So you want to run MAME in a cabinet and youre not sure if you should get a bargain mid level PC or dish out for the supreme PC of the month. Well I will try to cover most questions and concerns people will have about choosing a PC, based on my personal experience and that of others I've read throughout the forums.
First, you will need to decide a couple things. Will this PC be only for MAME arcade use? Will you only be playing classic or older type games? Do you want the flexibility to play newer games as MAME supports them? And also, will you use this for more then MAME, such as other console emulators or actual PC games?
Here are a few setups based on each situation I think would work well.
Disclaimer: These specs are not written in stone and are merely guidelines to base your PC purchases on. Also if youre making up a PC from old parts you will have to improvise and you dont need to have these exact numbers. This is mainly for the average person on a mid level budget, with exception to the A-Type PC. A-Type - All MAME + PC games
In this setup youre basicly building the best computer you possibly can within your budget. Lets start with the motherboard and processor, this is the core of your computer and you don't want to skimp on it. I recommend a Athlon 2700 XP or better processor. I choose Athlon over pentium because their cost vs their performance is clearly better then Pentiums. Get that with a motherboard with a couple PCI slots, a AGP 8x, and some USB 2.0s with a 333mhz bus speed and you cant go wrong.
RAM always helps high end PC gaming, 512MB DDR RAM will be enough for most high end PC games. And if you have the extra money 1GB RAM would be optimal.
The size hard drive you want to buy is really a matter of preference. As a minimum a 40-60GB HD should be used. They are cheap now and can hold a full MAME collection and keep many games installed with room to spare.
You will want a high level video card as they affect PC graphics immensely (not MAME graphics) . Geforce4 and Geforce FX cards are relatively cheap now, about 130$ and 180$ respectively. for their high end models and offer a good low cost/high preformance ratio. Radeon is the other solution which are a bit more costly but have slighty higher framerates on graphic intensive games.
A DVD/CD ROM is also useful if you get your rom updates from burners in the mail, or if you download the roms on your main home PC and transfer them over. If you have a home network you could also add a network card in place of a CD/DVD drive and send the files from your main PC.
A-Type Typical Specs
Athlon 2700 XP +
512 DDR RAM +
40GB HD +
High end Geforce or Radeon card
Sound Blaster or Onboard sound card
DVD/CD ROM -or- network card
B-Type - Pure MAME PC
This PC type will play every game in MAME just about, except for the newest CHD games which can barely be played on the best computers out.
Processing power is key for a setup in which you plan to range from classics to the most currently supported games. Your processor tries to emulate each component on the original game board and therefore does not use much hardware acceleration besides processor if any at all. You want to get the highest processor in your price range, Athlon XP is preferred right now due to it's affordable price and nice speeds compared to equally priced pentiums. Athlon XP 2000 or better would be suitable for this.
RAM is not a main component for a MAME setup, 256MB RAM should be sufficient for most games
A 40GB harddrive will be plenty for a MAME only PC. It can hold the current MAME collection almost twice over so you will be good on space for a while. Although new games coming out in .chd format take a lot more space then normal zipped roms. I would reccomend a 60GB as the price difference is so little and you get so much more.
A DVD/CD ROM is also useful if you get your rom updates from burners in the mail, or if you download the roms on your main home PC and transfer them over. If you have a home network you could also add a network card in place of a CD/DVD drive and send the files from your main PC.
Your videocard is hardly important compared to the A-Type PC. MAME uses barely any hardware acceleration if any at all. A 8MB Rage ATI videocard is as cheap as you can go and will work just as good as a geforce. Although depending on what your display will be you might want to invest in a Radeon 9000 64MB as they have S-Video outputs for TV use and are only about 50$.
B-Type Typical Specs -
Athlon XP 2000 +
256 MB RAM +
40GB HD +
8MB Video Card minimum (if using a TV Radeon 9000 64MB)
Generic Soundcard or onboard
DVD/CD ROM -or- Network Card
C-Type The low end MAME machine
You want a machine to play the classics along with some 80s-90s era games. These machines are much cheaper and could even be obtained for free as most people have no use for outdated computers when they upgrade. This type of computer is designed to run roughly 90% of MAME games without problems. You might get slowdown on some newer fighting or 3d games. Most CHD games will probably not run too well.
C-Type Basic Specs -(thanks to Tiger-Heli for this info)
Duron, Athlon or XP 850-1.0 Ghz,
128-256M Ram
20G HD
4M PCI Vid Card (doesn't really matter)
On-Board Sound
D-Type - Bare Minimum - Classic MAME only
This is desgined for playing old games, Pacman, Galaga, Space Invaders, etc. You should use MAME version R36B12 or earlier (before alpha blending was added).
D-Type Basic Specs -(thanks to Tiger-Heli for this info)
Pentium 200 MMX
64M Ram
10G HD
4M PCI Vid Card (or on-board)
On-board sound
Good sources for finding parts/PCs.
www.ebay.comwww.pricewatch.comwww.newegg.comwww.portatech.comIf you still have questions about certain setups post in this thread and I will try to help you.