The best motherboard for a cab?

[arcadecollecting]

My ideal motherboard/CPU setup would be something that has no post screen, boots really fast, and has built in sound hardware that works with DOS MAME so you don't have to wait for Windows to load. Plus it should be really cheap, small and fast.

Only problem is I haven't found such a thing. Anyone?

[elvis]

No such thing.  All onboard sound is PCI based, and therefor a pain in the arse to configure in DOS.

Consider the life-span of DOS.  Consider when it was invented, and when it fell out of support.  Consider the time frame between that day, and today, and the adavnces made in both software and hardware, and the drivers needed to make the two communicate.

And with all that in mind, consider that there are viable alternatives to DOS that will support new/fast hardware.

[Lilwolf]

and you shouldn't be buying any new hardware to work with dos.  You will get near same - better performance with windows on any new system because of the better (cough) memory managment and video drivers. 

And you will go through a LOT of headaches so that you can possibly get 100 or so games running.  Most of the games that don't work wont work on any system.  And use zinc and a frontend and you get rid of 1/2 of them will run.  (ie, between a 2ghz +zinc to a 4ghz with mame only is very few games different)

So the only real reason I see in using dos is if you don't want to buy an arcadevga card and get away with a cheaper card.  But don't expect to be able to hardware stretch any wierd video resolutions

[spystyle]

FreeDOS is current DOS, I bet they write drivers for all the new hardware.

http://www.freedos.org/

I am soon to go DOS too, and add it to my tutorial.

A desktop OS sucks on a cab, period. It's a waste of horsepower.

Soundblaster has a PCI version of their classic Soundblaster 16. I'm willing to bet that's the most DOS and DMAME compatible soundcard.

As for the common onboard sound, AC97. I bet someone has written a DOS driver for that...

Dig it?
Craig

[arcadecollecting]

If I find DOS won't cut it for me, I'll probably just change the Windows registry so that it loads straight into the front end instead of explorer.exe.

Still wondering what people's opinions are on what motherboard boots the quickest with a hideable post screen.

[whammoed]

If I find DOS won't cut it for me, I'll probably just change the Windows registry so that it loads straight into the front end instead of explorer.exe.

Still wondering what people's opinions are on what motherboard boots the quickest with a hideable post screen.

As far as hiding the bios post screen, look for asus boards with mylogo and mylogo2.  They let you load a custom pic for the bios boot splash.

[Flinkly]

or set up your comp so that the screen turns on after 15 seconds...

if i remember right, the bits limited strip does that, or can be configured to do that.

[elvis]

I bet they write drivers for all the new hardware.

As for the common onboard sound, AC97. I bet someone has written a DOS driver for that...

Instead of "betting" on it, why don't you research it and provide us with some links?

So far all I've ever seen with people trying to get PCI sound working in DOS is a whole bunch of headaches as PCI gear cannot map to low enough IRQs for DOS software.

For me, if I want good hardware support, a quick loading OS, and no GUI overhead, I use Linux.  My cocktail cab uses less than 5MB total for general OS needs (2MB of that for the uncompressed kernel, and the other 3MB for the frontend and system) which leaves me buckets for ROM playing.  I use a recent 2.6 kernel that supports almost every single chipset, video and sound card on the market.  Gone are the days when I had to shop for specific hardware for my OS.  Now I just get whatever's cheap, and I know it'll run just peachy.

Of course, insert obligatory counter-post about someone complaining Linux is "too hard" because it's not like Windows.

[Level42]

Linux is "too hard" because it's not like Windows.


Always glad to fulfill someone's expectations HAHA

Seriously. Will a SIS chipset based Mobo a good choice ? I can get an ASROCK microATA for socket A processor for a very nice price but I'm a bit hasitant normaly on SIS chipsets ?

http://www.1to0.nl/productinfo.php?id=725&cat=9

[Minwah]

A desktop OS sucks on a cab, period. It's a waste of horsepower.

Not neccessarily true.  Windows actually performs better than DOS on many PC's...the newer the hardware the more likely this is to be true.

FWIW my 1.4ghz AMD system performed like crap in DOS, compared to in Windows, which is why I made the switch...

[spystyle]

I will have to do some comparitive tests when time allows using freeDOS and Windows 95, 98, 2K, and XP.

Maybe I'll test Linux too, there must be documentation to get that running...

I guess the proper way to compare is to pick a particular game and check the FPS?

Craig

[subcriminal]

PC chips K7 mobo!

[jhanson]

As for the common onboard sound, AC97. I bet someone has written a DOS driver for that...

If you want DOS drivers for AC97, you can get them by clicking here.  You want the viaaudio.com file out of that archive.  Works flawlessly on all of my AC97-based DOS systems.

[wpcmame]

>DOS MAME so you don't have to wait for Windows to load.

When using hibernate the time to startup windows with frontend is about as fast as DOS. The frontend doesn't need to parse roms, load images etc which compensates for the few seconds it takes to load the hibernation file.

Another benefit is that you can hibernate in the middle of a game and then return to the same position later.

[Havok]

Go with XP and strip it down. Boots fast, and you get USB support and works with virtually every piece of hardware known to man. Do it right, and it boots almost as fast as DOS - and you will get better drivers, which gives better performance.

Linux is also an excellent choice. Some of the distros boot even faster than my stripped down XP image. However, since I have been a M$ whore since '87, I use what I know best...