Motherboard help - ISA, AGP

[mmmPeanutButter]

I am planning on building a Mame cabinet (running DOS) and I'm working on getting the computer together first.  I'm looking to buy an AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (or 1800+).  I'm having some problems finding a motherboard so I have a few questions:

Is it reccomended to get an ISA port for a soundblaster if the MoBo comes with "AC'97 2.2 Audio CODEC Onboard"?  Will the onboard audio have any problems running with MAME in DOS? (Finding a MoBo with ISA *and* 266MHz FSB processor support is tough)

Also, one of the boards that I found has "Trident Blade 3D Video Integrated" but only allows for 8Megs of system mem to be used.  The board also doesn't have an AGP slot.  So is it best to get a MoBo that has a large memory intergrated video, an AGP slot so I can get a large memory video card, or is the 8meg onboard sufficient? And, if I were to get this board, are PCI video cards sufficient??  What amount of video memory is reccomended?

I know I asked a lot, but if you have any answers or advice, let me know.  Thanks.

Just for reference, the MoBo I've been looking at is: (Biostar M7VKQ)

http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/socket_a/m7vkq/index.php3

[Lord_Hutt]

I am planning on building a Mame cabinet (running DOS) and I'm working on getting the computer together first.  I'm looking to buy an AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (or 1800+).  I'm having some problems finding a motherboard so I have a few questions:

Is it reccomended to get an ISA port for a soundblaster if the MoBo comes with "AC'97 2.2 Audio CODEC Onboard"?  Will the onboard audio have any problems running with MAME in DOS? (Finding a MoBo with ISA *and* 266MHz FSB processor support is tough)

Also, one of the boards that I found has "Trident Blade 3D Video Integrated" but only allows for 8Megs of system mem to be used.  The board also doesn't have an AGP slot.  So is it best to get a MoBo that has a large memory intergrated video, an AGP slot so I can get a large memory video card, or is the 8meg onboard sufficient? And, if I were to get this board, are PCI video cards sufficient??  What amount of video memory is reccomended?

I know I asked a lot, but if you have any answers or advice, let me know.  Thanks.

Just for reference, the MoBo I've been looking at is: (Biostar M7VKQ)

http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/socket_a/m7vkq/index.php3

I have just built a couple pc's in the last month and I would not even consider a motherboard without and AGP slot....preferably an 8X one.

[Warborg]

I am planning on building a Mame cabinet (running DOS) and I'm working on getting the computer together first.  I'm looking to buy an AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (or 1800+).  I'm having some problems finding a motherboard so I have a few questions:

Is it reccomended to get an ISA port for a soundblaster if the MoBo comes with "AC'97 2.2 Audio CODEC Onboard"?  Will the onboard audio have any problems running with MAME in DOS? (Finding a MoBo with ISA *and* 266MHz FSB processor support is tough)

Also, one of the boards that I found has "Trident Blade 3D Video Integrated" but only allows for 8Megs of system mem to be used.  The board also doesn't have an AGP slot.  So is it best to get a MoBo that has a large memory intergrated video, an AGP slot so I can get a large memory video card, or is the 8meg onboard sufficient? And, if I were to get this board, are PCI video cards sufficient??  What amount of video memory is reccomended?

I know I asked a lot, but if you have any answers or advice, let me know.  Thanks.

Just for reference, the MoBo I've been looking at is: (Biostar M7VKQ)

http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/socket_a/m7vkq/index.php3

I have just built a couple pc's in the last month and I would not even consider a motherboard without and AGP slot....preferably an 8X one.

While I agree that I'd never buy a motherboard without an AGP slot, getting one with an 8X AGP slot for this application is WAY overkill.

[Lilwolf]

And make sure there isn't onboard video.  Why?  they almost always suck and you will need a decent board if you want to use hardware stretching (very nice).

As for the isa slot.  Why do you want dos for 1.8ghz machine?  Go with windows and you wont have a problem.  But it's always nice to get one for legacy support, but I wouldn't plan around dos unless your hardware deprived.  (btw, I had trouble a week ago when I was trying to get a second ISA card in my machine for a few minutes.... all my soundcards and all my modems are isa.  There are uses... just not as much as there used to be).

[BobA]

I would have to ask WHY DOS?   An AMD 1700 will run mame just great under windows of some flavour.   Most of the newest cards have no ISA slots and many do not have drivers to run their integrated components under DOS.  Think ahead when you are building your cab.  DOS will be dropped and many newer emulators only run under windows.  You don't need alot of video memory for MAME right now but that may not be true in the future.  Get the newest and fastest and run under XP if you can.

Just My Opinion

Bob

[mmmPeanutButter]

Thanks a lot for the help.  The AGP gets a resounding thumbs up.  I guess if I go with windows then all of my problems will be solved (who would have thought).  Once I start my cocktail cab, I'll be documenting the whole thing on my website.  I'll post it in the project announcements.

Thanks again...   I love this site.  

[RandyT]

I have just built a couple pc's in the last month and I would not even consider a motherboard without and AGP slot....preferably an 8X one.

Just a quick note here:

8x AGP is great (most new boards are coming  out with this as standard), but from what I have been reading the performance jump isn't nearly what the "8x" would seem to imply.  Just like the difference between 2x and 4x wasn't that great, neither is 4x to 8x.  There are a LOT of other factors that impact graphic performance more than this.

RandyT