Back to the cabinet after 4 years

[btoddkelley]

I built several mame cabinets back a few years ago and "fell out of the scene" when my wife and I had a child. I am hoping you guys can get me back up to speed. I currently have a cocktail cab in my office at work (yes, i have a great job!) an upright 4 player in my game room and a "tv cab" that is used primarily for consoles.
     All three have the same motherboard. this made updating easy, update one cab and ghost drives. I also build several cabs for friends. I have decided that it is time to get back into the hobby. This means a new hardware and software. The old system was and amd 64bit with windows xp 32 and mamewah as a front end. all major working consoles are installed, primarily using mess. (projeect 64, psx, SSV for the specialised consoles)
     What is the prefered system for a high end cab today? Core 2 dou looks good and is affordable. (I need three boards!) is the sandybridge stuff worth the extra expense? Is windows 7 the prefered OS today? Will mame wah run on windows 7? it appears from a few posts that it has some challenges. Mamewah was the dominate frot end for dedicated cabs when I left. What is the dominate front end today? Remember I want to run consoles as well. Thanks for any input you can give! im looking forward to arcading again!
    

[GregD]

Hyperspin is the dominant front end now and it requires a dual core processor above 2.8 mhz in my opinion.  It will run fine with newer onboard graphics but you may need a cheap graphics card if you go with a core 2 duo pc.  It is also a RAM hog so ypu need 3gb if you are using XP. 

[unclet]

I would also recommend installing some network cards and updating your machines via wireless instead of ghosting drives

[xmenxmen]

Build the core os the same.  For changes just backup the directoruy structure as both mame and hyperspin works pretty well that way.  Ghost will work but you do have to reactive each time as windows 7 check hardware.  For backup, you can now skip ghost and just use windows backup as it does imaging as well.  Just make sure where ever restore to is same size or bigger.  If its too muc there lots of business soft free now.

For me, i dont keep my mame machine on the net as i like them as standalone like appliances.  For update, i store the config on a usb drive.  All my testing is on my desktop.  Once done i simply transfer it to the cab.  Pain at the begining, but after one gets a stable config, very little is mod so it works.

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[btoddkelley]

Hyperspin is the dominant front end now and it requires a dual core processor above 2.8 mhz in my opinion.  It will run fine with newer onboard graphics but you may need a cheap graphics card if you go with a core 2 duo pc.  It is also a RAM hog so ypu need 3gb if you are using XP. 

Are on board graphics now good enough for mame and mess? When I was in the scene, on board graphics was a slow down. Also, how is mala for a front end? Hyperspin looks really neat, but some of my systems have 1000 + roms. I would think navigating to a game would tedious with large sets.

[kahlid74]

Navigating in Hyperspin can be daunting sometimes but there are secrets to getting by it.  With Hyperspin what will blow you away is the first time you load videos and every game shows a video playing.  Just way too damn cool.

On board graphics are alright but you can get a good GeForce 1 GB video card for 30-50 bucks now days so just go with that.  you'll be set for everything then.