Questions about upgrading from WindowsXP

[lovespicyfood]

Hey All,

I bought a used DreamArcades (~3 years old) that is running Windows XP and would like to upgrade the setup.  Been wanting one of these machines forever and I'm so thrilled w/ my purchase.  I've been playing Robotron way too much!   

Reasons for upgrading OS:

DreamArcades FE is very basic and I'd like to put in something that looks better (HyperSpin?).  I'd also like to put some other emulators in the FE for Nintendo and C-64.

I'm looking at getting a refurbished desktop to put into the machine.  It has Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3,800+
80gb hard drive
2x512mb DDR2  667 memory

It takes 1.5 minutes to boot up the system currently and a new OS will make it quicker...would also like to upgrade to an SSD eventually...lastly, I'd like to setup the new system separately so I don't have any down time on the current setup...I know the FE can be a little tricky.

I was thinking Windows 10 but seems a lot are running Windows 7?  What are the pros and cons of 7 vs 10?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[keilmillerjr]

I am running windows 10. I tested windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10. Windows 10 booted the fastest. No problems using it. I have almost everything hidden and made a tutorial found here. SSD makes a crazy difference with boot speed. Definitely invest in one. If you are using a crt, check in the groovymame section here for info on groovymame and crt emudriver. It seems daunting, but was super easy to set up if you use the guide on calamity’s website forum. Forget putting consoles on an arcade machine. That is stupid. Buy a raspberry pi, download lakka, and use a crt and a bluetooth playstation controller. I like attract mode front end. RetroFE is another good one. Hypercrap is slow and insanely complicated to set up.