Computer literally picked from the curb. Looking for advice.

[Alejo I]

Hello everybody.

Yesterday I was running some errands when I stumbled upon an old computer. It looks like a small office was being vacated and they were tossing all kinds of stuff, from cabinets to mangled chairs. Most of it was worthless or badly banged up, but I managed to rescue a leather and brass suitcase in tip-top condition (!) and an Asus P5V900 desktop PC, which came with its own Windows serial code and everything sticked to one of the sides. It basically looks like this, but covered in dust (insides are surprisingly clean, however).



I cracked the passwords in true hackerman fashion with a live USB (HDD had no files besides Windows XP and Lotus 123) and now it's running pretty decently, all things considered, but I'm not sure what can I do about it given its specs. I'm not losing any sleep about emulating post-PlayStation classic consoles -- my real concern is if it'll be able to run most classic arcade games and systems. There's also the thing with the front-end and/or emulation platform of choice. I know HyperSpin is a no go, but I was wondering which one/s would be the better suited for this kind of hardware.

Here are the full specs per Speccy:

Summary
      Operating System
         Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP2
      CPU
         Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 @ 2.13GHz   34 °C
         Conroe 65nm Technology
      RAM
         1,00GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15)
      Motherboard
         ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5VD2-VM (Socket 775)   40 °C
      Graphics
         electr22b4 (1280x1024@85Hz)
         64MB VIA Chrome9 HC IGP (ASUStek Computer Inc)
      Storage
         232GB MAXTOR STM3250820AS (SATA )   48 °C
      Optical Drives
         PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-112D
      Audio
         SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio

Notice that both video and audio are integrated, although I could install a spare Asus Xonar DG PCI sound card I have laying around if needed.

It also has a DVD-RW unit. I was working on a Raspberry build for a friend, but I thought that this could be easier and more flexible. My plan is to hook it to a CRT TV, either using an VGA to RGB SCART adapter (since I live in Europe) or hacking the cable. I guess I could also look for an old Radeon card, but I'm trying to keep this build as cheap as possible since this is not my money and I'm mostly using it to teach me some basic skills.

Any ideas? Is it worth keeping or should I toss it back?

[Alejo I]

It took me a while, but it looks like I have a basic setup now. I'll be using RetrOS, which is a seriously stripped down version of Windows XP for arcade building (legality may vary in your neck of the woods, but I do have like a million legit XP codes anyway) and MAME+MaLa.

I had a ton of issues with MAME since Windows XP is no longer supported, but I located a compatible version and I'll be running with it. I only intend to emulate classic games and the Core 2 Duo is more than enough. I'm pleased with its performance so far.

I'll post some pictures in the Project Announcements subforum whenever I start chopping wood.

[javeryh]

Free is great!

[pbj]

Anything good on the hard drive?  One time on a dumpster computer I found a copy of the Paris Hilton sex tape and a 30-40 page report describing how the owner's relationship had fallen apart. 

For a final project on a master's in family counseling no less. 

Explained why she had been on the corner in tears being picked up by mama the day before, I guess.

Other finds have included folders labelled "embarassing" filled with Britney Spears MP3s and the like.  Another neighbor tossed a computer with years worth of people's grades on it.  Before and after weight loss photos.  Nothing too exciting, I'm afraid.

[Howard_Casto]

If I die you can have my pc.... I'm sure it'll be filled with really messed up porn.  Everybody has to have a hobby. 

[yotsuya]

I got some good stories from the years I used to do tech support for teacher computers.

[pbj]

I got some good stories from the years I used to do tech support for teacher computers.

Well... we're waiting.

[Alejo I]

Free is great!

Free is always awesome. Specially when it also runs GI-Joe like a champ.

Anything good on the hard drive?  One time on a dumpster computer I found a copy of the Paris Hilton sex tape and a 30-40 page report describing how the owner's relationship had fallen apart. 

For a final project on a master's in family counseling no less. 

Explained why she had been on the corner in tears being picked up by mama the day before, I guess.

Other finds have included folders labelled "embarassing" filled with Britney Spears MP3s and the like.  Another neighbor tossed a computer with years worth of people's grades on it.  Before and after weight loss photos.  Nothing too exciting, I'm afraid.

Just boring accountant and notary stuff. Also, a gross amount of nicotone dust bunnies.

If I die you can have my pc.... I'm sure it'll be filled with really messed up porn.  Everybody has to have a hobby. 

I've always said that what happens between a man and a woman and a clyster and a bucket of cheez whiz is none of my business.

[pbj]

Clyster is a synonym for enema, for those of you also wondering.

[Mike A]

Thanks. I had no idea.

[Mr. Peabody]

Food is messy. But if only eating, and a handy device to dispense......

[Beretta]

That should be GTG to run just about anything not 3d.

newer versions of mame take truck loads of ram to load neogeo games.

1gb might be enough or use older version..

FBA has excellent Neogeo emulation and uses a fraction of the memory footprint.

I don't know about hyperspin, never used it but looks pretty intense from what I've seen.. I've tried a few front ends and none of them are perfect

but if you're looking for light weight mamewah is a good choice, it's not very flashy but I used it on a project running a PII 350 so it's well behaved.

You can get a little more speed out of it by putting another stick of ram in it to put it in dual channel mode.
Also get a small speed bump by running a x64 windows.. earliest was XP-x64

Although you might also check out MicroXP 0.82 I've tested that out and it's stripped to the max.. but it's a good base for a project like this.
I was able to get it down to 35mb before drivers after disabling some additional services.