Thinking about updating my cabinet.

[dabone]

I've got a d9200 setup with a older AGP arcade vga card.
I'm wanting to upgrade the setup, and I've gotten a Hyperspin setup on a standard pc, now I want to get my arcade native resolutions.
I've got the ability to install XP or 7, and I've got a 4350 Ati card.
I also have dual actlabs guns.

Where to start?
From what I've read, XP is still the way to go, but it apparently works better with some custom drivers. Where can I get the drivers?

Is the 4350 a big enough card for the majority of games? Or should I just wait until I can afford a Arcade vga 3000?

Thanks.
Later,
dabone

[Calamity]

Hi dabone,

The custom drivers (XP, of course):
http://mame.3feetunder.com/windows-ati-crt-emudriver/

The 4350 is powerful enough for MAME, you won't get any better performance by using a more recent/expensive card. However the 4350 will suck for modern 3D games or emulators different from MAME which make use of 3D acceleration. So that depends on the software you're going to use.

I don't know if dual AGP/PCI motherboards are still an option, but if you find one then you might consider keeping your old ArcadeVGA (supported by CRT_Emudriver) and getting the best CPU you can afford.

[dabone]

However the 4350 will suck for modern 3D games or emulators different from MAME which make use of 3D acceleration

I was a little confused when I wrote this by the ultimarc site listing sf4, then I realized it's a PC game, so not for me.

Old school cab, Mame, 2600, NES, SNES, Megadrive, and Genesis.

I'm thinking Intel DH61BE motherboard, with a i3-2130 cpu, 4gb, and 4350 video.
1TB Hard drive loaded with xp 32 bit, hyperspin for the front end.
And I'll have just enough ports, I think.... I can't remember if I still have a ps2 keyboard interface, but I know I have 1 ps2 mouse interface. (But I can't remember if it's my trackball or spinner....)

It's replacing a old P4 2.4 with 1gb ram. Should be quite a jump in speed for the newer games.

Later,
dabone

[krick]

Some games are up to 30% faster in MAME when running on a 64-bit operating system.  You might want to consider running XP x64 Edition if you can locate a copy.

[dabone]

Ok, got ANOTHER 4350 card in, it has a fan, but its the right chipset. The other brand I was stocking switched to the 4350 mobility chip that doesn't work with the driver. I also got Windows XP x64 loaded with slp activation, just what I needed to downgrade from my Windows 7 Professional.

Looks like I'm ready to start playing.

 


Later,
dabone