Does hardrive speed affect MME at all?

[rackoon]

I am getting ready to buy a harddrive for my MAME only computer that I am putting together by scratch.

Im looking at a ata 100, 133, and a Sata 150 at 7200 and with 80gb.

only the Sata 150 is not new, it is refurbished and I worry about that.

Regardless, How much is any of these going to affect MAME.

 

[JustMichael]

They will affect load times from the hard drive only.  Since it takes only a split second to load a game, the difference won't be noticable.  I agree with staying away from "refurbished" hard drives.  Even with the "chd" games, the hard drives of today produce less delay than those old ones that used to be in the machine.

[krick]

Not sure what kind of hardware you have or what operating system you plan on using but personally, I only buy PATA (parallel ATA) drives 120GB or less because that's what works with Windows 98SE.

Win98SE only supports up to 137GB due to bugs in scandisk and defrag.  Since they don't make 137GB drives, 120GB is the biggest you can go.

SATA driver support in 98SE is also kinda sketchy so just to be safe, I stick with traditional (parallel) ATA drives, like ATA100 and ATA133.

As for your speed question, I seriously doubt you'll be able to see any measurable difference between drive speeds when it comes to MAME load times.  I'd just look for reliable and cheap (in that order).

[sirwoogie]

Find the most inexpensive one that works with the interface your motherboard has, has the space requirements you need, and from the vendor you like (my top right now is Seagate).

Dealnews always keeps a good list of the drives, some with rebates, some without. Check out their listing

As JM pointed out, the speed of the drive is really inconsequential to the performance of MAME.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Win98SE only supports up to 137GB due to bugs in scandisk and defrag.  Since they don't make 137GB drives, 120GB is the biggest you can go.

That's simply not the case at all!......  I have two 160Gig hard drives running under windows 98SE with no problems.

What I think you mean is that Win98SE won't support partitions bigger than 137Gigs in size.  So you can actually have much larger hard drives as long as you partition them into logical drives each smaller than 137Gigs.

Scandisk and Defrag then have no problem with them at all!

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

 

[krick]

Win98SE only supports up to 137GB due to bugs in scandisk and defrag.  Since they don't make 137GB drives, 120GB is the biggest you can go.

That's simply not the case at all!......  I have two 160Gig hard drives running under windows 98SE with no problems.

What I think you mean is that Win98SE won't support partitions bigger than 137Gigs in size.  So you can actually have much larger hard drives as long as you partition them into logical drives each smaller than 137Gigs.

Scandisk and Defrag then have no problem with them at all!

There are certain situations where it will work.  You have to have a LBA48 capable motherboard with a IDE driver from the manufacturer that properly supports LBA48.  Unfortunately, this is very rare.

Here's a very good thread on the subject...

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=23894049cbaec1897e301c307401c2de&showtopic=46752

[Havok]

If you are putting a machine together from scratch, don't use Win98: XP or Linux are better choices.

(Here comes the flames!)

You just won't get the support with contemporary hardware using a 9 year old operating system that is not updated or supported by Microsoft anymore. Since we are talking a new machine, speed should not be an issue.

My machine boots right into my front end from an off state in 34 seconds. And that's without even trying to really tweak the boot time with services, etc. I think you would be hard pressed to find someone with a 98 machine do much better. And if they did, does a couple of seconds really matter that much? You would be giving up driver support and adding additional potential heartache when configuring.

[krick]

If you are putting a machine together from scratch, don't use Win98: XP or Linux are better choices.

(Here comes the flames!)

I'm not going to flame you.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion and your opinion is completely valid.

If you are building a new machine with PCI-Express slots, then you pretty much *have* to use XP or Linux as none of the chipset manufacturers are providing Windows 9x chipset drivers.

I just brought up Win98SE because many people on the BYOAC forums with dedicated MAME cabinets run 98SE or DOS7 in them.

I have an Opteron 2.8GHz system in my cabinet and I choose to run Windows 98SE since I don't see the point in spending $100 for a copy of XP just for a MAME cabinet.  So for me, the hard drive size and interface limitations are an important consideration.

[Havok]

They're both good options, but I think a newer O/S is a better choice for a new pc. You certainly could use 98 however. You also brought up an excellent point: I actually do have a PCI-e video card, so I can't use 98. If anyone is thinking of using the latest, fastest video cards, then 98 isn't  for you. Plus, I also play PC games on it as well, and you really do want the latest drivers for those.

As far as the OS issue, I guess that all depends on what you already have. Since we are talking a new pc - he would have to purchase an OS anyways. (Unless you are replacing a current defective pc with an OS). I don't think you can even buy 98 anymore - even through aftermarket channels.

I guess it really boils down to exactly how you plan on using this cab, and if you want a fast video card with support, or just a standard video card (which can still be pretty fast).

The possibilities are endless!

 

[rackoon]

Thanks for the responses guy.

I have a P4 2.66 processor and 400MHz /512MB of ram. I was planning on using a copy of XP.
 I went ahead and got a WD 80GB harddrive   ultra ATA 100.

I suppose I asked the original question because I just don't know much about how computers work.

Just curious, where does the info go after it leaves the hardrive. As I understand it, RAM forgets every thing in seconds.

[krick]

Just curious, where does the info go after it leaves the hardrive. As I understand it, RAM forgets every thing in seconds.

China, usually.  Sometimes, Guam.   

[ahofle]

Just curious, where does the info go after it leaves the hardrive. As I understand it, RAM forgets every thing in seconds.

It goes into RAM where it can be addressed by the CPU.   And RAM only loses the info if the power is turned off (unless you're talking about non-voilatile RAM which is something else). 

...and LOL @ krick