Anyone using a USB HD in Cabinet?

[GGKoul]

Hello

Just wondering if anyone is using a USB HD in there cabinet?  As I'm interested in purchasing one so I can hold everything romset I have and easliy move the drive from machine to machine.

But I'm wondering if anyone is running the game from the USB drive?  As I would like to know if there is any proformance loss by using a USB HD during gameplay.

Thanks!
-GG

[Hoagie_one]

i gotta think that the load times would be a hair slower, but almost not noticable on older games.  But i dont speak from experience

[GGKoul]

I think so too... but how bad of a loss...

[Santoro]

I would imagine that the only *in-game* issues you might experience would be with .CHD games.  Even then, I doubt you would notice it much if at all.  (this assumes USB2.0 connectivity.)

The smaller ROMs will be in RAM once loaded.

I am sure someone who has tried it will chime in.

[Trimoor]

I played around with one once, and I was able to get two streams of 720x480 DV video playing simultaneously with no lag.

[cholin]

Ive tried playing MAME off a USB HD.  Worked out fine, didnt notice a difference.  Im the one who would rather just load a hard drive in there for good and throw in a cheap $5 networking card for updates.  Im building a new house soon so it is much more convenient considerring Im already planning to run an Ethernet cable to every room in the house.  Wonderful to think ahead.

[GGKoul]

The reason for the USB HD is because I have everything is sitting on 4 different drives right now.  So I wanted to get 1 big drive to hold everything I had.  And since my Mame cab has a TV in it, it's hard to maintain everything on that machine.  As I don't really like working in windows on the TV monitor.  So I wanted to get a USB drive so I can easily take the drive to my upstairs machine to perform updates and various configs on my PC monitor. 

Tonight I'm going to be purchasing a 200g drive and place it in one of those USB HD cradles.

[Trimoor]

I highly recommend a network.  Even low speed wireless is easier than unplugging a drive and moving it around.  No need to interrupt anyone's gameplay.

[paigeoliver]

I have a USB 2.0 (laptop style drive, needs no external power) portable hard drive and it is great (I also have a much larger desktop style portable as well, that one needs and AC adaptor), but if you don't already own the equipment it would just be cheaper to get a used 30 or 40 GB hard drive and add that into the computer, really it isn't like you need to move the roms around that much.

[GGKoul]

I highly recommend a network.

[GGKoul]

I have a USB 2.0 (laptop style drive, needs no external power) portable hard drive and it is great (I also have a much larger desktop style portable as well, that one needs and AC adaptor), but if you don't already own the equipment it would just be cheaper to get a used 30 or 40 GB hard drive and add that into the computer, really it isn't like you need to move the roms around that much.

I already have my old drives in my mame pc.  A 20/30 & 60. 

[Mooshoo111]

I use a firewire disk for everything, but firewire is faster than usb so...

[krick]

I highly recommend a network.

[amerish]

I had a problem with my cab and hd space.  My Compaq only had a 40 gig and a cd rw.  The rom sets I had were on DVD. I wanted to keep my MAME Cab un-networked so I purchased a 200 gig hd and an external case.  I hooked it up with a USB cable.  Worked like a charm.  Loaded the dvds via my laptop (w / dvd) to the external then hooked it up to my CAB. No real lag time to speak of when data is accessed from the external.

On a side note, I have about 60 gig used on the external.  I have also allocated 40 gig on the external drive to ghost my compaq 40 gig hd.  I did not want to go through the nightmare of reinstalling the OS (XP Pro) on the compaq and then reinstall my Rad vid card.  For compaq owners or people thinking of compaq's for their cab, the video and sound are together. When the video was disabled the sound also stopped. Should have used an nvid card.  The Rad card I chose has to be the only video card in the machine. Took a while and some tweeking to get everything working just right.  I have learned the hard way from the past that Bill $$$'s operating systems have a tendency to crash.

I mention the ghosting because a few people were inquiring about backing up their cab.  An external HD is a good choice for doing that.

Hope this helps.

[cholin]

As I said before, I would rather just use the network.  Install some (probably pirated) remote access software so you *CAN* work comfortably from your desktop instead of whipping out a HD or a keyboard/whatever.  Im sure it would be easier for you too because it saves you time and money.  Wire the 200gb one for good then do the transfers over your network.  Even if you were to use the USB HD, you have to reach into the back of your cab, remove the HD, bring it to your comp, upload, bring back, reconnect, find out you forgot a file...etc

Answer though:  Remote access software over a network.  I've been using "Anyplace Control" over LAN to control the downstairs computer, and it works wonderful, even when the server (downstairs computer) is running at 350 mhz.  Give it a go, you may save more time than you think