Will this PC be OK?

[BigRon]

Hi there,

I'm just starting out building my first cab and I've been offered a PC by a guy at my work for not a lot of cash. I was wondering upto what years games do you think it will handle - i really want to be able to play Street Fighter 2 / Metal Slug / Marvel vs Capcom etc.

I've got MAME32 0.95 and the specs are:

1Ghz Pentium 3
20 Gb Hard DRive
128 Mb RAM
GeForce 2 MX 32Mb Graphics card
On board sound

Is it ok as is or would i need to upgrade it? Also, would it be worth changing the version of MAME i have to improve performance?

Any help gratefully received

Thanks

[sc1103]

The first post covers almost everything you asked about:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=14155.0

[AlanS17]

At least this question is more specific than most of the "Is my PC good enough?" questions out there. To play games you want to play, that PC will work fine. You may have to use an earlier version of MAME like something around .70, though.

... and I suggest more RAM.

[Lilwolf]

I wouldn't spend more then a few bucks for it really.  Computers of that speed are usually given away.

But if its super cheap... then the answer is yes.... Assuming you like classic games.

There are a few major speed jumps in mame.  v.36 is a HUGE one.  Almost all of the console / handheld ports are based on these versions.  Good for 450s and below.

Then around .58 or something is another one.  I don't remember this one as well since I had a 2ghz at that point and it wasn't a big deal.

But look for a version around when 1ghz was a standard machine and you will be able to play the majority of mames games.

Remember, you CAN have more then one version of mame when you have a good frontend.  Also, some other emulators will do you well for some games.