Is this system worth using for Mame cab?

[creatine28]

Just wondering if anybody has any thoughts about using this system for a Mame Cab? Seems pretty cheap for a 1.7 ghz!

http://www.softwareandstuff.com/dsk_p4mfp533cel17cd.html

[CitznFish]

I wouldn't.

what will you use to view the games? TV? Monitor(doesn't come with one)? Arcade Monitor (expensive!)

If you're using a TV you will want an AGP card with S-video out.


What about Sound? I dunno if MAME works with onboard sound cards. again, best bet is to pick up an SoundBlaster16 or Live!


I thought RAM should be 256 minimum. There are several threads that talk about more RAM being pretty beneficial when running MAME

look here:
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=33

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=245

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=2474

[Odonadon]

Just wondering if anybody has any thoughts about using this system for a Mame Cab? Seems pretty cheap for a 1.7 ghz!

http://www.softwareandstuff.com/dsk_p4mfp533cel17cd.html

It depends.  What games are you interested in playing?  I picked up an K6-3 450MHz, 128Mb RAM, Radeon 7500 64Mb, Sound Blaster 16, and a 350 watt PS for less than that.

Having built-in audio means less CPU power for MAME, because the CPU has to control the sound as well.  Built in video means you're losing the 32Mb of RAM to video.  So you'll effectively be running with 96Mb RAM.

I know this is a discussion for another topic, but I don't recommend going the S-video route.  There's a site (can't remember URL, but it's on oscarcontrols somewhere) that compares video from s-video, composite, arcade, and PC monitors.  There's also a link to another page that explains colour bleeding is more arcade authentic.  PC monitors and S-video TVs look too good.  Plus, you'll save yourself money.  With composite, you'll get the bleeding, and a nice picture to boot for a cheap price

But then again, that's just one man's opinion.

Odonadon

[spidermonkey]

On board graphics controller  :Pand onboard sound ? ... Celeron processor ?   The only reason I would ever put that thing in a mame cabinet is if the cabinet was top heavy and I needed to add some weight in the bottom to make it more stable. A cinder block works just as well and is much cheaper.  STAY AWAY  !!!!   I learned the hard way.

[rampy]

FWIW, if you were going to go that cheap and had to install the os, swap in/out video/audio cards you might as well build a system from scratch with better components...

The machine you've linked to is better than my machine, but in the long run you'll probably have issues/be dissapointed.

Rampy

[DeathMonk]

I built an AMD XP 2100+, ASUS A7N333, 256MB PC2100 and a mid-tower 300W for $300 shipped.

[Chris]

I used a motherboard with onboard sound and onboard video, because I didn't want a case in the cabinet, so I didn't want any cards.  The onboard sound is fine, but the onboard video does slow things down, and I did add extra memory to compensate for the shared memory loss.

Not all onboard audio and video is equal!  ATI's onboard chips are fine, whereas S3's suck.  Some onboard audio is hardware based, and some uses the software AC97 codec.

Whether the system is sufficient or not depends on what you plan to play, but definately plan on adding at least another 256 MB of RAM if you get that system;l Crucial has it for $35 right now (see http://www.crucial.com/store/listModule.asp?module=DDR+PC2100&cat=RAM&package=184-pin+DIMM&submit=Go).

The 6 USB ports on that system are good for MAME, though... mine has 4, and 3 are already used (lightgun, trackball, USB network) with the 4th used for keyboard when configuring things.  I'll need to add a USB hub if I put in a second lightgun (if u_rebelscum is successful making it work)...

The motherboard specs for that machine are at http://www.machspeed.com/mfp533.htm, but it doesn't say which onboard chipset it uses.

--Chris

[creatine28]

Great!  Thanks a lot for everyone's input! My current system is a Comaq 667 mhz Celeron with 300+ mb's of ram.  I had issue's with the on board sound and video through  DOS, so I bought a cheap SB16 PCI card and a cheap Ati Rage fury video card and everthing works well.  I just need to get a faster system to run some of the newer games.  I can run quite a few of the games(Got a full .65 set), but the ones that seem to slow down are the games like NBA JAM, Mortal Kombat 2....etc and of course the CHD games.  Of course my hard drive is pretty well filled up, so I need a larger one soon!