PC Hardware?

[Nx87]

Just wondering, what speed computers are you guys putting in your mame cabs? Im curious to know how fast of a pc i will need for my cab. I have an XP2000+ system but how fast do i need for the cab? I tried underclocking my processor and got it down to 600mhz. At this speed, all the games i have worked good except MK2 and MK3. So if this hasnt been done before, how creating a list of games and what speed cpu works well with it?

[SNAAAKE]

I'd say go for the fastest chip you can afford to buy.
I heard somewhere that 1.2 ghz cpu runs every single game at full speed.However,i'd still say shoot for higher speed because there will be games that will require faster computer.

I have athlon xp 1800 in my cab.I am good for next 3...4 years atleast.

[rampy]

There was a project that attempted to do exactly what you are looking for...   but it was too daunting of a task because there are a ton of games... each version of mame would drastically alter performance.  Increase in plentiful, cheap, fast cpu's =)

*rummage rummage* here's the link
http://www.mameworld.net/mameperf/


There's other factors... You can run MK2/MK3 on a 600 but sans sound... or in a tini box without scanlines =P

I have a celeron 366@550 in my cabinet and all the neo geo games I've tried are playable with sound, full screen...

(to me playable is 50% of frames or better 30/60)  I can play MK1 with sound... but MK2/MK3 all the nba jam games by midway are too slow with sound.   uhm.. so if that helps for lower end pc ... there ya go...

rampy

[Bursar]

Mine's going to be an Athlon 1.2 overclocked to 1.33GHz.

You seem to be fairly comfortable with clocking your system, so you could always buy something a bit less and clock it up.

Having said that, a few places I have looked at have listed the XP 2000+ a few quid cheaper than a couple of the slightly slower models.

[Arcade Guru]

SNAAAKE,

Please help me understand something, why does every arcade cabinet I ever see use an AMD proccessor?, Are they better for Mame than a P4?

Also, I hear that a ATI radeon 8500, or something like that is the perferred choice for a video card, especially if your going out to a TV with s-Video out?

I'm getting some money next week and I want to know what to buy, right now I have a PII 350 with 256m ram and 4 meg video and it sucks, I just dont want to go out and buy a $2000 system if I don't have to.

Any thoughts will help,

Thanks,

Lasareath

I'd say go for the fastest chip you can afford to buy.
I heard somewhere that 1.2 ghz cpu runs every single game at full speed.However,i'd still say shoot for higher speed because there will be games that will require faster computer.

I have athlon xp 1800 in my cab.I am good for next 3...4 years atleast.

[Malenko]

AMDs are generally less expensive and the chips are more tuned towards gaming. P4s are more costly and geared towards office type applications.

My main PC is a P4 1.8 but my mame cab is an AMD thunderbird 850 OC'ed to ~933

[Nx87]

 Well ok here goes an explanation. P4 can perform 2 operations per cycle. A cycle being 1 hz. A Tbird or Xp can perform 3 operations per cycle (this is slightly simplified). Thats why they label their chips with an XP rating rather than a Ghz speed. If you look at pricing, the AMD processors tend to be much cheaper. Looking at pricewatch, Xp 1800+ is going for $69 where as the P4 1.8 is going for $157. Take your pick. The AMD XP1800+ will still outperform the P4 1.8 in almost all areas even though it only runs at 1533Mhz.

As for video cards, I use a GF4 Ti4200 with dual outs and vivo. It has excellent TV out (just as good as the ATIs) and is cheaper than the Radeon 8500. Its also much faster for gaming.  Umm nm, i just noticed the 8500 is cheaper. Personal preference.

I just upgraded to the Ti4200 and now an XP1800 that is oc'ed to XP2200 speed. Very cheap.

[SNAAAKE]

only price difference..

And for ati cards,they work better then anything when you are using tv for mame.

[SirPoonga]

Like everyone else said, AMDs in general (since AMD hired an ex DEC Alpha designer) are cheaper and perform better than the the comparable Pentium.


I surrently run a PIII500 for mame.  For my can, as soon as I get some money I plan on researching what the best price per performance chip is at the time.  I need somethingdecent to run other emus and such.  

As for just mame, it all depnds on the games you play.  But also you may find games that you think are cool but never played before.
With changed that happen in each version of mame, performance always changes.  That's why it is nice to keep around an older exe.

