Mame cab pc specs

[Trnzaddict]

Hi, this is my first post. I have a cab and it runs pretty much every game in the Mame 142 romset @ full speeds except the damn chd games. It's an old core 2 duo e6700 2.66 and 2 gigs of ram. The pc is maxed out on upgrades as far as the mobo can handle. I will eventually be adding atomiswave, m3 when sound is fixed, etc. I have an ok video card an ati sapphire 1 gb i will move into the new build.

I want to to build a new budget mame pc , I really don't want to overkill this. I would like to spend 300.00-350. The best bang for performance I found is the Phenom x4 965 be. I've priced out a new build on newegg that comes in around 350.00 based on this cpu.
Will this will this be able to breeze through games like the Cruisin Games, California Speed, Time Crisis, Gauntlet Legends etc.?
I also want to add that while I've tried the new i5 processors (i5 2400, 2500, etc) and they destroy any mame game I throw at it that does not suffer from driver problems,  I cannot justify spending close to 500.00 on something designed to play older games. I realize these are better cpu's but too expensive.

I'd like some opinions on people that are actually running amd quad cores in their cabs if possible.

Thanks

[Trnzaddict]

40 views and no opinions? I take it people are still running older pentium 4 processors in there cabs then?

[Well Fed Games]

Yes. Not sure what kind of computer is needed for higher end games (my current project just does old classics).
This question does come up a lot though, be sure to do a search if you haven't yet, might get some good info there until a knowledgeable member can comment on the specs you listed.

40 views and no opinions? I take it people are still running older pentium 4 processors in there cabs then?

[Grimoz]

I just put a budget system together for a client using an Intel G620 Sandy Bridge CPU with 4gb DDR3 1333mhz and an old Geforce 8500GT and that thing is sooo fast. I did a bit of testing with MAME and it plays the cruisín games flawlessly. $300 for the system was definitely worth it. Just remember that MAME wont take advantage of Quad Core Cpu's like the phenom so you will still likely be running on Dual Cores. Also if its just the CHD's that are causing you problems then i wouldnt even bother, you E6700 machine isnt the worst around and a lot of the CHD's dont run that great anyway. Another cheap option is also the i3 2100.

[ragnar]

I have a similar thread here on this.

I ended up finding a refurb at Best Buy online for $300.  It has a 3.2 or 3.4 GHz i3 Core 2 processor, terabyte hard drive and 4 gig of memory.

Lessons learned:
1) Ignore Craigslist.  Cheap stuff is old and slow and people want to much for anything relatively new.
2) Keep an eye on various web sites and find a refurb.
3) Don't build your own.  The extra cost of the OS makes it cost prohibitive.

What games are you exactly trying to run?  My upgrade was because I could not run MK3,4 and the newer SF games wouldn't work on my old rig.  And my old rig was Xp and hte Hard drive died again.  Anyways, I bought "new to me" and could not be better.

The refurb I got was apparently last years $550 model.  I paid $300 and it is pretty much faster than anything you can find for $300.

And like you said, the i5/i7 path gets expensive fast.  I might go after those in a few years.  Not now though.  There are not any games hat I want that I can not run on an i3.

[ragnar]

How about this:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Slimline+Desktop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Pentium%26%23174%3B+Processor+/+3GB+Memory+/+750GB+Hard+Drive/2712048.p?id=1218346638857&skuId=2712048

[Grimoz]

Hey ragnar that has the same processor as his current system so thats not really an upgrade.

[ABACABB]

I run some MAME CHD games and here's what I can tell you.  Killer instinct 1&2 and SFIII 3rd Strike will run easily on a P4 2.2ghz or more.  Cruisin USA/World needs a dual core running @ 2.8ghz or more.  S.F. Rush/California Speed and the NFL Blitz series really need a dual core running at 4.0ghz to run smoothly.  I am a huge fan of NFL Blitz and my MAME pc is a Corei5 650 @ 3.2ghz with 6gb RAM.  I have to turn audio quality down to lowest setting (something like 11000) and frame skip is set to 5.  With these settings, the graphic run smoothly for me but there is an occasional stutter with the audio.  Not a big deal for me since I am such a fan of the game, I overlook that just to be able to play it.  If there are any other particular games you're wanting to know performance on, post it and i will let you know how they run.  I think I have most of the MAME chd games that run on ver. 141.  Time Crisis runs smoothly on this system also.

