What setup/OS would you use?

[nomar]

I used to post here a lot but haven't lately because everything has been working fine.

I need to change my MAME computer so I'm going to use some parts I have laying around.

I have 2 PII266 processors and a dual processor board. Also have about 320mb of EDO Ram, 6 gig HD and a Voodoo 3000 PCI.

I'm limited to using only XP, 2000 or Linux on this because of the multiple processors.

I've installed XP on it (with only 128mb at the time) and it was a bit sluggish. Small games are easy but trying to start a game like Metal Slug X took too long to load, froze up and i had to CTRL-ALT-DEL.

I know that MAME really can't take advantage of the Dual processors but can anyone suggest the ideal OS and setup for this hardware?

I could also only use one processor and make it a win98 machine.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

[Gorre]

If you really want to benefit from the dual processors you'll have to choose Unix/Linux.
However I don't know how good Xmame is.

The problem with 2000/XP remains that they're not only demanding Ram but also use CPU, unless you really fine tune these (like win98 Lite drop the excessive bagage) .

[Jakobud]

Um..you are right.  It's pointless to worry about trying to use the dual processors, since Mame will only use one anyways.  As much as I hate Windoze, Win98se seems to be the best OS for Mame cabinets, simply because it has the best and widest variety of emulators available to it (besides Mame).  And Mame in Windows has some extra support for software stretching and stuff.  My cabinet was originally DOS based, but I finally gave in and went the Windows route.  I wish I knew enough about Linux to confidently run Linux in my cabinet

Jakobud

[tom61]

If I remember right, AdvanceMame for Linux (only the Linux version) has SMP support.  For more advanced games SMP is the only way to get decent speed on a relatively slow 266Mhz processor(s).

[Mameham]

PII 266? I'd dump the second processor and go with straight DOS if you can... I'm running a Celeron 333 with DOS ( because I don't want to give up any of my fast computers to the basement ) and I like DOS because you can tweak the ever living sh|t out of it and get the most bang for the least overhead... Windows'll just get in the way if you're looking to get speed out of that box...

If you're looking for the networking and other stuff that Windows gives you, you might consider a dual boot with something like System Commander, like I did.

I wonder if, since Mame  is being programmed for Windows now if the DOS port is losing some optimizations... I'll have to test that.

- Mameham, the first Mame cabinet