There are some good games to test mame out.  MK2 and 3 are good for sound.
NeoGeo Super Dodge ball is agreat for graphics.
http://www.mame.dk/gameinfo/sdodgeb/

[Arcade Guru]

Well thanks for all the answers guys!, I guess I will be checking out ebay to see which system I will be buying next week

The only thing I can't decide, and maybe you guys seen this, I have a GeForce3 Ti 200 with 128megs DDR, the card works great in windows But, for games like Mame and DAOC that flip the screen and seem like they go into some sort of "Dos" mode for the graphics, this card sucks, it shakes like crazy, I have'nt had any help anyplace with it, even when the computer is booting up and all the system messages are being displayed, the screen is shaking back and forth like +/- 1/8"

It's really annoying, and you just cannot play any mame games, hmmmm... let me try right now to play a game in a window and see how it looks.....nah it's just as slow in a window, I really want to play MK2  and Rampage World Tour , but they are so lagged and slow, the chick that talks in Rampage Sutters when she talks.

The main Question will the new AMD Proccessor and this video card still have the same preformance?, or will it be much better since the AMD will be faster than mine current CPU's?, I really don't want to spend another $80 to $200 for a video card if I already have this one.

Thanks again for any thoughts,

Lasareath

P.S.
I also have a Geforce 2 with 64megs that I'm not using, I guess I can allways test out with this GeForce 2 and if it's slow I'll get a newer faster card.

Like everyone else said, AMDs in general (since AMD hired an ex DEC Alpha designer) are cheaper and perform better than the the comparable Pentium.


I surrently run a PIII500 for mame.  For my can, as soon as I get some money I plan on researching what the best price per performance chip is at the time.  I need somethingdecent to run other emus and such.  

As for just mame, it all depnds on the games you play.  But also you may find games that you think are cool but never played before.
With changed that happen in each version of mame, performance always changes.  That's why it is nice to keep around an older exe.

There are some good games to test mame out.  MK2 and 3 are good for sound.
NeoGeo Super Dodge ball is agreat for graphics.
http://www.mame.dk/gameinfo/sdodgeb/

[rampy]

I'll gladly take your geforce 2 off yoru hands if you end up not wanting it using it anymore... (I've got a crappy 2meg trident in my cabinet...)  

I'll pay shipping if you wanted to donate it =P

rampy

[Arcade Guru]

What about this machine?, will this one do

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2056230295

all I need to add is a cdrom drive and a hard drive, I have an extra 15gb 7200 ata100 western digital

Should I get the $55.00 upgrade to the XP2000 chip?

Lasareath

[SNAAAKE]

Dude,
Did you know that you can go here  www.pricewatch.com and find really cool deals.

Its always cheaper to built your pc then have someone do it for you.

[Arcade Guru]

Ya I know, I've used Pricewatch before, I'm actually a IT tech for the past 14 years, and I've built lots of systems, I just like the ebay scene, I get another possitive feedback, it's easy and I don't have to build anything.

And Actually you can get better deals than some of those places on pricewatch

like this one below is the site that has the cheapest XP1800

AMD Barebones PC Kit
 256MB PC2100 DDR (Atlas Precision)
 ATX Case - 300w - 2 Full / 2 Half Bays
 CPU Copper Shim
 Warranty - 1 Year
 nVidia GeForce2 MX 400 64MB AGP
 1 System Case Fan
 1.44MB 3.5'' Floppy Drive
 AMD Athlon XP 1800 (266MHz FSB)
 40GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
 Mitsumi Soft-Touch Keyboard
 Mitsumi Scrolling Mouse
 Mega Fan CPU Cooler (80mm)
 32x12x40 CD Re-Writable Drive
 Asus A7S333 (DDR 2100/2700- 5 PCI - AGP 4x)

For $577.91 + $30 for ups Ground

This guy on ebay has very close system for buy-it-now at $410 + $50.00 for shipping

ASUS A7N266VM Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Cooling Fan+
256Mb PC2100 DDR Memory
40GB Ultra100 5400rpm 2M
3.5" FDD 1.44MB
nVIDIA GeForce2 graphics
104 Key PS2 Keyboard
PS2 Mouse
Dolby Digital Audio
200W mmSpeakers
10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
48x16x48x CDRW Drive IDE
ATX Tower Case 300W

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2056070602&rd=1


I guess I just do too much hands on computer work at work that I just want to buy a system already put together.

