motherboard for mame cab

[moonpatrol 4 lyfe]

I figured my first message was too broad, so I'm going to divide it up.

I'm looking at starting a MAME cab, and I'm going with a new AMD processor.  I'd like to use ArcadeVGA in my cab.  Does this still require an AGP port (or has it been updated to PCI-E or something similar)?

What is the best bang for my buck motherboard I can get?  I need some USB ports, fast bus speed, vga output (so I can use it if I ever move the AVGA to another project)

Can anyone reccomend a good mobo?

I went to CompUSA yesterday, and I saw the following one on sale:

ABIT AV8 Socket 939 Motherboard - $150  It does have an AGP 8x port, this is compatible with AVGA, right?

Is this a good mobo?  Is this a good price?

What CPU should I pair it with?

Finally, is there anyone who thinks I should go with Intel instead of AMD?

Thanks,
Bill

[moonpatrol 4 lyfe]

http://www.a1-electronics.net/AMD_Section/Mobos/939/Abit_AV8_Sept04.shtml

It looks like this mobo is a couple years old.  Then again, AGP ports dont come on new mobos.  I think its compatible with the lastest processors, so the age isn't an issue.

My one concern is that the review says the mobo could use some more cooling.  I dont want to but a water cooler in my mamecab.  Will adding a fan fix this problem?  If I dont overclock, can I just leave the mobo the way it is without adding cooling?

[moonpatrol 4 lyfe]

and for some reason the comp usa site says that this mobo has a different number of USB ports than that site.  I'm almost positive they're the same one. HMM

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=318400&pfp=srch1

[RetroACTIVE]

I got an Asus P5P800 (100 bucks newegg.com, last summer) using 2.8 P4, w/ 512mb ram.

I'm not sure of the whole AMD vs Intel thing as it pertains to mame... There are probably a whole hoard of gamers out there that can tell you why one is better than the other...

All I can say is that the P5P800 has been flawless so far w/ Arcade VGA... no problems whatsoever, no crashes no lock ups...

I am very pleased.

[subcriminal]

I'd go with the cheapest Socket A mobo with onboard LAN no gfx just AGP slot, Cheapest Sempron, a soundblaster card and disable onboard sound. You get a lot more processor for your cash with AMD.
I bought a PC chips mobo for

[pointdablame]

as I said in your other thread, you can get a much cheaper socket 939 motherboard.  If you like that one, fine... but there are much cheaper ones out there with the same type of specs.  I listed one in my other post to you.

You can pair it with whatever CPU you want, but like I mentioned, you might not even need a socket939 board and CPU, depending on what games you want to play.

Subcriminal has the right idea... you can get a SktA motherboard and AthlonXP or Sempron for dirt cheap now, and you'll play a TON of games with that.

To quickly answer your other questions:
- As far as "best" bang for the buck, thats debateable, but the one you listed is overpriced IMHO

-Yes, the ArcadeVGA is still AGP.

- Intel and AMD are both fine, it doesnt really matter.  If you were building a top end gaming rig, you would get nice debates from people on both ends... but for a simple MAME machine it doesnt matter.  I like AMD personally, so I can never give good opinions on Intel stuff, but either will do fine.

[Rio Rebel]

There are plenty of new boards with AGP slots.  I would want a solid quality board for peace of mind, but not top of the line (it's not like you need to overclock or have all the bells and whistles here).

Here's a good starting point:

 
EPoX EP-8KMM3I-X Socket A (Socket 462) VIA KM400 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Model #: EP-8KMM3I-X
Item #: N82E16813123231

AMD Sempron 2600+ Thoroughbred 333MHz FSB Socket A Processor Model SDA2600BOX - Retail
Model #: SDA2600BOX
Item #: N82E16819104212

  Subtotal: $134.99

[pointdablame]

"solid quality board" and "Epox" in the same sentence???

Does not compute 


Sorry, I've had some bad times with epox boards. Hopefully their newer ones are decent.  I'll stick with Abit or Asus for my money though.

[Rio Rebel]

"solid quality board" and "Epox" in the same sentence???

