Help for newbie planning candy cabinet mod (a little long)

[DonDrimeXm8]

Sorry for the length of this post (hopefully it's in the right forum at least), but I really need some input.  I've been reading these forums and browsing various example pages for a couple of months now, and want to finally get underway on my first project.  I don't really have the time, space (college student in upstairs apartment), or skills to build a cab from scratch so I plan to modify an empty Jamma cab.  I'm hoping to get underway as soon as possible (hopefully this weekend), but just want some feedback so I'm sure that I'm not about to do something really stupid or use incompatible parts before I spend the money I've saved for this.

The cabinet that I want to work with is a used imported SNK Super Neo 29 candy cab with a 29" rotatable monitor and two 7 button configurations.  As far as I know, the cab is both Jamma and MVS, so I think that it should be fine as far as hooking up a J-pac.  Can anyone verify that this cabinet will work with a J-pac and Arcade VGA setup?  The last thing I want to do is blow all my money and find that everything looks like crap or doesn't even work properly.

The auction here shows a picture of the same kind of cabinet that I want to use.  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13716&item=6113818867&rd=1

My next question is about building the MAME pc inside of the cab.  I want to use an Arcade VGA and J-pac setup so that my monitor is protected from my clumsy self ruining it with an inadvertant wrong signal and so that I can more easily display the games as they should be in an arcade system on the monitor.  I'm just a bit unclear about the installation of the Arcade VGA card.  Do I just use the Arcade VGA in place of a normal video card or is it in addition to a regular installed video card?  From what I understand I use it in place of a normal video card; I just want to make sure.  Also, are there certain motherboards that I should specifically look for or will it function with any board with AGP slots?

Lastly, I'm thinking of going with a processor in the 1.5 ghz range.  I have no intention of playing any new CHD games; the most advanced I will work with are probably Garou, Metal Slug 3, Capcom fighters, and possibly the Mortal Kombat games (mostly beat-em-up games and shooters from the late 80s/early 90s).  Will a processor at this speed with 256 mb ram be adequate to run these games without slowdown or problems?  Also, is an AMD or Intel processor more recommended for this sort?

Sorry again about the length of this post, and thanks a lot for any help or advice.

[cdbrown]

The cabinet that I want to work with is a used imported SNK Super Neo 29 candy cab with a 29" rotatable monitor and two 7 button configurations.  Can anyone verify that this cabinet will work with a J-pac and Arcade VGA setup?

Sorry can't help you with this one

I'm just a bit unclear about the installation of the Arcade VGA card.  Do I just use the Arcade VGA in place of a normal video card or is it in addition to a regular installed video card?

Just use this in place of a video card

Also, are there certain motherboards that I should specifically look for or will it function with any board with AGP slots?

Looks like any AGP mobo will be fine

Lastly, I'm thinking of going with a processor in the 1.5 ghz range.  I have no intention of playing any new CHD games; the most advanced I will work with are probably Garou, Metal Slug 3, Capcom fighters, and possibly the Mortal Kombat games (mostly beat-em-up games and shooters from the late 80s/early 90s).  Will a processor at this speed with 256 mb ram be adequate to run these games without slowdown or problems?  Also, is an AMD or Intel processor more recommended for this sort?

Buy a PC to match your budget but always try and go for components which can be upgraded, ie get a mobo which can has the CPU range of 1.5 up to 3GHz (if possible) so that down the track you can always upgrade to a faster chip.

Cheers
-cdbrown

[Raven..]

I've got my own Super Neo 29 MAME machine, and I love it.  It works fine with a JPAC and I am using a Radeon 7000 instead of an ArcadeVGA card.  

The one thing though, I can't figure out how to rotate that big monitor.  

[DonDrimeXm8]

Cool--thanks a lot for the quick help.  Time to get this underway ...

[RayB]

I've got my own Super Neo 29 MAME machine, and I love it.  It works fine with a JPAC and I am using a Radeon 7000 instead of an ArcadeVGA card.  

Eyedoc: I always read that with a JPAC, you have to disconnect the original power supply from the cabinet. Was this true in your case?