Thanks,

Lasareath

Dude,
Did you know that you can go here  www.pricewatch.com and find really cool deals.

Its always cheaper to built your pc then have someone do it for you.

[Nx87]

I agree with Snaaake. Pre-built computers usually suck. And theres alot more satisfaction in building your own.

[Arcade Guru]

Ya, I think Snaaake is right also, my Cabinet is a small sit-down model ( http://www.uodom.com/mame/mame.html ) , so I really dont have too much
room, so i'm going with this route below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2056304972&rd=1

and

http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/Shuttle/SS40G/

Can somebody please tell me what's a really good fan for my XP2000 chip that I will be getting?

Thanks,

Lasareath

I agree with Snaaake. Pre-built computers usually suck. And theres alot more satisfaction in building your own.

[Arcade Guru]

That's the other question I had, What about the MP chip from AMD?, Does anybody have one?, is it worth me spending the extra cash for the MP2000 rather than the XP2000 chip,

TIA,

Lasareath

[SNAAAKE]

Can somebody please tell me what's a really good fan for my XP2000 chip that I will be getting?

Thanks,

Lasareath

Sure,
http://www.tcwo.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=2469&sid=1gi2Ty0Wi9sT1an

The generic fan that came with my cpu suckd ballz..seriouslly

My cpu melted just like that...so now i give this new fan a try.So far works great.

Get the fan i suggest.

[rampy]

That's the other question I had, What about the MP chip from AMD?, Does anybody have one?, is it worth me spending the extra cash for the MP2000 rather than the XP2000 chip,

TIA,

Lasareath

I may be off slightly... but the only difference that I know about (or care to know about) is that the MP chip/chipset is Multi Processor capable... i.e it was designed to be put into a 2 cpu motherboard....

xp chips were not (without some clever hacking) to work in SMP/MP mode

Unless you're setting up a dualie mobo stick with the XP.

Rampy

[Chris]

I notice a lot of people like to overclock their cabinet processors... I'd like to note that air flow in most acrade cabinets is awful!  I would suggest that you try the games you want to play in normal clock mode and overclocked, and only overclock because you absolutely have to...

I have a Slot A 800 MHz Athlon Thunderbird in mine, and I can play all the games I care about... but I am mostly into "classic" gaming, like Pac-Man and Asteroids, and using an older version of MAME that supports the faster tweaked modes, those will run on some pretty tiny boxes!  The 800 is necessary for some sports games.  I still can't run S.T.U.N Runner at a decent frame rate even at the lowest resolution.

Of course, my main system only has a 1.2 GHz Athlon in it, and my wife is running a 600 MHz Athlon and my daughter is running a 400 MHz K6-II.  I'll upgrade the "real" computers before I upgrade the game cabinet...

I'll probably be putting together a cocktail cabinet soon for classig games that use 4-way joysticks; that machine will be getting a K6-II 400, which should be more than enough.

Oh, and it should be noted that my cabinet is running DOS, so I don't have to give up any CPU to Windows.

--Chris

[Nx87]

Not really a problem. Just drill some holes in the side and add a fan or 2.

Im building an Xp1700+ system for my cab. All i need now is a decent HD.

Oh yea ive got an XP1800+ (1533mhz) overclocked to XP2200+(1800mhz) and i use a global win Cak38 heatsink.

[nullb0y]

ok i hAVE A 1.3 GHZ CHIP IT LAGGS ON KOF 99/2K AND STREETFIGHTER THEM MOVIE RAM IS A NECISITY REMBER ATLEAST 256 I THINK I ONLY HAVE 128 I HATE RD RAM!!!!!!

[Chris]

Oh yea ive got an XP1800+ (1533mhz) overclocked to XP2200+(1800mhz) and i use a global win Cak38 heatsink.

I'm curious... Is there a ROM you couldn't run at 1800 that you can run at 2200?

--Chris

[Nx87]

Hehe. Ya know im not sure. I think this processor has spent maybe an hour of its life so at the actual XP1800 speed. I oc'ed it right away.