Does not compute

[moonpatrol 4 lyfe]

pointdablame, sorry i didn't get to read your other post yet.

[Rio Rebel]

Here you go:

ASUS A8V-MX Socket 939 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AGP Slots: 1x AGP 4X/8X
CPU Type: Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64/Sempron
DDR Standard: DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Dual Channel Supported: Yes
FSB: 800MHz Hyper Transport (1600MT/s)
Maximum Memory Supported: 2GB
Number of DDR Slots: 2x 184pin DDR
PCI Express x1: 1
PCI Express x16: None
South Bridge: VIA VT8251

Model #: A8V-MX
Item #: N82E16813131558
In Stock
$1.50 Three Day Shipping

$60.00


And don't worry about the fact that Newegg is an internet company, their return policy is as good as you'll find.

[moonpatrol 4 lyfe]

Rio, thanks for the tip, but I think I'm gonna steer clear of Epox.

[moonpatrol 4 lyfe]

Whoa RIO, looks like you read my mind!  What's the difference between the one I posted and the one you posted?

[Rio Rebel]

It looks like a different version of the VIA chipset.  I'm not familiar enough to know the difference of those chipsets off the top of my head, but I suspect there's no significant difference.

It looks like you're on the right track.  Check out the reviews on those two and you're set.  Most technicians will tell you that Asus is the most reliable name in pc motherboards.  (Incidentally, I am a certified PC tech, but I haven't worked in that area for several years and I wouldn't call myself an expert on current generation boards and processors.  I still run an Athlon XP 3000 myself.)

Good luck!

[moonpatrol 4 lyfe]

Well, I can't find any Socket A boards that aren't used.  Does anyone have an idea of where to look?  Everyone thinks their old used boards are worth their weight in gold.  Plus, they probably beat them to death.

I was looking in Comp USA again, and I found an ABIT NF8 board.  Variants of this board sell on Newegg.com for $69 - $74 US.  It's a socket 754 board.  Is this still too much $$$ for my mame cab?  (I dont want pay a lot more than I need to)  Any thoughts on this board, good/bad/other?

What processor should I pair up with it?  I can get a Sempron 2800+ on mwave.com for $74.  (Newegg is $1.50, is their customer service worth the cost?)  One thing I dont get is why the Sempron 2500+ is $89.  Shouldn't this be a SLOWER processor?  Am I missing something like bus speed perhaps?

OR should I be going with an Athlon 64 processor.  (Way more money though.)

My PC is probably going to be Windows XP, since I'm guessing it has the best compatibility out the possibilites to choose from

Any help, feedback, etc. you can offer is apprecated.

Thanks again!
Bill

[metaHipster]

probably don't need Athlon64 unless you are goign to be hitting a lot of PC-based games and/or just have a lot of cash to burn.

[moonpatrol 4 lyfe]

I would imagine that even with arcade vga, PC games would look terrible on an arcade monitor.  So I'm steering clear of that route, unless I'm wrong.  (Someone please correct me)

Does the 754 Semperon run Mame games well?

[BurningDog]

Semprons come in two different sockets, A and 754 (3 if you count 939s to OEMs).

The 2500+ is a socket A (i think) and is more expensive because they're not in current production.  If you're buying all new parts, don't go with a socket A, you can get a solid 754 for nearly the same price.

[Jess--]

just a quickie from experience...

go with ANY board that you can get hold of that will support a CPU of 2gig or faster, and you dont need a super fast agp port for the arcadevga if you are running mame as the mame games do not generate massive amounts of data to the card,

the newer 3d roms will not be able to run on this setup but as someone else noted they require stupidly fast cpus to get to proper speed, this is because mame has to emulate the original 3d hardware found in the board, even if you had a cpu that was running fast enough to emulate the hardware at full speed I doubt it would generate enough data to the video card to reach the limit of a standard agp port.

just for reference the board I have in my cab was pulled out of the scrap box, it has the common blown caps around the cpu so in theory shouldnt be running at all, the cpu is an athlon xp 2000 and it has 512mb of ram in it, this runs a cut down version of win98, mamewah and mame32 perfectly and plays most game perfectly (exceptions are the cruisn series and similar)