Cheap Pc

[copious]

OK I read the book now I have to have it. I have read many posts on which CPU to use and I am ready to build the brain.

My question is I have PII 450 AMD is this worth using or should I just break down and upgrade to a PIII or better?

[Pieman2004]

That is totally up to you. That won't play all the games on mame, but you need to determine what games you want to play, then decide for yourself if you want to upgrade.
If by chance you are filthy rich, I see no problem in an upgrade though. Though then I don't think you would have asked this question.

[DougHillman]

Depends on what you want to play.  There's a buncha threads that discuss this.  I'm sure they're linked in the NEWBIE FAQ thread that's stickied at the top of this forum (which you must not have read.)

That system will be sufficient for all the old classics from the early to mid-80's.  You're gonna start having trouble as you get into the 90's.

[mahuti]

I have a 500, and I'm perfectly happy with that. Won't play MK games or anything with 3-d, but I don't really play those games anyway, so it doesn't matter. Even with a 233 there were a number of classic games that played just fine.

[RacerX]

OK I read the book now I have to have it. I have read many posts on which CPU to use and I am ready to build the brain.

My question is I have PII 450 AMD is this worth using or should I just break down and upgrade to a PIII or better?

I'm just being picky here, but you definitely do not have a PII 450 AMD.  

[paigeoliver]

That processor is fine. Use the AMD version of Mame, version .55 and it should play everything supported by that version at full speed.

[goofy]

Yeah, I have a 700MHz and can play a ton of games on it. Obviously there are some that I'd love to play and can't. But there are plenty that are still a blast--think most of the classic 80s games!

Enjoy. Besides, before building your cab, setup the software on your PC and play the games with the keyboard. Although not as fun as playing with a joystick, you'll at least find out WHICH games will work. Then you can design your control panel around those.

Alternatively, setup a desktop control panel to play the games, then build your cabinet second.

Enjoy.

[Nephus]

yeah, it might be a 450 AMD, or a PII 450.. but not both  

Actually, I've got an old PII 450 laying in the closet that I'm going to use for mine before I upgrade to a decent mini-itx board.  Depending on how long it takes me to track down a decent cheap cab to work with, I might just go ahead and buy one since they have integrated composite video out, and I'll have to buy a card for the other board anyway.

[Mameotron]

I actually have a PII 300 running just my classic arcade games in one cab.  I rescued the whole computer from the trash at work.  No problem for games like Robotron, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Etc.  I do a lot of playing on that machine while I save up for the big monitor I want in  my new cab...

*drool*  I saw a couple 36" monitors go on ebay for $165 or so, but I couldn't drive 2,000 miles to California and shipping would have been way too much.