Virtual Jukebox Minimum Specs

[ashardin]

Just wanted to get some opinions and see what results people have been getting.  I'm going to set up a touchscreen jukebox using Virtual Jukebox and use a dedicated PC to run it.  

My question is with the experience that you may have had with the software, where is my money best spent on the machine.  I see Ebay has a guy selling a bunch of p2 400 mhz Gateways for under $100.  They have 224 mb of RAM, and a 6 gig HD.  My plan was to install Windows 98 on the 6 gig drive, and then add an 80 gig drive that would have the music/VJB/covers etc.  I'll probably also add a nice soundcard with RCA line outs (nothing too spendy, just a quality card) to get a good signal out.

I currently don't have a network set up at home, but I figured I could hook the 80 gig drive as a slave on my Athlon 2200+, rip using that machine(using CDDB functions), and then transfer that drive to the jukebox machine when its done.

If I stick a couple hundred albums on there with covers, will I start to experience problems (slowdowns, etc.) with that machine?  Or should it work being as there is a good amount of RAM in there.  

I appreciate any input, I just want to get some opinions and experiences before I start to pull out the CC.  I don't mind spending the money to get good, seemless performance, but at the same time, don't want to get more machine than I need to.

[BobA]

I am currently running VJB on a 1200 AMD and a 450 AMD. Both have about 384 Mb memory and while the 1200 is faster the 450 is acceptable.  

I only have about 120 albums at this time and it will be a while before I get over 200 so I am not sure how this will impact the final configuration.   You do have the option in VJB of loading all albums at startup or as required so there is an choice to be made if you do not like a long startup delay.

My choice if I did not have the 450 would be to use the 1200.  If you are buying one now then my advice would be to go for something faster then 400 so that the unit would be more flexible in the future.  

For example just add a gamepad and some roms and you have a great arcade machine too.

Just my personal opinion.

BobA

[kems]

It's my first post, I bought virtual jukebox as I plan on making a dedicated jukebox pc. The machine i was hoping to use is an old 233mhz mmx machine with 128mb ram from a friend , my home PC is athlon 1700 on widows XP and there are a few bugs with VJ, some keys dont work etc... overall its great and its the software that inspired me to start this project.

I thought the 233mhz whould run jukebox without a problem (still havn't setup) i was planning to use windows 95 as this should load faster? any suggestions? I have already gone a bought the tft display for it!

[Donor]

I haven't had much luck using virtual jukebox with windows 98, xp seems to work much better. I also tried a p2 450 mhz pc with 256 megs of ram. It ran very slow, I upgraded to a  p3 600 and it runs fine but I wouldn't go under 600 mhz.

[ashardin]

No need to worry about upgrades to games as I already have a dedicated mame cabinet (can you tell I'm single and don't have to worry about a wife approval factor (WAF)).
Actually, I use my mame cabinet (which is an running an Athlon 1800+) as a jukebox right now but you run into the problem of not being able to play games and listen to music at the same time, which I like to do.

I was worried about speed as I increased the number of albums.  I don't mind about the loadup time at all, as it is a dedicated machine.  I want quick and easy use without slowdowns.  I was hoping a lower end machine with extra ram would allow all of the covers and song titles to be loaded into memory.  I figured it I did it I would do it right and put my entire collection in there (500+ albums right now).

Any other experiences?