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computer hardware...
neuromancer:
--- Quote from: radiator on March 14, 2003, 02:16:24 pm ---thanks for the input guys...
any idea on soundcard? i think i'm just gonna go with a Hercules one, i don't know what it is but i've gone off creative stuff...
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The best performing sound cards for the $ are Turtle Beach. The Santa Cruz is about $70 and it blows away every Creative product ever made, as far as noise, distortion, and dynamic range go. It might be overkill for a game cab, but if you want to set up a jukebox, like so many people seem to, it could be woth it.
Bob
Mike:
Ok I'm not a athlon or intel fanboy either way and here is my opinion with where things are at right now.
I would not go with an Athlon at this time. Here is why too.
First the Athlon is at the end of lifecycle which means there won't be very many faster chips coming out in that format. Second mame is very processor intensive and high clock cycles mean more speed. Third you can get a celeron 2.2ghz for dirt cheap and that chip can easily be overclocked to 3ghz. Next as soon as mame begins to support hyperthreading you have the motherboard and will just need to get a new processor to take advantage of it. And the last reason which i believe is the most important, celerons run ice cold compared to an athlon and heat is an issue inside of a cabinet.
So anyways right now I think intel gives you the most bang for the buck. As far as what motherboard to go with, just make sure you get one that supports hyperthreading like the Asus P4PE.
radiator:
true, the athlon is coming to the end of its life, but, i'd rather not go Intel - too damn expensive (and i don't like celerons, same as i don't like durons) - and i've never bought an intel, always gone for AMD
i just don't like the thought of running a celeron for something that is CPU intensive, and i can't see the justification in getting a pentium4 - which leaves me with one option, AMD...
my 1.2Ghz Athlon can run all the Mame games at a decent speed, i just need a little increase in CPU power, and i'm a cheapskate and want to build this cab spending as little as i can.
radiator:
and i don't see how there can be a heat problem in a spacious arcade cabinet...you'd just need one intake fan (80mm/120mm) and position the mobo close by...
u_rebelscum:
--- Quote from: Mike on March 14, 2003, 02:59:09 pm ---... as soon as mame begins to support hyperthreading you have the motherboard and will just need to get a new processor to take advantage of it.
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Which will be as soon as mame supports SMP, ie: not in the near future. Mame is not multithreaded, and it would take some MAJOR changes to get mame multithreaded to see a speed increase and still be as accurate in emulation as it currently is.