Gettin a motherboard + parts.

[Vulgar Soul]

Hey y'all.

I'm about 80% done with my first arcade cabinet build.

Need help putting together a motherboard on a decent budget.

Not going overboard since this bad boy will only be reshelled and mounted in my cab. I need just enough power to run MAME, MAME roms, and Hyperspin.

I figured getting a nice, budget priced motherboard and buying just the parts I need will save me money.

Any suggestions?

Again, on a limited budget and need only enough to run MAME + MAME roms + Hyperspin.

[Mac Green]

Well its not Hyperspin but it does support SD expansion       http://cocktailgame.en.made-in-china.com/product/VquJxmQluNhY/China-Jamma-Board-108-Games-in-1-Support-SD-Extended-.html

[drventure]

I'm guessing you mean an actual PC Mobo/CPU/Memory combo.

Heck almost anything Core2 will do the job. You can also go AMD athlon.

For graphics, you'll want a decent card. Most of the newish radeon cards do fine.

But there's plenty of people that run mame acceptably on a old P4, say 1.5-2ghz range. It wont emulate some games but it'll do most.

And those you can typically find used on CL for <100$ for an entire system. Heck, I've seen older workstation DELL pcs being blown out for 30-50$ each.

[honkey]

I have a 2.7 ghz Dual Core AMD athlon 64 processor and I can play everything I want, but some games like Blitz, Soul Calibur, and Gauntlet Legends are run through NullDC. You could get a faster/better processor for 60$ on Newegg.com.

[Vulgar Soul]

I'm guessing you mean an actual PC Mobo/CPU/Memory combo.

Whatever can give me the best practical setup for a MAME/HS cab on a budget.

The processor honestly is my biggest concern. They seem to be the steepest part for a mobo. You think I can get away with the cheapest CPU for my use?
 

[drventure]

You think I can get away with the cheapest CPU for my use?

Well, that's not quite what I was getting at.

MacGreen posted a link to a 60 in 1 board, which I don't think was what you had in mind. A 60 in 1 is basically a "hardwired" board that has, say, 60 game roms burned into it, plus a minimal front end of some sort. It's not a general purpose PC, so you can't really typically put your own apps on it (Maybe that is actually possible, but from what I understand, it's not typical).

When you mentioned wanting to run Hyperspin, that told me you were really more interested in a typical PC mobo/cpu type system, with a Harddrive stocked with an OS (Windows, if your wanting Hyperspin), emulators and roms.

As I understand it, Hyperspin can require pretty hefty CPU and graphics power to do all the slick graphics stuff it does. Mame generally doesn't need much CPU to emulate the older 80's/90's games.

If you want to run anything other than mame (same visual pinball or FuturePinball), then absolutely, you'll need a faster CPU and a decent GPU. Basically, anything that does 3d rendering. But mame doesn't do that, so it's not critical if Mame is the only thing you'll run.

I picked up an AMD Athlon Phenom II CPU/mobo combo several years back for something like 80$. It runs virtually all the mame stuff, Future Pin, Visual Pin, plus games like FoFix (Guitar hero clone) and StepMania (DDR clone) fantastic.

[Vulgar Soul]

You think I can get away with the cheapest CPU for my use?

Well, that's not quite what I was getting at.

MacGreen posted a link to a 60 in 1 board, which I don't think was what you had in mind. A 60 in 1 is basically a "hardwired" board that has, say, 60 game roms burned into it, plus a minimal front end of some sort. It's not a general purpose PC, so you can't really typically put your own apps on it (Maybe that is actually possible, but from what I understand, it's not typical).

When you mentioned wanting to run Hyperspin, that told me you were really more interested in a typical PC mobo/cpu type system, with a Harddrive stocked with an OS (Windows, if your wanting Hyperspin), emulators and roms.

As I understand it, Hyperspin can require pretty hefty CPU and graphics power to do all the slick graphics stuff it does. Mame generally doesn't need much CPU to emulate the older 80's/90's games.

If you want to run anything other than mame (same visual pinball or FuturePinball), then absolutely, you'll need a faster CPU and a decent GPU. Basically, anything that does 3d rendering. But mame doesn't do that, so it's not critical if Mame is the only thing you'll run.

I picked up an AMD Athlon Phenom II CPU/mobo combo several years back for something like 80$. It runs virtually all the mame stuff, Future Pin, Visual Pin, plus games like FoFix (Guitar hero clone) and StepMania (DDR clone) fantastic.

Thank you for this advice. I really only had MAME/HS and MAME roms in mind. No other emulators or software for this cab. I also want to take advantage of HLSL which needs a decent graphics card from at least the past 3 or so years. Figure I can pick up an NVidia 8 series card cheap. This is why I wanted to get only the necessary parts to save money for somethin I'm usin for MAME roms and other minimal MAME related processes.

[Green Giant]

I would imagine something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186212 would cover your needs.  Maybe even this guy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138295

With 2-4GB ram each drive should be right at or under $100 total.  I can't imagine how these would have trouble with mame since they can handle much more intensive stuff.

[Vulgar Soul]

I would imagine something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186212 would cover your needs.  Maybe even this guy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138295

With 2-4GB ram each drive should be right at or under $100 total.  I can't imagine how these would have trouble with mame since they can handle much more intensive stuff.

Those look good, I like those CPU + VGA + MOBO options. Do you think the CPUs included on these boards are good enough for Hyperspin and HLSL?

[GregD]

If you have a microcenter near you they off pretty good mother board/cpu combos.  The Phenom II should be fine for your needs. 
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

[Green Giant]

I would imagine something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186212 would cover your needs.  Maybe even this guy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138295

With 2-4GB ram each drive should be right at or under $100 total.  I can't imagine how these would have trouble with mame since they can handle much more intensive stuff.

Those look good, I like those CPU + VGA + MOBO options. Do you think the CPUs included on these boards are good enough for Hyperspin and HLSL?

I have one of those boards running windows 7 and sparkbooth, a flash based photobooth app that has to interface some flash graphics and a hi-def web cam for photos.

I can't say for sure about hyperspin or HLSL, but I can't imagine they stress a machine worse than the program I have running.