Help me get the most out of this old computer.

[Kremmit]

I am not a software guy, so if any of what I'm asking is dumb, sorry, that's just because I'm dumb.

Project:  I'm MAMEing out by brother's old Gateway for him, and it's not the fastest machine on the block. 

Ideally, this computer should do three things:

• MAME
• basic web browsing
• Little kid's PC software

Specs:

AMD K6-II 400MHz (or maybe it's 450, don't remember for sure)
128 mb RAM
7 gig HD
onboard ATI Rage Pro video
onboard Creative sound
no AGP slot, no more open RAM slots
VGA monitor, will not be using an arcade monitor or TV.
Formatted --> clean install of Win98SE

It's working fine on the web browsing goal, and it's as good as it can be for the kids software, whether that's good enough or not.  The hitch is MAME, of course.  He'd like it to run the games up through SFII at full framerate with sound.  Newer games can go to hell.  Currently, what with the overhead from Windows, ZoneAlarm, SpybotS&D, and AVG Antivirus, SFII still runs choppy on MAME32 0.37b16.  So, while I can leave things as they are for web & kids, the MAME setup is going to have to be different.

What I'm thinking is a dual-boot configuration, or maybe I can get away with different user profiles.  Either I need to boot to DOS and run DOS MAME, or maybe I can get away with logging on a profile that uses a MAME frontend as the shell, bypassing explorer.exe and all the anti-virus crap. 

So, if anybody's still reading by now, here's where I need help:

• Do you think it's even possible to get full-screen, full-speed, SFII with sound on this machine?
• What's the lowest-overhead frontend for use with DOS?
• What's the lowest-overhead frontend for use with Win98SE?
• Which way should I go; Dual-Boot or Multiple User Profiles?  Why?
• Do you think a PCI vid card and/or Sound card would help much?  If so- Recommendations, please.
• Got any larger PC100 or PC133 DIMMs you want to donate? 
• Got any tips for optimizing my MAME settings?  (I'm not a software guy, I pretty much just tried it with MAME32's default settings so far.)

Thanks for any and all help on this.

-Kremmit

[gonzo90017]

The problem with the pc is the cpu, it has no L2 cache which makes it slower than it's intel counterparts of the same speed. I'm buiding some arcade pc's with the same specs except I have Celeron 400's instead.
1st use gamelauncher as your frontend. Next for arcade games use Raine.And for games that are not in Raine use Mame builds that are optimized for the K6 cpu http://www.zophar.net/mame.html For capcom Raine will work fine. But you may get better speed if you use Callus http://bloodlust.zophar.net/Callus/callus.html It works great under windows 98. Kega for genesis,game gear and master system, Fce Ultra for Nes, Yame for Turbo Grafx/Duo. For all emus turn off Vsync and Tripple buffering, lower the sound rate to 22050 or more. Don't use any graphic filters If you wan't full screen you might have to change the resolution to 320x240. Depending on the onboard video you should try switching between Direct3d and Direct Draw.

[lordtodd75]

You could write a batch file that shuts down all of the overhead apps not needed while playing mame. Write another batch that turns them all back on, set it to execute when exiting mame. I don't have a lot of experience with mame and low end boxes. But from what I have read, you should be able to do what you want to do with no problem. I also agree with gonzo. Try some of the other arcade emu's that are built   for speed on lower end hardware. However I dont agree with gonzo about the cpu cache, or lack thereof, being your problem. I think your RAM is being gobbled up by the OS and all the other apps you have running at the same time. Try shutting all other apps down and see if SF2 is still choppy.

[gonzo90017]

I should've been more clear. I was just talking hardware wise. And you're right with those applications running in the background it's harder to get things running. But as he mentioned he's not a software guy so I doubt he will be able to write a batch file to do that. Personally I don't think you should have all those  thing running in the background unless you get at least more ram. Maybe just 64mb more since 98 doesn't use that many resources.