Minimum specs for a MAMEUI box.

[W1Z]

Greetings.  I am a total noob to MAME and would like to build my first machine.  My former profession as a custom mobile electronics installer has given me all the requisite experience in carpentry and 12v wiring that I think will be necessary to build my first machine.  I, however, would greatly appreciate any assistance that can be provided in terms of what I will need from the standpoint of a system to run MAME effectively.

I have concluded that I will probably run MAMEUI due to to the GUI. 

I am old school as far as what ROMs I hope to eventually be able to run.  Things like Crystal Castles, TRON, any of the PacMans, and others from this era is about all I am concerned with, so I would assume I do not need the most powerful PC out there to run the emulator.

Any suggestions on the minimus reqs for the PC would be greatly appreciated.

PS:  I have a 20" CRT TV that I plan to utilize, so I would need to know what type of graphics card I would need to allow this to be functional.

PPS: My eventual hope, once I have a better understanding of how things work, is to build a StarWars cockpit using an old 27" Sony Trinitron.

Please feel free to point out any of my ignorance, I will not be offended.

[GregD]

You won't need much of a pc to run the classics.   If you are buying a cabinet you will probably want a front end for mame.   The front ends can cause you to require a more powerful pc.   Not all do though.   What kind of inputs are on the tv.   If it has serious video get a graphics card with s video out.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

Welcome!

You're totally right, you won't need a monster rig to run the classics. I'll let others go crazy with the *absolute minimum* specs, but you could probably go to a flea market or a pawn shop right now and get something for $30-$40 that can run them. I had much more than just classics running on a (now ancient) AMD Athlon XP 2800+. (That was back around MAME version .117 I think, YMMV with newer versions of MAME.)

The good news there is that since you're using a CRT TV, you're not going to be running HLSL (CRT monitor simulating effects for LCD screens) which drops the hardware requirements pretty significantly, even with the newer versions of MAME, I'd say...

For running through a TV, yeah it's dependent on the inputs the TV has, but you could probably very easily get an old ATI All-in-Wonder or similar graphics card that would take care of your most common non-HD video-output options (composite, s-video, maybe even component, depending on the model...?) Again, since you're not running HLSL, your choice of graphics card matters much less than pure CPU oomph to MAME. 

I will say, however, that you may want to consider using a frontend if you're running to a TV.  Personally, I think Windows GUI and GUI-based apps don't look too hot, even at 640x480, especially if run via composite cable. Mala is a good choice, but you could even go as simple as its' predecessor, MameWAH.  They're pretty easily configurable, don't take up too much in terms of resources (especially compared to the current "big gun" Hyperspin) and they add a bit of flair to game selection.

[kahlid74]

Welcome indeed!  If you're strictly looking at classics you can always go with a MINI pc or just a stock PC someone is throwing away.  A pentium 2.4Ghz and 512-1GB ram would be plenty for your old school favorites depending on your version of MAME.

I like your aspiration to build the star wars cockpit and I would say before walking that path you should get your woodworking and mechanical legs under you.  These boards are filled with useful info!

[ark_ader]

$15 Xbox + Coinops3

[paigeoliver]

You would be hard pressed to even locate a PC incapable of playing almost everything from the mid 90s back at full speed (may have to dial your mame version back some). Basically every game in mame that didn't use a hard drive or 3D graphics card was running full speed in mame over 10 years ago (on hardware that was current then).

12 years ago a 400 mhz PC would run everything in mame full speed with maybe a half dozen exceptions. That is still true today, although once again you may have to dial back your mame version.

Mame32 version .55 came out like 10 years ago but I still recommend it (mame32 is like MameUI). It will run basically everything you remember full speed and will do it on a computer that you would literally have to pay someone to haul away. They have added countless titles to mame in the last 10 years, but very few of them have much substance, mahjong games, fruit machines, 3D titles that have aged terribly, driving games that require controls I don't have, no thanks.

Don't try to use a console, that is silly. Much easier to use a real PC.

[W1Z]

$15 Xbox + Coinops3

Though I am sure this would satisfy me needs for actual gameplay.  My hope is to become more familiar with the whole MAME environment with this small project and move into more elaborate projects down the road.  I do appreciate the input though.