Mac Mini

[97thruhiker]

Just wondering if anyone here uses a Mac Mini in their cabinet.  Are the emulator programs out there for the Apple line any good?  I went to Zophar's Domain and there seems to be plenty of different emulators for Mame and different console/computer systems.  Not having a Mac right now I have no idea how well these emulator programs run, etc.  Just curious as I have been a PC user for about ten years now but before that all I had was apples (apple II+, Mac+, etc.).  My current plan is to build a PC through Newegg, Chief Value, etc but I'm not opposed to buying an Apple if it will work.

[jhanson]

I have a Mac Mini, but I think it would be a waste to put it in a cabinet.  You'd be better off building something and throwing it in.  With the Mini, you're paying a premium for form-factor, and because it runs OS X.  You won't get the benefit of either of those things when using it in a cabinet.  You have plenty of space in that huge cabinet, so you can use a larger but more powerful (or larger but cheaper... or both) PC instead.  Hopefully, you won't have to touch the OS very often if it's in a cabinet, so you'll never have a chance to enjoy OS X.

I recommend one of the following options:

1.  Spend the $500 you would be spending on a Mac Mini, build yourself a bigger but more powerful PC to put in your cabinet, and be happy.
2.  Spend $300 on a bigger (and still possibly more powerful) PC, use the $200 you saved to get some awesome artwork and/or some extra nice joysticks for your cabinet, and be happy.
3.  Use the Mac Mini as your desktop machine, stick whatever PC you have now in the cabinet, enjoy OS X, and be happy.

[NoOne=NBA=]

The only glaring blemish on the Mac (from a cabinet standpoint) is that it currently lacks the customizable front-end/command line features of the PC.

If you set it up in a cabinet, this means that you won't be able to run everything from a single front-end, and it will end up with more of a "computer in a cabinet" feel.

That said, I have a G3/300 driving my vertical-only cab, plans to build a cocktail around a G3 Imac, and plans to swap out my G3/300 into a vector-only cabaret when I get it built.

The older versions (.30-.33) of MacMAME look, and sound, much better on the vector games than the newer versions, and the PC versions for some reason.