Couple of questions about mame cabinet

[Abomination]

Hey guys, brand new to all this and am already in waist deep  .  Anyway two questions, one I need to buy a new computer for this cabinet but I was thinking that I could use my current computer for the cabinet and just build myself a new one, question is this tho-  Whats the fastest computer (AMD, memory and video card wise) that MAME can take advantage of.  Also Im using the cabinet to play console emulators.

Second question is about the UAII cabinets, do they come with both sides finished in that black laminate or only one side, some pictures look like both some look like one.

Thanks in advance guys and Ill post pictures when I start my cabinet in a week or two here.

Dave

[RayB]

Whats the fastest computer (AMD, memory and video card wise) that MAME can take advantage of.

[Scott84]

For Games like Cruisn' series and such. You need as fast as you can get. IE. 4GHZ+

[Abomination]

sorry guess Ill have to elaborate   Im building a 4 player mame cabinet and want it to be able to play all current mame games in the latest release and to make it a bit future proof at least for a year or so.  If your telling me such a computer doesnt yet exist.. then would my best bet be to get an athalon 64 FX and a 7800gt card?! .   One question tho, how can a game need a faster computer than exists to run it at full speed?  I mean what are some of these games using to run from the factory, phase change cooled crays   Or am I missing some concept on how games run in factory cabs??

As for what games and era Im building a 4 player cab and really like the fighting games I grew up with (mortal combat, Street fighter II ect) and sadly enough only want the other two controls for Teenage mutant ninja turtles and xmen :p so Id say games starting in the late 80's but mainly 90's to current day.

Reason im asking is I have an athalon xp 2.2 ghz in my computer now and was thinking of using it for the mame cabinet and buying myself a new one, but if I need 4ghz+ Ill just buy a new computer for it.

Also Im using a TV as a monitor any video cards you guys suggest?

And anyone know what kind of finish the UAII cab has (laminate on both sides or only one?)

[Bones]

Seriously man. Try the search function.

"What type of PC should I use" is one of the most frequently asked questions here and there are dozens & dozens of threads discussing your PC related questions.

If you try and fail people will help you but at least try first.

[Abomination]

Seriously man. Try the search function.

"What type of PC should I use" is one of the most frequently asked questions here and there are dozens & dozens of threads discussing your PC related questions.

If you try and fail people will help you but at least try first.

Thanks for your suggestion, I already have searched this and other mame sites and they all seem to be putting the oldest computers in the world in thier CABS and running slimmed down versions of windows 98 or dos and old versions of mame.  I was asking what the line is or if there was one on speed of the computer for the new games (apparently the faster the better w/o a limit).  There is almost nothing on the web that I could find (granted im not the best with the internet) that related to higher end computers and newer games.

Also if you read my full post you would have seen I had two questions, one on computer speed and one on the material of the UAII cabinet (looked on thier forums, I posted there a week ago and that even today is the most recent activity and no response to their customer service dept by email)

But what noobie thread would be complete without at least one troll stopping by.

[Bones]

Also if you read my full post you would have seen I had two questions, one on computer speed and one on the material of the UAII cabinet

I only attempted to help you on one of your questions.

there are dozens & dozens of threads discussing your PC related questions.

But what noobie thread would be complete without at least one troll stopping by.

Believe it or not, I attempted to help you. Time invested in searching will result in you finding more information than hoping people will answer your question, a question that has been flogged to death here. The fact is if you searched you would already have the answers but hey, treat me as trolling if it makes you feel better.

[Timoe]

Buy the plans and build/modify your own UAII.  You'll have more fun.

But if you buy the kit, then yes both sides are covered in the black melamine.  Not as nice as formica. but meh.....

Try and ger a comp aroun 2Ghz if yer gonna do alotta console emulators and try and play more modern stuff.  I plan on using PC games in my cab so I opted for 3Ghz, cause I had access.  Save money and get a 2.2G and you'll be fine.

I ALSO SUGGEST THE FAQ pages. not only are they informative, they'll answer most of the early questions and THEYRE JUST PLAIN COOL  (sorry for the caps)

[Timoe]

Oh yeah, and welcome to the ADDICTION BYOAC boards

[Abomination]

Thanks thats exactly the info I was looking for, I can use my old comp for the machine easily enough then   And Id like to get the plans and mod the UAII cabinet but after looking at the cost of materials and equipment (I would have to buy a router, saw, sawhorses ect to build) Its just easier to get the prebuilt one /shrug.

[Timoe]

I've already bought or collected all the tools and materials but sometimes I think about how easy it would be to just buy the kit and throw it all together in an hour or so as opposed to 3 months of work every other weekend.

[brophog]

Half of the fun is designing and building the thing. I can go BUY a console and plug in a control and use it. Where's the fun in that? A Mame cabinet is as much a creation as a gaming platform, to me atleast.

Oh, and this is an amazing resource. I never post because I think every answer under the sky is around here somewhere.

[RayB]

One question tho, how can a game need a faster computer than exists to run it at full speed?

[Tiger-Heli]

Here's another example to help you understand a little better why the speed difference:

PacMan - Ran in the arcades on a Motorola Z80 @ 3.072MHz.  This is about equivalent to the IBM PC XT, which used an Intel 8088 (8086?) CPU at 4.77 Mhz.  Slowest PC to play it in MAME would be around a Pentium I 150 Mhz (guesstimating).  Not only is that about 30 times faster, but it also five generations of chips faster - 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium IV, etc.

Modern Games - SF Rush - R5000 (little) @ 200MHz, also a TMS32031 @ 33.8688MHz.  The main processor on this board is a little faster than the Pentium PC I mentioned above.   I've seen estimates that it would take a Pentium 4 at about 10Ghz to run it properly.  More realistically, 30x speed would be about 6 Ghz, so probably in about 4 years, on a Pentium 8 at 6 Ghz, it should be playable.

BTW - Really modern games - Afterburner 3 (unemulated) runs on a Intel Pentium 4 3.0G HT (800Mhz FSB - 1MB L2 Cache) with a 256M graphics card and a GIG of Ram.  It will probably be about 10-12 years before computers will be fast enough to play emulations of this (and maybe longer to white the code).

Bottom line is - 95% of the games in MAME will play decently on about a 1.5 - 2.0 Ghz processor, and the other 5% are unplayable on hardware at triple the price, so . . .

[JCL]

Here's another example to help you understand a little better why the speed difference:

PacMan - Ran in the arcades on a Motorola Z80 @ 3.072MHz.