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Building a computer for my Cab

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moonpatrol 4 lyfe:

Dear Fellow MAME Cabbers,

Right now I have 3 options.

a.) I ditch my beloved GeForce FX5200 in favor of Arcade VGA.

b.) I use AdvanceMAME with my GeForce card.

c.) I build a new PC for my MAME cab.

If I decide to build a new computer, what exactly will I need?  I've never built a computer from scratch before, so I'm not 100% sure.

I have a 40 gig harddrive I can strip from a donor computer as well as a couple of CD rom drives.  They aren't the latest in technology, but I dont think that will affect the performance of my cab.

What kind of motherboard/processor will I need?  I'm thinking something with onboard sound since Arcade games weren't exactly pinacles of crystal clear music, and I'm hoping it'll be cheaper to buy a board with an incorporated soundcard.  I'll also need USB ports for J-Pac and I-Pac interfaces... possibly an Opti-Pac down the road.  I'd also like to have enough processing power to play anything from PacMan to SFII and Mortal combat, to NeoGeo games.  I dont think I'll be running anything with huge CHD files, since nothing can smoothly emulate that anyways.  Are there any games that have requirements above a NeoGeo game, but less than a huge CHD game?

I'll definately need a motherboard with an AGP slot that is compatible with ArcadeVGA.  All the new Intel chipsets are abandoning AGP and going to PCI express, so I'm hoping I can get a deal, since Arcade VGA is AGP anyways.  (Would I perhaps be better off with an athalon processor?)

How much RAM will I need?  512, 1 gig?  I'm thinking Windows XP, since there seems to be a lot of MAME related programs, drivers, etc available for XP.

I'll need a powersupply and some sort of cooling system as well.  I have a bunch of old 386's and 486's I can jack fans from to get some circulation in the cab.  Will I need a heat sink?  A special fan directly over the motherboard?

How much is this whole thing gonna cost me?

Thanks again!
-Bill

Will:

Well if you have ever installed a hard drive or a cd-rom drive and can read instrunctions well you can certainly build a pc.What do you need to build a pc.Here are some good choiced.
1.case=a good easy case to work with is the antec sonanta ,great cooling and silent and comes with a power supply and a big 120 mm cooling fan.
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15138
2.motherboard=I like intel products so all my picks are with a pentium 4 in mind.Asus p4p800 motherboard has agp that you wanted an easy to set up.
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4c800-d/overview.htm
3.processor=your choice of speed but you should be able to get a 2.8 to 3.0 for a pretty good price.
4.ram=512 is probably plenty for mame I run a little bit more than that but it depends what your doing with pc.DDR400 memory is plenty fast.
5.sound card=I bought a older soundblaster off ebay for 10.00 shipped.You could go with a motherboard with onboard sound but I wouldn't know which to recommend.
6.Hard Drive and DVD drive=your choice of size and brand but I have 200 gigs of space on my mame rig.
I love building pc's, thanks god for my new addiction arcade control panel ergonomics has kept my away from building pc's.If only building a mame cabinet was as easy as a home built pc.My component recommendations are probably a little bit on the high end for a mame pc but those items are rock solid and "reliable".Im using a p4 2.4 in my mame system and there still is some slowdown in just a handfull of games so a faster cpu wont hurt you.

yourfatmama:

i like AMD processors, but it doesnt really matter that much which way you go just ensure that you match up the mobo w/ the cpu.

**is it a sickness that i check the byoac forums bi-daily ?

Pacific Ripper:

Watch out for electro-static discharge when you put install some components like the processor or RAM. Wear a grounding bracelet or make sure you are grounded at all times.

pointdablame:


--- Quote from: Pacific Ripper on January 05, 2005, 10:48:02 am ---Watch out for electro-static discharge when you put install some components like the processor or RAM. Wear a grounding bracelet or make sure you are grounded at all times.

--- End quote ---

This is a good point, but you don't really need a grounding bracelet unless you are in an area that has A LOT of static electricity.   I've built god knows how many computers now, and have been digging inside of many more, and have never worn a static bracelet.   I've never had a component fail once.   

It really isn't a concern unless you know you have a lot of static in your area... and even then... computer components are a lot tougher than you'd imagine.  I've personally seen components shocked with static electricity and they worked fine afterwards.

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