got spare pc but wat to do?

[mo1e]

hi all a while back my perfectly good pc which is probably more then able to play mame stopped working it doesnt even turn on i think its the power box i think i need a new one. Anyway i bought a new pc (this one that im on) and now my old pc is sat in a corner do you think i should try to get that working and get it to run mame? and is it easy to make the pc so you have to add coins/tokens for one credit? im thinking about making this into a cab in future

[IG-88]

I'd try a new power supply in it. You can pick these up pretty cheap. Or ask someone here for one. They are probably a "dime a dozen".

[mo1e]

yer gonna do that is mame alot better then say snes emulator or genesis emulator?

[Franco]

Depends if you like arcade or snes/genesis games!

They all provide a fairly decent emulation.

[IG-88]

....and, what are the specs of that old computer? That would somewhat help determine what type of emulator to run. Actually if it's anything fairly recent you could run mame/snes/gens/& on & on.....load up the Hard Drive and play on!

[mo1e]

win xp
pentium 4
2.8ghz
60gb hd

[testicle187]

Pick up a new ATX power supply for that computer.  That is definitely not trash material just yet, and is overpowered for most MAME games that are playable anyhow. 

Here is a link to one on newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103934

You can get cheaper ones, but Antec's are reliable at least.

[Mark70]

Tell you what.  Don't make the simple fix of putting a new power supply in that rig.  You just send that piece of junk to me, and I'll make sure it doesn't clutter up your house anymore.   

Seriously though.  It should be an easy fix.  I recently did it to my 1.7Ghz.  Not all of us are lucky enough to be on the 3.4Ghz razor's edge all of the time.

Actually I've found this to be a good excuse for buying arcade parts.  I told my wife, "...But honey, I've found something that I can do with obsolete computers.  This will cut down the urge to buy new hardware and it's cheaper than a new computer system."

[mo1e]

yer im thinking about getting a power supply and rebooting the pc from start and getting mame only on it it has a nvidia mx400 graphics card too

[RayB]

Geez. The system I use on a daily basis for work and gaming isn't as powerful as your broken one. Your graphics card is pretty weak though for a 2.8 ghz system. I'm running a 2.0 ghz with an ATI 9800 Pro. Pretty happy with it. Runs Half-Life 2 great.

If it felt like a crappy system before it broke down, it's likely that mx400 card. BLEAH!

[pcates]

What brand PC is it. I had a Compaq that had a proprietary power supply, and needed to be replaced by another Compaq power supply. A generic atx would not work. So find out before you start buying.
If you decide not to fix it I could use the processor

[mo1e]

yer i know the graphics card is pretty weak although it ran half life 2 and  any other games without a problem

[AC.]

Use your new one to test parts from the old one.  Plug in the PS from the new one to the board on the old one to confirm that is the prob.  If you get two computers working, you can start messing with networking and sharing HD space etc.