I know budgeting is always a concern when going for a MAME pc but my recommendation is to get the fastest DUAL core processor you can find.  Also I read that Intel processors run MAME faster than AMD, not sure if this is true, just something to think about.

Also I currnetly have Atomiswave and the M3 emulator (with no sound) running on this pc and they work great.

[Generic Eric]

I think the motherboard is the key.  Buy the motherboard with the feature set you want.  One that supports the cpu roadmap you are interested in.

• Add the cpu you can afford now   
  
• Add 4gig or more of ram at start.
  
• Use win7x64 for the reported 10% gain.
  
• Upgrade as money is available.
  

This is my basic strategy.  I too have maxed out my current PC (twice; first an emachine xpSP3 , now a compaq win7x64.)  I'll probably go for AMD to save $ even though every thing a person can read says mame performs better on an INTEL platform.  Going with INTEL in this strategy doesn't work because the INTEL cpus seem to hold value or they don't change their road map enough.

Best of luck.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I normally build AMD as well, but for the case of Mame i think it makes more sense because you are less likely to do incremental upgrades on a mame machine. On a regular desktop you might upgrade the CPU two or three times before you build an entirely new machine. For a mame machine, the next time you upgrade there will almost certainly be some new architecture for which switching will yield a substantial improvement.

[Trnzaddict]

Hey guys thanks for all the responses. I though mame supported quad core due to the options in the ini that say autodetect? I thought this would detect how many cores your machine has and split the threads accordingly.

Abacabb: Yea those are pretty much the games i want to run. Also Gauntlet Legends, Soul Calibur, Radiant Silvergun, California Speed, the Rush Games, PSX Arcade Hardware, etc. I also want to add Model 3, we are close to having the version with sound support and I doubt my e6700 will run that fullspeed.

I'm running Win7 x64 as well.
I sorted my romlist with romlister with all working games and well I want all the games on my arcade wheel (I use Hyperspin) with the "good" status as running 100%. I had my buddy over this weekend and he wanted to play California Speed and when we loaded it up he was like" Dude why is it so choppy? Delete this off your cab if it doesn't run right."

Like stated before I could just get the i5 2500k and overclock as mame becomes more hungry in later revisions as newer games are added, but to spend that much on a cab pc I can't justify it. Intels prices are aggravating. No matter how many combination wishlists I've made on newegg I can't seem to get out the door with a machine under the 450-500.00 range.

[ABACABB]

Yes MAME will only use 2 cores.  Other emulators may be able to use more than 2, I don't know for sure.  I saw some people on eBay selling core 2 duo PCs that they overclocked to 4.0ghz.  This system should be able to run any MAME game available.  I know you mentioned Cal Speed says that it is 100% working but when you play it, it's choppy.  It says it is running 100% because it is perfectly emulated from the arcade version.  MAME developers do not care about the speed of the game running on our PCs, so this is why I said it takes a dual core running @ 4.0 for California Speed/S.F. Rush or NFL Blitz.  Soul calibur runs fine on my current system.  I do not have Gauntlet Legends but I do have Gauntlet Dark Legacy and that game runs at about 80% speed for me.  It is just barely playable for me.  If it were any slower i would delete it.

Those PCs I saw on ebay a few months back were running in the $350-$400 range.  This is what I would try to buy for my cab if I were starting out today.  It would be in your budget too.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Keep in mind that while MAME may only fully utilize 2 cores effectively, that leaves any remaining cores (and I'm not talking hyperthreading) available to do system related stuff without effecting MAME. Though I do not have specific benchmarks to prove it as such, I would imagine you would see better mame performance on a 3 or 4 core CPU of the same model and same clock speed as on 2-core.

