What brand of PC is in your cabinet?

[kelemvor]

Lots of pics I see of people's cabs seem to have Dell as the preferred PC.  I know lots of people have Dells just because they are inexpensive but just curious.

Do you have an actual PC inside?  If so, what brand or just something you pieced together?  Or do you just have components in the cab but not in a PC case?  Just curious what everyone does.

Mine will have a Dell in it since I have one laying around not being used.

[heffe2001]

I've got a Dell 2.4 in one, and a Gateway 2.8 in another (I HATE gateway, but at least the mobo in that one has an AGP slot, the Dell is just straight PCI).  When I upgrade my desktop first of next year, the Gateway is going away, and my cab-PC will be a 4.6ghz x2 AMD, which should handle pretty much anything I care to throw at it for quite a while.

Of the 2 machines above, the Gateway definitely plays better than the Dell, I've got a decent ATI video card in it (x1650 I think, can't remember atm), and the dell is using the onboard intel video till I can get a decent PCI card for it.  It's not used for much (mostly juke/music at the moment), but better video is always a plus .

[Onyx_PghPA]

I have to admit that I've never owned an off-the-shelf desktop PC, so I can't speak to any particular company as being a good choice.

What I tend to do is build a new PC every 12-18 months and the "old" PC goes to some other task, so the PC I built last year is now in my cabinet and the one before that is working as a domain/file server for all of my machines.


Onyx


<edited for spelling>

[ratzz]

Mine, like many I would imagine, is a second unused PC that is a combination of upgrades and replaced parts.

I think that if you have got a fairly decent spec, and all the relevant games for you run, there is little need to go for a 'label'.

[mvolke1]

I have a Dell SFF in my cocktail. It's not that great. It makes the screen go all blurry, and I have to unplug and plug in the monitor to get a clear image.

I'm looking at some PCs on ebay at the moment to upgrade.

[heffe2001]

What I tend to do is build a new PC every 12-18 months and the "old" PC goes to some other task, so the PC I build last year is now in my cabinet and the one before that is working as a domain/file server for all of my machines.

Onyx

That's basically what my 2 systems above are, both are systems from work that were upgraded and then shelved (for whatever reason we don't cycle them down, we just replace and trash perfectly good working systems).

[knave]

I used to be dead set against any pre-fab'ed PC. But slowly Dell has gained more of my respect.  I still build my own PC's since the benifits of hand selecting my own parts are still worth it.

Dell still makes some crap but for the most part the Optiplex PC's I work with everyday are not bad.  Lots of usb ports, innovative cooling and case design, AGP ports or PCI-e.

They are pretty upgradable but not as much as something home built.  I still like them and would not hesitate to put them into a cab. 

[DaOld Man]

I used a out-of-case board on my first build, An AMD 1 gig (Im planning to upgrade it soon).
On the next two builds I used IBM NetVistas, with 2.4 gig P4. I got these machines cheap off the net, and I like em a lot!.
My last build, due to the budget I was given, I used another bought off the net, P3 997 mhz PC (cant remember the name of it).
I definitely like using a PC in the case.
The first I built looked really cool, because it looked so "out of the ordinary" on the inside. But we had a Christmas party and the arcade was the focal point of attention, but NO ONE looked inside it.
And mounting a PC case is a lot easier than mounting a board, power supply, hard drive, etc.
So I went with in-the-case PC's from then on out, and probably will next time, unless I come across a super cheap deal on a MB CPU mem combo.

[tommy]

It does not matter what name the pc is, it's what's inside that counts. 

[Level42]

I've got just the cheapest MoBo i could get, put an affordable yet pretty powerful Proc on it, got the cheapest Power Supply and some used Harddisk and other stuff...saves loads of money

[Onyx_PghPA]

It does not matter what name the pc is, it's what's inside that counts. 

Absolutely, Tommy.  And just as important, we all need to look at what we require for the application.  A basic MAME cabinet, that only runs 2D games isn't going to need a high-end 3D card, for example.


Onyx

[kelemvor]

I know it's not important, this is jsut a for fun thread to see what everyone uses.

[superart]

Intel Pentium or AMD, One thing a person must not do is waste money on the crappy Celeron. I use an AMD athlon 64 2.2GHz, with 512MB memory (plays playable games at 100%, for Mame and Zinc (the only emulators I play)). I have another computer that P4 2.8ghz with 512MB ram, since i have Mame on flash drive I played on it. It plays better than the AMD. I played on a Celeron computer and it was like I just eat a horse, went to the bathroom, and was trying to flush what came out down the toilet. Not gonna happen. 

[TheDriver]

Like Onyx I build my own PC's every 10-12 month's (sometimes sooner!!!) nothing against the off the shelf pc's but this way I can put exactly what I want in them. The one in my cab is not that powerful but run's perfect for the game/game's it was built for (80's era) whereas my desktop pc when I built it in january was powerful for the time (Core2 duo e6400) but now is pretty out of date and slow compared to newer system's. Next build is planned for january as my local PCworld does great sales on boxing day!

Regards.

