Small like a Pi but it can actually do stuff!

[Unstupid]

It's small so it'll fit in a mini bartop, but it's powerfull enough to run some cpu demanding games...  I just got a couple of Intel's newest ultra compact form factor (UCFF) PC's and they are awesome!  Check out the specs... In a 4.5"x4.5"x1.5" package they managed to squeeze in an Intel Core I3 @ 1.8 ghz, and 2 hdmi ports.  The mSATA hard drives and mini PCIe wireless cards need to be purchased separately.   I picked up both of the variations, one has dual HDMI and the other has one HDMI and one thunderbolt port.  If you are working on a new build, and are sourcing parts, newegg has these pretty cheap... The dual HDMI box runs $299 and the one with Thunderbolt is $329.  You can get a 64 gig mSATA drive for $70 or even a 240gb drive for $200.  16 gigs of ram will run $80.  If you need a wifi card they run $20 to $35.  Will load up mame/hyperspin and post back some results when I have time!

Edit... oops forgot links here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102002
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102001

[Diet_Pepsi]

The ultra-small form factor is cool, but I was able to spend a lot less than that on a system using a m350 case:

m350 - $40
mini-itx motherboard - $35
Pico psu + power brick - $45
celeron g530 - $35

Total of $155.

Mind you the m350 is small but is still about 8x8 vs the intel setup at 4x4.

I would be interested to see what you are building that requires the ultra-small form factor vs the 8x8 that the m350 is at.

[ark_ader]

By the time you add a monitor you might have just bought a cheap laptop.

Who in their right mind will drop 3 bucks on a limited brick for an arcade cab?

 

[VanillaGorilla]

I would. It would be perfect for building out a standalone control panel 'console' that could be hooked up to any tv or monitor. It is pricey, but for the form factor, not too bad. 300 bucks is less than some people spend on video cards..

[Nephasth]

I would. It would be perfect for building out a standalone control panel 'console' that could be hooked up to any tv or monitor. It is pricey, but for the form factor, not too bad. 300 bucks is less than some people spend on video cards..

Holy crap! He lives!!! Glad to see you back.

[Unstupid]

By the time you add a monitor you might have just bought a cheap laptop.

Who in their right mind will drop 3 bucks on a limited brick for an arcade cab?

 

A laptop is the epitome of a "limited brick" for an arcade cab.  You are stuck with a fixed size screen, limited power management options and a huge flat footprint.   The NUC has a tiny footprint so small you can hide it in the tiniest of cabs. 

[Unstupid]

Here is some bios info on the NUC.  In this box I have installed a 64gb msata drive and 16gb of DDR3-1600 ram, running 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate:
First BIOS screen  not much interesting...


Here is the power screen, probably the most important when considering using this as a dedicated machine mostly because with these options you can have the machine power on when power is supplied to the box... no need to push the power button.  Also on the boot tab (i don't have a pic) you can actually hide the bios screens so that it looks less like a computer.


Here are the windows performnce tests.  5.9 because of the windows aero score....  It's using the Intel 4000 video chipset, so I'm not sure how well it'll handle 3D games...  I'll do more testing...  maybe throw SF4 in there and run it at full 1080p HD.  Let me know if there are any specific mame games or benchmarks you want tested, and I'll see if I can get you a frams count...


Still a 5.9 is not bad for a computer I can fit in my pocket!   

[Generic Eric]

Could you post a pic of the computer?

[Well Fed Games]

I may have been the only person in the world who was most interested in the Pi for the composite out.

[Unstupid]

Could you post a pic of the computer?

You can see it in a video I posted showing it booting up:
 

[Generic Eric]

Wow, that is tiny. Thanks for the post.

[Vebbo]

Yeah. Like it a lot! Thanks for showing this.  Eager to see some "benchmarks".

[molton]

I bet this thing doesn't consume much power, huh, what is the power supply rated as?  I can't find that info

edit
65 watts, my bad, that is great for a pc

[seba]

Asrock also has some really small, yet powerful systems that aren't too expensive.
http://www.asrock.com/nettop/index.asp

[kahlid74]

I like it but I think it's overpriced.  I think what you paying so much for there is the small form factor and low wattage.  I also don't think it's fair to compare a $35 dollar computer to a $300 dollar one.  You would need to quantify what you're doing with it before we compare that.  Especially since at $35 the Pi can play HDMI movies without jitter, which is primarily what the computer you listed is supposed to do (family room computer).

[Steve248]

By the time you add a monitor you might have just bought a cheap laptop.

Who in their right mind will drop 3 bucks on a limited brick for an arcade cab?

 

Yes, I would too, but maybe I m not in my right mind

I cannot imagine why you would put a laptop in a arcade cab instead though?

[ark_ader]

Laptops are great for small projects.  Naturally you would not put a 15 or 17 " laptop screen in a Nintendoh cab (well you could  ) but to put a small puck like PC in a full size cab and drop 3 bucks on it when you can have a decent desktop PC that can play anything for half the price, even with a monitor.  Makes more sense.

Raspberry Pi is another disappointment.  You have to buy licenses to play back mpeg2 and it is real fun and games getting audio through HDMI.  Never mind playing anything pre .34 era Mame.  Its a toy.

I can see that puck sitting on my desk with two cables for an awesome desktop PC.  Not wasted in a cab or a control panel.

I have two 1.5 Core2Duo ITX PCs I got for £20 each that could do the same job, but they do not look as nice as that little puck.

Same could be said for a Mac Mini.  Would you stick a Mac Mini in an arcade machine?   

[Unstupid]

I downloaded the latest mame and a few roms to see what I could get out of this low powered chip and its pretty much what I expected....   This machine does stumble on the newer games like blitz... I was only able to get 48 fps with blitz so that won't work... But for other/older games it is just fine... sf2 and sf2ce I was able to do about 450-480 fps.  I wanted to try the MK games but I couldn't find any good roms to download so that'll have to wait...  Same goes for the neogeo games. 

I'm currently building a small bartop fighting cab that is too small for an itx but will fit the Nuc just fine... I plan on a hyperspin front end, and the ability to link a second cab for head to head play.  It'll use a small 10" screen with a single 8 way and 6 buttons in a sf layout. 

[RandyT]

I can see that puck sitting on my desk with two cables for an awesome desktop PC.  Not wasted in a cab or a control panel.

I can definitely see using something like this for a bartop, or tucked inside a standalone control panel.  It might be difficult to justify the cost for something like that, but my guess is the combination of simplicity and power in this little box would still make it an attractive option for those who can afford it.

Personally, though, I would probably just build a bartop or panel just large enough to fit a cheaper solution.

But one very novel use for it would be along the lines of a swappable control panel.  If one could fashion a dock for it, you could have several "dummy" machines configured for different purposes, and move it from machine to machine...Might go broke buying monitors, though

[ivwshane]

Do you get sfiv up and running yet? I have an intel 3770k with an HD4000 and it can run sfiv ae at 720p but not 1080p and antialiasing kills it.

[edekoning]

Do you get sfiv up and running yet? I have an intel 3770k with an HD4000 and it can run sfiv ae at 720p but not 1080p and antialiasing kills it.

What did you expect from that crappy integrated HD4000? You need a discrete GPU to be able to play modern 3D games on 1080 and up.

[Malenko]

I think hes discussing this particular set up for mini cabinets and small bartops not full sized cabs. He spent his time and money to let us know about a product for our own enlightenment, offered to test games on the set up, and all some of you want to do is ---smurfette--- and complain about it.  He's comparing size and performance not cost and performance.

Thanks for posting this Unstupid, I cant wait to see what project you throw this in!