How much PC do I need?

[Bill S]

I'm in the process of building my cabinet. I've got the controls working good now. I've been "testing" them with my main PC. It's a P4 1.6 running Win XP.

I'm getting ready to order the hardware for my actual cabinet PC, and I was wondering how much PC I really need?
I know I can't need a P4 1.6, but I want to be able to play everything in MAME.
I plan on running Arcade O/S. I've got 256 meg RAM laying around. I was thinking of ordering the ATI XPERT 2000 PRO video card and running an s-video feed to a TV.
Any suggestions for processor?
Does any other ATi card work well?  Should I get a different one?

Thanks!

[lightspeed]

I've followed similar threads, and most ppl claim to be able to run just about everything with a 900 mhz chip.  

There are a few exceptions to this - S.T.U.N. Runner, for example, would likely make your P4 1.6 sweat.    

For most bang for your buck, I strongly recommend looking into an Athlon system.  You can get a very fast system for relatively cheap - I'm running a 1.4 Thunderbird with 256 megs PC2100 DDR.  I have yet to encounter anything that won't run at max framerates, but I'm not sure what the minumim requirments would be.   I'll offer a shameless plug to tcwo.com -->  i got my hardware for them - for a similar proc/mobo you would only pay around $175 with shipping.

I use a first generation Radeon and get excellent performance.  The video card does not at all have to be top of the line, as MAME leverages mostly off the CPU.   I know little about the card you mentioned -  they only thing you need to ascertain is that it can do hardware stretch without a performance hit....only someone who has one could tell you...

[richattri]

It definitely depends on what you are wanting to run, and what form factor you are going for. For example, I like early 80's games, and I found that by tweaking MAME command line parms I can most if not all of them quite well (60fps) on a lowly Pentium 233 with a TNT1 video card! On the other hand, more recent 90's titles would need much more power. For most of these, a 1Ghz Athlon would be both affordable and flexible (though as was pointed out, there might always be one or two titles out there that will have problems no matter what your config).

Also, if you are trying to build a form factor that doesn't leave alot of room, you might want to consider all-in-one motherboard combos that integrate sound and video onto the board, to eliminate the 4-7" height needs for PCI & AGP cards. A GeForce 3 does you no good -- focus on strong 2D performance.

The first thing I would recommend is spending a weekend writing down your goals, including a "must have" list of games. Once you know this list, you may be surprised at what you may or may not need from your hardware, and will also help nail down exactly what the control/button requirements are going to be for your panel.

Rich