"Best" OS for my system?

[Graboid]

Hi all, apologies in advance for being one of these guys, but I'd like some opinions on what the most ideal OS is for my MAME cabinet.

I am building a cabinet that will have a dedicated computer running emulation and a frontend. I don't even think I'll  take it online. I have a Panasonic CRT TV with component cables and a transcoder is on its way. The TV runs up to 480i, which I believe is the ideal prerequisite for running stuff in native res using crt_emu, GroovyMAME, etc. Here are the specs:

MSI H81M-P33 motherboard
Intel G3258 3.2Ghz (it OCs to 4.0 at least, probably more) cpu
XFX Radeon HD 6670 ddr3 1GB gpu
250 GB SSD and 500 GB HDD
Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB RAM (I could upgrade to 8 if need be)

I want to be able to run MAME obviously. I also want to run NES, SNES, and Dreamcast (for MvC2, CvSnk2, Blitz, Gauntlet, etc.). If at all possible, I'd prefer it have N64 as well (for stuff like Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey). All of this in native resolution. 

I have very little preference on a frontend or emulators. Whatever works best is fine. I haven't emulated something since the days of NESticle and have no loyalties. 

The most important question I have at this very moment is: What operating system should I be thinking about using? Windows 7 would be my first guess, but I also have access to 8.1, 10, and Vista. I could nab a copy of XP, but from what I've read that appears to be obsolete. I installed 7 on it the other day and it ran horribly slow, but I think that is because I took it online and Windows Update decided to hold the CPU and RAM hostage, hence why I'm no longer planning on connecting it to the internet. Whatever version I end up with I'll try and strip down as much as I can and boot straight to the frontend.

Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated. I know that it's largely a matter of personal preference, but if you guys see something about my specs or what I want to achieve that demands one version over another I'd appreciate the input. Please keep in mind that once I have it up and running I don't want to have to mess with it for several years. I'm going to grad school this fall and won't have much time to fiddle with it after it's operational (yes, my priorities are straight).

Thanks for the help!
Mod, please feel free to move this if you think it belongs elsewhere.

[Howard_Casto]

Xp isn't worth your time anymore.  Xp 64bit is kind of crappy, so you wouldn't be able to take advantage of your processor.  In addition a few emulators run on direct-x versions not available on xp (I think demul and a couple of others).  7 or 10 are your choices.  Vista is 7 before it got fixed and 8 is kind of crap.  Some people say 10 is a bit too new.... I've had minimal problems with it and it seems to give a very nominal performance boost with certain applications but other than that it's basically just like 7. 

You have to let those updates churn out though.  Sure after you let it update once (which will get any service packs out of the way) you'll be ok, but it's just easier to do that then wonder why a piece of software is acting wonky because you didn't update.

[Graboid]

Thanks for the breakdown! I needed that up to date information. I forgot to list Genesis and maybe PSX if that matters.

So some of those updates could be beneficial. I'd read reports online (like within the past week) that recent Windows 7 updates have been slowing down computers... the internet being what it is I have no idea if there's any veracity to that. It freaked me out because I have a good build and Windows was running scary slow. Slower than I'm comfortable with. I've built a few computers but I've never had one perform that terribly right out of the gate. Those svchost.exe's and whatnot were eating it alive. This was also before I committed to putting an SSD in the rig, too, so that may help. I could tough it out and see what happens.

There are no crippling downsides to 10 for what I want, then? I read that 8 was bad for crt_emudriver because of lack of ddraw or something like that (forgiveness, I'm still educating myself on the crt stuff), but that has been resolved? I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm concerned with 10 being newer. I do really like it on my main computer, though. Plus I could see having two computers running the same OS being beneficial for testing purposes.

Again, thanks for the help. At least I've got my options narrowed down to 7 or 10.

Edit: I just remembered, I read that the g3258 and Windows 10 weren't getting along. I'll look around and see if that is still a problem.

[nitrogen_widget]

Which Transcoder did you order?
A lot of the one's I see on Amazon won't work with an SD TV.

I had to resort to older Nvidia cards and the adaptor.

[dmckean]

I think you're going to want to run Windows 7 if you're using CRT Emudriver and Groovymame.

[Graboid]

I'm thinking 7 is a safe bet. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't making a major mistake. I've seen so many "you need blank to run blank so that you can run blank" discussions in the past few weeks that I wanted to make sure 7 wouldn't be screwy with my hardware and needs.

As for the transcoder, I ordered it from JASnet (Johnny Sierascky), who I learned about on the Newbie TV Walkthrough thread. He's in Brazil and from what I've read his custom made converter does a good job. I've never soldered and it sounds like making a VGA->SCART cable for a SCART->Component converter was too big of a pain to make my first attempt. I promised him I'd post a review in the Reviews section whenever I have it up and running.

[dmckean]

I'm thinking 7 is a safe bet. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't making a major mistake. I've seen so many "you need blank to run blank so that you can run blank" discussions in the past few weeks that I wanted to make sure 7 wouldn't be screwy with my hardware and needs.

As for the transcoder, I ordered it from JASnet (Johnny Sierascky), who I learned about on the Newbie TV Walkthrough thread. He's in Brazil and from what I've read his custom made converter does a good job. I've never soldered and it sounds like making a VGA->SCART cable for a SCART->Component converter was too big of a pain to make my first attempt. I promised him I'd post a review in the Reviews section whenever I have it up and running.

I have that same adapter and it works great. Just realize that TVs have a lot of overscan and you'll need to spend quite a few hours in the TV's service menu to resize the image and correct geometry.

[Howard_Casto]

7 is probably the way to go until/unless you can confirm that your video setup will run on 10.  Monitors are about the only thing odd about 10..... virtual monitors seem to be a thing of the past which may or may not effect things. 

About the updates..... they slow things down....while the update is taking place.  A lot of people don't realize that even after an update is installed, the .net cache and various other things might need to re-optimize in the background.  It was notoriously bad on xp and while it's still an issue on 7, it isn't nearly as bad.  Just remember to let the computer sit idle for an hour or so after reboot from a major update. 

[Graboid]

Alright, thanks for all the input everybody. I'm gonna go with 7. I'll give those updates another chance, too.