Help me buy a good MAME system

[Nocturnaloner]

see but that's the thing.. .you CAN'T play ever game.  I don't care what system you have.. you just can't. The debate is really about those who DEMAND to be able to play as many games as possible even if a $2000 computer can only play a dozen or so more games than a $300 computer.  I'm not directing that directly at you... I know you were generalizing like you said.. but the point still stands

Oh I know that, no worries.  I have no expectations of playing Blitz in the near future, and don't really care about it, frankly.

I guess my point is that different people want to get different things out of a MAME box, and no one is 'right'.  I just struck the best balance between my budget and the games I want to play.

[CPickler]

How much power does it take to play Blitz?

[Nocturnaloner]

No one really knows.  I've seen estimates range from a 7 to 10ghz processor.

[pointdablame]

I don't know much about Blitz, but I know people have estimated similar speeds for the Cruisin' games.... it'll be a while.

[CPickler]

how do they run them in the arcades then?

whoa.... do they have to run like quad Xeon boards or something?

[pointdablame]

how do they run them in the arcades then?

whoa.... do they have to run like quad Xeon boards or something?

No.  Its just that the hardware used in the arcade.. when run through standard computer components... takes a lot of horsepower.

Remember, our PCs are EMULATING these games.  A lot of people forget that emulation requires the compter to BECOME the hardware, for lack of a simpler analogy.  You are not just playing Cruisin' USA.. you are turing your computer INTO a Cruisin' USA machine.  When you factor in the fact that every chip/board/processor/etc has to be emulated, you can see why games could run full speed in the arcades years ago, but can't be played right on PCs

Cruisin' and other games didn't use super uber 1337 hardware when they were made... they were simply made in a way that makes emulating it a very processor and system intensive process.

[SOAPboy]

This makes me feel inferior.

I am running a P3 for my MAME system.

[IntruderAlert]

I ended up with a good deal on a P4 2.4ghz and 512mb ram.
I'm planning to try mame096b unless you guys recommend a different version for this setup.

[AlanS17]

If you have have a local Fry's, I'd check there. They have weekly circulars that ALWAYS include at least one cpu/mobo combo on the front page. They post these circulars in the store, too, in case you don't get the newspaper. These sales usually go from friday til tuesday. They happen every wekk, though. They're pretty much always AMD combos, but some of them are rediculously cheap.

Case in point, the sale ending today has an AMD Sempron 2600+ with mobo for $69.99. Don't worry, though. They'll have something comparable coming up this weekend again. They ALWAYS do.

I know it's not quite the stats you're looking at, but it plays that vast majority of truly playable games. Anything faster may be an exercise in futility.

DISCLAIMER: I have not read all the posts following the initial post so I don't know if the person in question has already chosen his CPU/mobo. However, this info is still good for anybody.

[IntruderAlert]

LOL 
..eh .. read the post right above yours dude 

..thanks for the suggestion though

[AlanS17]

LOL
..eh .. read the post right above yours dude

[IntruderAlert]

how much is too much? 

[IntruderAlert]

Case in point, the sale ending today has an AMD Sempron 2600+ with mobo for $69.99.

That's a good deal Alan
Your DISCLAIMER just caught me as being funny..  lol

I got the P4 2.4ghz, mobo and 512mb RAM shipped for about $140
not too bad.. but maybe not as good as your deal
I got tired of waiting around though

so anyway..
should I go for mame096b ? 

[AmericanDemon]

*couch* paid too much *couch* 

Heh.  Dont you mean Cough? 

[markrvp]

In my main "Do-Everything" cabinet I have a 3 Ghz P4 machine with 1 gig of RAM.

[IntruderAlert]

so anyway..
should I go for mame096b ? 

[elvis]

how do they run them in the arcades then?

whoa.... do they have to run like quad Xeon boards or something?

elvis fires up the MAME-FAQ-O-MATIC (tm)

*whirrr*  *whizzz* *chugga chugga*

A01. Why this FAQ?
http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#a01

G02. What do I need to run MAME?
http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#g02

T10. Why do some games run so slowly on my system?
http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#t10

T11. How can I get <insert game here> to run faster?
http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#t11

M13. When will MAME use Direct3D/OpenGL to emulate <insert insane 3D system here>?
http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#m13

M14. Why does MAME become slower all the time?
http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#m14

M15. Why is MAME so slow? These games ran at less than 10 MHz, and my CPU is 500 MHz!
http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#m15

M16. Why don't the developers put more hacks in MAME?
http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#m16

All questions answered yet again by the marvellous FAQ.

