  Doesn't have onboard video, but I would consider that a plus.  I'm not using the above 4M PCI vid card, if you want it.