Is this good enough hardware?

[JONTHEBOMB]

At this point in time the computer I'm running MAME on has the following specs.

It's a Compaq Presario
Processor is 450MHz AMD K6-2
Memory is 312Mb (128 stick, 128 stick, and a semi working 64 stick
Chipset is SIS Sinbad
I just installed a new soundblaster card

The problem is a ton of games have a sound echoing problem.
When I fire a missile in Tempest I hear it repeat twice again after the initial fire.  I have messed around with the MAME settings but nothing changes the current predicament I'm stuck in.  This leads me to believe that my computer is to slow or I need a new one.  Should this computer be able to run 80's games without any trouble?

[Bluntman]

Likely is the slow CPU, if you cut the audio sample rate in half, or 1/4 it should clear up your problem.

[JONTHEBOMB]

Unfortunately I just tried cutting the audio sample rate both in half and also I tried a quarter but it didn't solve the problem.

Thanks for the suggestion

[paigeoliver]

Unfortunately I just tried cutting the audio sample rate both in half and also I tried a quarter but it didn't solve the problem.

Thanks for the suggestion

Also, you should be using mame .55 with that setup. Drop back to that version.

And do OTHER audio apps do the same thing?

[JONTHEBOMB]

And do OTHER audio apps do the same thing?

No other audio apps do the same thing to my knowledge.

Can anybody tell me how to run .55 I have downloaded the file mame055b_i686 from http://www.mame.net/ and I have extracted the file to my desktop but from their I'm lost.

On a different topic since the older version of mame isn't working I'm looking at a PC with the following specs

Processor: AMD Sempron 2200+
Memory: 256MB DDR
Hard Drive: 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Video: Integrated SiS Real256E 2D/3D Graphics with up to 64MB Shared Memory
Audio: Integrated Realtek ALC655 6-Channel audio

For only $289.95(Is this a good deal???)  at www.krex.com
Would this PC be able to run all the 80's games in the current version of mame with no problems?

Update: I ended up buying parts from krex and built my own PC.  The sound works fine with my new PC.  Also, I did figure out how to run the .55 mame file but the sound was still off on the old computer.