thinking of building a jukebox...have some questions

[hulkster]

i was showing my wife some of the jukeboxes on this site and she said "oh cool, we could use something like that, since we have a lot of cd's."  of course i told her about how it's a computer with mp3's, blah blah blah.  anyway, i said "so youve given me the green light to build one then??"  well she didnt exactly give me the green light, because the first thing she said was "looks expensive".....

so thats my first question, how much do these things run generally?  i know i could really go crazy and get awesome speakers, sound system, pc, etc.  but this wouldnt be a crazy huge juke, just a regular size one, that plays songs with some decent speakers.  can someone give me a margin or estimate on how much i will spend? 

i know plans are available on the net, but are there some plans that everyone goes by thats just out to build a regular old juke?  kinda like the UAII cabs and the arcade cab building. 

any answers would be super.

[AlanS17]

Do you want a touch screen or control panel? Do you want dedicated speakers or to wire into an existing stereo? Do you want something to stand next the arcade machine, sit on a counter, or hang on a wall? These all affect price.

Otherwise, the PC is pretty cheap. Any piece of junk will do the trick. The only thing you really need is a big hard drive unless you wanted super crazy fancy visual effects. Then you'd need a nicer video card. However, in my experience, most video cards can handle visual effects just fine - even built-in cards.

[DrewKaree]

Do you want a touch screen or control panel? Do you want dedicated speakers or to wire into an existing stereo? Do you want something to stand next the arcade machine, sit on a counter, or hang on a wall? These all affect price.

Figure a basic something or other would allow you to use a PC monitor - prolly cheaper than your TV for your showcase.  Buttons would cost less - check Happs for what you'd like...the keypad that you may have seen is a pretty good option too.  You won't have to buy joysticks or any other controls like that.  You won't need a coin door.  You'll prolly end up buying 2-3 less sheets of MDF than your cab (you bought 4, IIRC, yes?)

Subtract out all those costs (joys, controls, MDF, etc) and you'll get a pretty good idea based on the price of your cab minus all the extraneous stuff you won't need.

Otherwise, the PC is pretty cheap. Any piece of junk will do the trick. The only thing you really need is a big hard drive unless you wanted super crazy fancy visual effects. Then you'd need a nicer video card. However, in my experience, most video cards can handle visual effects just fine - even built-in cards.

Not necessarily.  Depending on your software you wanna use, you may need something a bit better, but more likely Alan will be correct.  Figure out what software you like (I've found having the wife try it will do two things

1.  You'll find out if she will be able to easily use it
2.  She'll get more "on board" with the idea after trying it

After figuring out what software you wanna use, the site will tell you the requirements you'll need.

I've got drawrings/plans if you need.  Shoot me a PM if you see something you like but no plans.

[allroy1975]

I'm just about done with mine.  I spent more on the speakers than probably what the rest of the whole thing cost.  Of course, I wanted to do something I had never seen done before, and rather than planning I just go buy stuff and try it.  When it doesn't work, that was money wasted.  Well, not wasted, but not used. 

I went through a lot of different gears to get my CDs spinning.  Bought a few different motors.  you know... that kind of stuff.  Oh, I also spent a lot on REAL aluminum T-Molding.  That's expensive.

If you've got the PC and a monitor and a decent set of speakers I think you should be able to build one for less than $200 pretty easily.  I'm just guessing though and I'm real tired. 

Allroy