[danny_galaga]

I've got just the cheapest MoBo i could get, put an affordable yet pretty powerful Proc on it, got the cheapest Power Supply and some used Harddisk and other stuff...saves loads of money

same here. onboard sound and video. AMD something or rather. couldnt even remember what but heres the specs from my web page (knew i created it for a reason  )

#

AMD 2000XP Athlon processor
#

Gigabyte K7 Triton motherboard with onboard sound and graphics
#

256 meg RAM- way more than enough with win98 installed. And it would be fine even with XP.
#

Altec Lansing AVS200 speakers. These look too small but actually sound fine for this application
#

4 gigabyte hard drive

[crashwg]

I've got an 8 y/o Sony laptop with a broken LCD in my cab.  Not like I could use it for much more and probably couldn't get more than $100 for it...

[northerngames]

I build and part my own together you can build your own pc with the same results as a retial off the shelf type for around half the price and usually there parts are cheaper and worsr quality.

I have been told dell are all refurbished factory blems but have not checked into becuase I could care less 

check a best buy ad or similair find a pc that suits you then go to newegg.com and piece it together with what the add had listed parts wise and then compare your final price between the 2.

[leapinlew]

I've used a variety of computers, from off the shelf to custom jobs. It really depends what available and if it will do the job. I wouldn't turn my nose at a computer good enough to run the job.

In the 4 way cabinets - I use these generic Celeron 600mhz's I have laying around. It plays the 4 way games great. In my trackball/fighter cabinet I use a 2.8ghz Dell system.

The biggest issue I have with brand name equipment and arcade cabinets is the proprietary issues you can sometimes have. For example.

With the Williams Multi-game system:

Turns out it doesn't like not having a PS2 keyboard installed. Wouldn't get past post. Ridiculous "no keyboard attached, press F1 to continue message" I tried a patch released by compaq, but it didn't work. I had to swap out the USB ipac for a PS2 ipac I had.

With Widowmaker:

It was  Dell computer and absolutely would not boot unless I attached the power button assembly. It was a proprietary circuit board that connected to the motherboard using a special connector. Normally this is just some jumpers marked PWR SW, RST SW, etc, but with Dell I had to specifically use theirs.

Sometimes you HAVE to use an off the shelf system. Here I used a laptop to power a mini

[Anubis_au]

I've built the last few computers I've had.

Building a vanilla pc as opposed to a getting a name brand computer allows you the freedom to decide every component, and it almost always (I would actually say, always) comes out at a cheaper price, and the quality is there as long as you go with quality components.

[leapinlew]

I've built the last few computers I've had.

Building a vanilla pc as opposed to a getting a name brand computer allows you the freedom to decide every component, and it almost always (I would actually say, always) comes out at a cheaper price, and the quality is there as long as you go with quality components.

We've seen this argument before. I know I couldn't build a PC as nice as the ones I've been buying from Dell for at least the last 2 years. These aren't gaming computers, mind you - so there wasn't a need for massive storage, super-duper video cards, etc.

The low\mid range PC's doesn't make much sense to build financially. The high end gaming systems are a different story still - but I wouldn't call a high end gaming system "vanilla"

[kelemvor]

Back in the day....

You used to be able to build a PC that killed anything off the shelf when you pieced it together on your own.

However in today's world, unless you need a sup'd up mega powerful, gaming PC, you can get just as good if not better of a deal by buying something premade (Dell or otherwise) than going through the hassle of doing it yourself.

But since Mame only needs specific things to work I don't think it'd make a huge difference either way.

[loadman]

Back in the day....

You used to be able to build a PC that killed anything off the shelf when you pieced it together on your own.

However in today's world, unless you need a sup'd up mega powerful, gaming PC, you can get just as good if not better of a deal by buying something premade (Dell or otherwise) than going through the hassle of doing it yourself.

AMEN to that Brother..  I used to save my family and friends $$$$$ by building PC's for them.

Not worth it these days

[urbecrisch]

I bought a gateway tower off of ubid.com for my cab.  You can find some pretty good deals there.  To lazy to get the specs now but it plays everthing I throw at it and I didn't have to waste money buying unnecessary components like the keyboard, mouse, and monitor. 

[southpaw13]

So I am running mame 106 and need to update this winter to the newest AND I want to build a new computer.  Will I get better performance with a dual core?  Which is the better video card for Mame now (Nvidia or ATI)?

Thanks...

[tommy]

Mame does not work off of your video card and dual core is an overkill unless you're running a heavy cpu emulator like the PS2 emu or gamecube emu.

[Green Giant]

So I am running mame 106 and need to update this winter to the newest AND I want to build a new computer.  Will I get better performance with a dual core?  Which is the better video card for Mame now (Nvidia or ATI)?

Thanks...

A lower priced AMD 64 will do just fine for just about every game in mame.

As for the video card, what are you using as a monitor.  I am pretty sure ATI is recommended because it displays better on a tv.  You won't need any sort of 3D processing unless its for another emulator or PC games.

[severdhed]

i have never bought a name brand pc, i always build my own. i pieced together a system from older parts i had lying around and  mounted then in my cabinet, not in a pc case.  currently it is an athlon xp 2500, with 512mb of ram, and a geforce 4 mx4000.

[ChadTower]

I have my one main household server that is a Dell Poweredge bought off their clearance site... every other PC in the house is from the town recycling depot, taken for free, fixed if necessary.

[psik0tik]

I use chopped up laptops..they are less bulky and easier to mount. Plus quieter