PC for MAME

[mugenmidget]

I'm having trouble finding a good PC for MAME under $100.  From what I've gathered here, to run most of the games you need 500mhz and 256 MB.  Any help finding such a machine at a low price would be appreciated.

[paigeoliver]

256 MB my butt!

You only need that much RAM if you are running Windows XP, or are playing the newest Neo Geo games.

Do what I did. I put my GOOD pc in the Mame cabinet, and got a junk one to use for my other PC stuff.

[mugenmidget]

Well, that's comforting to know that I don't need tons of RAM.  

As far as using my good PC, the one I'm using is probably going to end up being worse than what I buy.  So I really don't have the option of a machine above $100 in my cabinet.  I've seen PCs on ebay for 100 dollars with 500 mhz and 64 megs of ram.  6.4 GB of storage space.  Will these do MAME justice?

[paigeoliver]

Yeah, that PC would be fine. Would run most everything, especially if you used DOS instead of windows. Even if you did use windows it would still run a lot of stuff, just not the BIG games. (Also, RAM is butt cheap, so you could get another stick to go up to 128 for next to nothing).

[mugenmidget]

Thanks mucho, my Rockman Power Fighters machine may make it afterall.

Also, any suggestions of how I can have a PC and a Dreamcast in there, or would that require too much cable switching?

[paigeoliver]

I never tried the Dreamcast thing. But I guess that depends on what you are using as a monitor/etc. I am sure someone else around here has done that. I can't really think of any Dreamcast games I would want in my cab that weren't also available for computer anyway.

[mugenmidget]

Power Stone and Marvel vs Capcom 2 for me.

[CthulhuLuke]

Glad to see you're into a Dreamcast on a cab.
Here's the situation though for mame:
The slower your processor is, the more ram you're going to want to put the load off of the processor, because as long as the entire game can be stored in the Ram *aka King of Fighters 2002*, it'll run MUCH faster than if your computer runs out of Ram and has to use the processor to go between the virtual memory and ram to get your game going.  This happens on my bro's 200mhz 64mb, it loads into ram, swaps some stuff, then its fine, but before that its too slow to even play.
  So if you want to run almost everything perfect in MAME, particularly Mame32 *since having a pure DOS machine means limited other emulators, such as no VirtuaNES, Gens, etc.*  you're going to want at least 256mb of ram, and at least a 500mhz processor.  The only reason I can run King of Fighters 2002 in NeoRage0.8c on here smoothly, is because although I'm running a 333mhz celery processor, I have 256mb of sdram with a memory manager, MemTurbo in Windows 98.
   If you really want a good mame experience though, I'd say save up the extra hundred for that 1ghz 256mb sdram 20gb computer on ebay, and you'll be thanking me later on that one.  With a bigger hard drive also, its much easier to not have to swap cds to play the games you want.
    And for the how to on the dreamcast to your cabinet, check out my page:  www.geocities.com/cthulhuluke/   unfortunately I have no howto setup right now, but take a look at www.geocities.com/cthulhuluke/Cabinet/updatepics.html   and look at the motherbrain.  Also take notice I bought 2 psx to dreamcast convertors.  Ok, you might just want a set of dreamcast controllers on here, but here's why you want to hook up 2 psx controllers instead,  the dreamcast PCB steals +5v through the ground somehow!!!  I don't really get it, but it sucks, so until I stop being lazy and hook up a DPDT switch in there, I gotta disconnect the psx to dc convertors when I want to play with the I-pac, and I do vise versa just for safety of my I-pac when I play dreamcast and psx on the cab.  It's DEFINITELy worth it though, playing Cacpom vs SNK 2 on a cabinet is SOOOOo much fun, makes the game way better.  Marvel vs Capcom 2 is also wayyy too much fun, but my bro gets too mad at me for me to play him, cause I kick his ass really bad, go 120hit magneto combo!
     -Luke

[mugenmidget]

Sounds good, I think I'll wait on the computer then, or maybe spend my money on the X Arcade for now, then get a wooden cabinet for free-20 bucks maybe.  Because if I can't get the cabinet I shouldn't worry about the computer yet.

By the way, your cabinet looks nice and it's good to know Dreamcast is running on it.  Yeah, CVS2 and MVC2 are things I really want in my cabinet, but CVS2 is on my Gamecube.  And that's more of my family's, so I can't just stick it into a wooden behemoth.  Oh well, maybe I can get my friend to sell his Dreamcast copy.

Anyways, thanks for all the help.