Computer Components

[IronStrike]

I was wondering if I could get some guidance.

I am looking to run a MAME cabinet, its a 2player setup with a trackball and possibly light guns (only cause they have already been purchased).

I am trying to figure out what's the best budget pc to get that will allow me to play this smoothly with Hyperspin as a front end. 
I don't have any laptops laying around that would be useful to me so I might buy one, my budget will be around $250.

I am open to any suggestions or recommendations.

Thanks!

[lilshawn]

easy peasy.

take your 250 buckazoids and buy a 250 buckazoid computer.

I can't suggest anything other than a $250 computer man. I can suggest a VIDEOCARD for $250... I can suggest a POWER SUPPLY for $250... I can suggest a HARD DRIVE for $250. (you see what i'm gettin' at?)

you are going to have to ether take your 250 bucks and buy a computer... and deal with it or save your money a while longer and shoot a little higher. Can it be done for 250, sure. but at this point, if you are balling on a budget, get a PI3 and put the rest of your bucks into other things like "not $3 chinese joysticks" and trying to source a CRT for your already purchased light guns.

if you are dead set on spending 250 bones on a computer, I can only suggest you get the highest core speed you can. high speed per core is more important than core number. it's better to have a 3.0 or 3.5 ghz dual core than a 1.8 or 2.2 ghz quad... multi cores aren't utilized much beyond 2 anyways and your speed per core is going to get you the performance you need.

[IronStrike]

No I completely understand, I get it, I have to budget a little more to get something reasonable. I guess what I was trying to do was to see which aspects of a computer is more important and its probably what I should have asked to begin with.

From what you've told me, High core speed is important over than core number.

How important is a Video Card if I am not going to be playing too many console games (n64, playstation, dreamcast)? 
Would it matter if its an actual PC or a laptop?  I think I can get a hold of an old laptop on Kijiji or something.

[michelevit]

250 will easily get a you a used pc to run 95 percent of the classic video games. Check Craigslist. Many systems out there now that people are using phones and tablets for their computing needs.

[lilshawn]

How important is a Video Card if I am not going to be playing too many console games (n64, playstation, dreamcast)? 
Would it matter if its an actual PC or a laptop?  I think I can get a hold of an old laptop on Kijiji or something.

I would generally steer clear of laptops for emulation. They typically have slower performance over a similarly spec'd desktop. Laptops are designed to save power and usually do this by using mobile CPU/GPU combos that are somewhat paltry to begin with. Plus you are paying for portability, not performance. Unless you can score a "gaming" or other "performance" laptop, you are going to get your best bang for your buck with a desktop.

as far as videocards/GPU's go... it's not AS important as a good CPU. for most MAME titles, (like 95% as mentioned) as well as nes/genesis,SNES etc 16 bit era systems just straight software emulation is going to be good enough. You are only going to need to look into a GPU if you want to get into the next higher up generation of consoles like the n64, gamecube, or some of the newerish 3D arcade games. if you are looking to budget for the future look into a good mid range card like the 750ti which can handle most of these newer console games like GC/Wii  at an acceptable frame rate and can be had for about a hundo.

[stigzler]

I thin lots of people buy used office Dells and slap an upgraded gpu in them. Do a youtube search for "arcade under $200" or something ..

[GeoMan]

It all depends on the games you want to run. If you want classic arcade games a "single board computer" like the Raspberry PI3 will do and it will cost you $40-80 - no other expenses!

There are many single board computers, check here for some reviews: https://www.youtube.com/user/Mretaprime/playlists

If you want Dreamcast and above emulation you will need something more powerful.

A new SBC will be out soon: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/139108638/lattepanda-alpha-soul-of-a-macbook-in-a-pocket-siz

Clock speed is more important than number of cores, so the faster, the better!

[paigeoliver]

If you aren't married to hyperspin then anything you pick out of the garbage will be fine. Here is a little video to prove it.



Also, hyperspin has been around for what, 14 years now? I am sure an older version would run like butter on a budget PC.

[smass]

If you are into mainly classic games and some console emulation you will do just fine with an off lease Dell or HP computer.  I would target a 2nd gen i5 with Windows 7.  You can get them all day for around $100 on fleabay and the like.  One upgrade I always do is adding an SSD hard drive.  Its the single most impactful upgrade you can do as far as system speed goes.  240gb is big enough for most arcade builds and they can be bought new for $60-80.  If you want you can add a discrete video card - you don't need a current generation card, so just troll CL for a bit and find someone who upgraded and is selling their card for cheap.  Frankly, I would hold off on the video card purchase and try to run with intel on-chip graphics first and see how the results are.  For hyperspin you may need to upgrade the GPU.  But you don't need bleeding edge.