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Boot CD installs DOS, Vantage, Raine, MAME (1 of 7 versions) and Game Launcher
EVEGames:
Spystyle,
Thanks a million for doing that great writeup on MAME-XP. I've been looking for something like this to run from a Compact Flash card. Haven't tried it yet, but read through your instructions, and just wanted to thank you for what was obviously a lot of effort.
:cheers:
spystyle:
You are very welcome, I hope you find it useful.
As for flash cards and other alternatives to hard drives - I wouldn't bother. None of the alternatives to hard drives are fast (as far as I know). When it comes to computer parts, you want to make them faster, not slower. Also cooler but producing less decibels at the same time (ask me to write that tutorial).
Do you want to see h3ll fast? How about a sata-150 RAID 0 array? Or if that is too elaborate, a fast sata-150 drive.
Not all sata-150 drives are fast though, so do some research before buying.
Cheque this out, a really fast yet inexpensive drive :
Set a pair of those up in a "RAID 0" array and it would be even faster.
So here is the data from that drive :
min 44.5 MB per second
max 104.2 MB per second
avg 80.7 MB per second
access 16.6ms (lower is better)
burst 132.1 MB per second
5.8% (lower is better)
Compare that benchmark to any flash drive, the flash drive will look like a toy.
For comparison here is a 2 GB IDE HDD circa 1995
min 4.6 MB per second
max 9.1 MB per second
avg 7.2 MB per second
access 18.2ms (lower is better)
burst 14.2 MB per second
cpu 56.0% (lower is better)
Here is a benchmark of my 4 GB USB flash drive :
min 15.6 MB per second
max 16.7 MB per second
avg 16.4 MB per second
access 1.0ms (lower is better)
burst 12.5 MB per second
cpu 17.1% (lower is better)
Flash drives are the successor to floppy disks, not the successor to hard drives.
That's just my 2 cents, your good sense may vary :)
Craig
p.s.
When benchmarking drives use "HDtune" (it's free). Also, if all those numbers seem confusing, just comparing "average speed" is good enough.
Here is my rig :
Note the "raid cage" with sata drives, external for convection cooling. The large fans are slow and quiet @ 5 volts. They are 38mm thick and move a ton of air (good CFM). The device on top is a USB drive for "bi-weekly backups". I use a free software called "Karen's replicator" to make frequent backups.
"Raid 0", it's what speed freaks dig :) But if one drive dies all your data is kaput! So make backups frequently. Even if you don't use raid you should make monthly backups onto DVD-r or another drive as hard drives can fail. They are mechanical devices - they die sometimes.
Oh no this is turning into a lecture!
Dillsta:
Hi guys thanks for the info, I'm currently making the Mame-xp disk and i will use the MaLa FE
As for my sound card i don't have one for that old computer but since I'm using the Mame-XP disk on-board sound should be just fine. i was also wondering if anyone had some cabinet blue prints or designs. i am looking at making an upright cabinet. any info on that would be great
Thanks again, Dylan
P.S. thanks SPYSTYLE for that awesome Mame-XP link. :applaud:
spystyle:
Here are cabinet blueprints :
http://tinyurl.com/yt7snb
http://www.jakobud.com/cabinetPlans.php
Cheers,
Craig
EVEGames:
--- Quote ---As for flash cards and other alternatives to hard drives - I wouldn't bother. None of the alternatives to hard drives are fast (as far as I know). When it comes to computer parts, you want to make them faster, not slower.
--- End quote ---
True enough Spystyle, but my goal for this particular project is a very minimalist Jamma solution with just a handful of classics. Load time should not be an issue for small classic games, and they will run from RAM once loaded. No CHD games. I'm looking to use a basic motherboard, RAM, CF card via IDE adapter, a power supply, a J-Pac and not much more, running MAME-XP ;D and Soft-15kHz, probably with HyperSpin as the FE. That's the only place read/write speed may bite me, lots of graphics to load and display in HyperSpin. We'll see how it goes.
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