[Trnzaddict]

Wow, I might scrap the phenom x4, a new lineup of Sandy Bridge processors came out 1 being the I3 2130 clocked at 3.4 and according to passmark scores should be equal or faster than the x 4 for the same price and much less heat and power consumption.

If mame is only using 2 cores than I think it will perform  better with this.

[Grimoz]

Wow, I might scrap the phenom x4, a new lineup of Sandy Bridge processors came out 1 being the I3 2130 clocked at 3.4 and according to passmark scores should be equal or faster than the x 4 for the same price and much less heat and power consumption.

If mame is only using 2 cores than I think it will perform  better with this.

Yep thats what I recommend buddy, the Sandy Bridge processors really do hammer, as I said in my first post I recently used a G620 processor and that thing really smoked my own personal MAME setup so im definitely upgrading soon either to the same processors or an I3 2100, cannot justify forking out the extra cash for an i5 just yet.

[ABACABB]

That's awesome.  When you guys get these up and running, I would love to hear how they are running games like S.F. Rush, California Speed or NFL Blitz.  I would consider upgrading in the future if I knew I could run these games smoothly.  If you don't mind, maybe even send me a PM with the results just so I don't miss it on the boards?  Good luck! 

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72776.440

I ran another benchmark set with a large set of ROMs on the I5 655K @ 4.6ghz using my old command line.

MAMEUI64.EXE -noautoframeskip -frameskip 0 -seconds_to_run 240 -nothrottle -nosleep -video ddraw -skip_gameinfo -effect none -nowaitvsync -noreadconfig -m [Rom Name]


ROM                   Result
1942   5300.81%
Airco22b   165.88%
Alpinerd   106.31%
Blitz   201.74%
Blitz99   210.60%
Cybrcycc   222.12%
Dolphin   34.44%
Gauntleg   330.59%
Gradius4   156.53%
Hyperdriv   240.46%
Propcycl   162.43%
Radikalb   193.13%
Raveracw   153.87%
Ridgerac   184.33%
Scud   115.35%
Sidebs2   219.05%
Starblad   168.09%
Starsldr   137.76%
Stunrun   886.06%
Surfplnt   177.45%

[ABACABB]

I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to the benchmarking part of MAME, so thanks for the numbers but I don't really know how that translates to real world gameplay.  I know there are lots of factors that could vary from machine to machine on how a particular game on that machine runs - BUT processor speed seems to be thie biggest factor.  What kind of results are you getting when you are actually playing NFL Blitz?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to the benchmarking part of MAME, so thanks for the numbers but I don't really know how that translates to real world gameplay.  I know there are lots of factors that could vary from machine to machine on how a particular game on that machine runs - BUT processor speed seems to be thie biggest factor.  What kind of results are you getting when you are actually playing NFL Blitz?

Those are someone else's numbers, but that means the maximum average speed the game ran at (in this case, over a period of 240 seconds). Blitz ran at 201% of the original game's speed, meaning that it should run solid at 100% of the original game speed.

[Trnzaddict]

Just an update. I picked up an i5 2400 rig on ebay yesterday for $350.00 and will be moving my setup from my c2d e6700 pc to this new one for my cab. I cheaped out for a while, then Deathsmiles came out with u9 along with the other newer Cave Games. What was the last straw was when I was playing Much Muchi pork and on the first stage I was getting alot of chop. That was it

The i5 2400 rig at my local computer store ran every single rom at full speed with no drops including Gauntlet Legends, Rush, Blitz, Ridge Racer, Time Crisis, Hyperdrive, etc on the integrated graphics. And I'll be moving my ati sapphire 1gb card from my e6700 in there as well which will save on cpu cycles as well.

While I really wanted to go a phenom x4 from newegg, my builds were coming out to be the same price as this i5 2400 rig and according to passmark, this is even faster than some of their 6 core offerings so I'm happy.