Using a USB key instead of a hard drive

[Kaytrim]

Here is one that is even cheaper.  Made for a desktop PC.  Scroll down to the products list.
http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/ad44midecf.asp

I think, actually, that you're looking at the notebook to desktop (2.5" to 3.5") connector that costs only 10 bucks. You still have to buy the whole CF to 2.5" adapter for $25.

I think.

Did a quick search on eBay and they have the IDE adapters for under $5

[Kaytrim]

I am going to play around with this.  I have an old PC lying around including 15" monitor.  Purchased these IDE adapters and these CF Cards.  I have received the CF cards already and hope to see the adapters today or Monday.  I'll start a project thread once I start the build.

TTFN
Kaytrim

[Yvan256]

By the way, the CF card idea has been used in at least one cab already. First time I saw it was in this miniature cab:

http://www.yvan256.net/projects/micromame/


(This project partially inspired my cab.)

Seems like a CF drive would work especially well on a low-power system that just ran older games.

At this point I'd rather suggest an IDE Flash Module instead. It will take a lot less room in extremely compact cabinets.

[danny_galaga]

If you go with a hard drive it's going to fail every 3 to 5 years on average if you run your cabinets 24 hours a day.

you keep your mame cab running 3 to 5 years at a time without turning it off?

[danny_galaga]

So... about a solid state drive. How much would be enough? I know "all da romz" go well over 100 gigs, but lots of those games are crap. How much would "only the good stuff" take up?

I suppose that question depends on your game tastes...

who can say? i recently tried using a USB drive as a hard drive on my cocktail. Didn't work because i didn't know what i was doing, but everything on the original drive only took up about 750mb. About 200 games, virtually none that are in the megabytes (a couple of the more modern shmups mostly), win98, and mame itself...

I've given up on that and now have a brand new 80Gb IDE drive (smallest i could find new). I reckon i should get more than 10 years out of that, considering the original 4gb drive still sometimes works and it was from my PC i built ten years ago...

[rusolinio]

Cheap PC internal memory card readers, using SD cards work well. They read perfectly fast enough for mame, and are MEGA cheap.

[IG-88]

Cheap PC internal memory card readers, using SD cards work well. They read perfectly fast enough for mame, and are MEGA cheap.

You can boot an O/S from one of those??