[Flinkly]

i'd run 96.

[IntruderAlert]

Thanks Flinkly

[AlanS17]

*couch* paid too much *couch*

[krick]

the computer in my mame cab is a 2.8Ghz P4 with 512M of memory.

The board is a hand-me-down from a friend.  He got rid of it because it tops out at 533 FSB and doesn't support hyperthreading.  ASUS P4S533 if anyone cares.

The memory is a couple of sticks that I had laying around from other upgrades.

I bought the CPU.  2.8GHz is the fastest non-hyperthreading intel P4 (533 fsb) CPU available.  Or at least it was at the time.

I also bought a good power supply, the Vantec ION.  It has a standard 3-prong power outlet on the back that turns on and off with the computer.  No need for a smart strip.

I really like the board for several reasons...

1) very stable and not too much onboard crap

2) decent onboard sound that doesn't use a lot of CPU cycles.

3) dual serial ports in case I decide to run DOS mame with my Opti-PAC and two trackballs.

4) ASUS has a cool utility to create custom BIOS boot screens.


Anyway, it's capable of running every game I've tried so far.  I don't run any of the really cutting edge stuff (mainly CHD) though.

[Fat_Trucker]

My MAME cab runs on a socket A, Athlon 3200+ and 512Mb Ram and runs everything without any problems except some of the CHD games like cruisin etc.

My Main PC is an Athlon 64 4000+ with a GeForce 6800GT, 1Mb RAM etc etc and it still doesn't play some of the CHD games like Cruisin etc with a playable framerate.

In terms of a MAME machine any Mid level Pentium or Socket A Athlon will run everything that is currently playable in MAME. There's nothing wrong with future proofing and building it on a high spec system just bear in mind that for a dedicated MAME machine its money down the drain at the moment and for the foreseeable future since some of the CHD games won't run in a playable state on any home system regardless of how many whistles and bells its got.

Might make more sense to build a cheap mid level system now and spend the extra moolah in a year or two when there might actually be a need for it.

[HaRuMaN]

I run Killer Instinct 1 at 100% and KI2 at close to 100% with a P4 2.8 ghz with hyperthreading, and 512 megs of ram...  god I love my laptop...   

[Tiger-Heli]

how do they run them in the arcades then?

whoa.... do they have to run like quad Xeon boards or something?

According to MAWS, Blitz used a RISC ( I think) R5000 @ 150 Mhz.

Okay, here's an example that maybe some of us (older) folks can relate to.

PacMan according to MAWS ran on a Motorola Z80 @ 3.072MHz

This is roughly equivalent to the first IBM Desktop PC's which ran an Intel 8088 @ 4.77 MHz.

For Desktop PC's this was replaced by the Turbo 10 Mhz machines, The 80286 - 20 Mhz, The 80386, 80486 (around 75Mhz), the Pentium at 150 to 200 Mhz, and modern hardware.

Somewhere around the Pentium 150 - Pacman became playable in MAME (older versions), but this is a 30x increase in clock speed, not to mention 5 GENERATIONS of processors.  (A game that was designed to run on a 80286 without speed throttling would be unplayable (too fast) on the same system).

By the same logic, a 4.5 Ghz system should handle Blitz, but you also need a 4.5 Ghz system that is five generations beyond a Risc R5000 processor (probably about Pentium class hardware).  So the MAME devs are probably pretty close with estimates of a P4 at 7-10 Ghz or a P5 or P6 at 5 or 6 Ghz.

Another thing to keep in mind is that performance is going to change with each new release ... games that you might be gearing your system towards today might be slower or even unplayable in the a future (hence, so many people locking in on particular versions).

It's a moving target and the target doesn't always move in the direction you might think.

CheffoJeffo

CheffoJeffo -

It IS a moving target, but you don't have to move along with it.

Case in point - PacMan is currently probably unplayable on a Pentium 200 with the latest build, but they haven't updated the driver, so it won't play any better in MAME 0.96 on a Sempron 1.5 than it did in MAME 0.36 on a Pentium 200.

For that matter, some of the sound in CABAL was fixed in MAME 0.8x something, but it was fun to play before that, so if you never tried the later one, you wouldn't notice.