MAME PC specs for a new build?

[fryguy]

Hi all.  I'm just starting off on the long road of building a MAME cabinet.  I've got an old Defender cabinet, a spare 27" tv, and the .121 ROM and CHD sets.  I think I've found a good deal of information on building the control panel, wiring up the interface, etc.

What I'm having trouble finding info on is any advice on what type of PC horsepower I should be looking at for a modern-day build.  Sure, I've found many an online MAME-build diary with all kinds of pictures of the cabinet build, and a list of each and every button they purchased, etc.  Then when it comes to details on the PC used, I learn that the web site I'm looking at is circa 2002, and it describes how a Celeron 400Mhz PC works for most of the MAME .36 roms. 

What about for a modern-day build?  And for modern-day roms?  Of course I'd like to piece this PC together as inexpensively as I need to, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that a Celeron 400 would not fit the bill today.

Any advice?  What have those of you that have recently built cabinets used?

Thanks for helping a newb along.

Matt.

[gonzo90017]

It works great for me 
400mhz Celeron
256mb ram
Nebula for Neogeo and Capcom
Raine for all the games it supports.
For whatever is left I use Mame37b16

It's harder finding roms for that Mame version but they're still around.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Hi all.  I'm just starting off on the long road of building a MAME cabinet.  I've got an old Defender cabinet

I hope that Defender doesn't have it's boards and original parts! there would be a lot of people very annoyed at seeing an original Defender mutilated for use as a Mame machine, when it really ought to be restored.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[u_rebelscum]

...What about for a modern-day build?  And for modern-day roms?

Really depends on the games you want.

Some games (blitz, gauntlet legends) need overclocked core2 duos or quads to run at full speed.  A few don't run fast enough on any PC hardward out three now.  Check out the benchmark thread for top of the line CPU performance on some of the slowest games.

However, for 90%-95% of the games in mame, "2 Ghz" CPU (P4 @ 2 Ghz, athlon "2000+", PM & core @ ~ 1.75, core2 @ ~1.25) with a decent directX D3D video card will be fine; hey maybe "1.5 Ghz" will do okay.  But that leaves about 300-600 games (5% of 6000) that won't play fast enough.

[fryguy]

I hope that Defender doesn't have it's boards and original parts! there would be a lot of people very annoyed at seeing an original Defender mutilated for use as a Mame machine, when it really ought to be restored.

Good point.  No, the guy I got the cabinet from did a pretty good job of gutting it of all its parts.   The cabinet itself is in decent shape, good enough to get this first-timer up and running.

 

[Kajoq]

I recently got my mame PC up and running... 2.4ghz p4, 1gb ram, ArcadeVGA as the vid card (Radeon 9250 at heart)

Runs basically everything on MAME excepting the 3d stuff.  Been very pleased with it.  It was a box I picked up from another user in the buy/sell/trade forum

[TheManuel]

If you don't care for 3-D games (I don't) the compromises are less.
Older 3D arcade games look like crap to me anyway.

If this is your case, I am setting up a MAME machine with a PIII-800MHz 512MB SDRAM and can run most 2-D games full speed with MAME v0.104 (any version before 0.107 that has all or most of the games you want would do).
The exceptions are:
- Mortal Kombat Series.  Here, I use fastmame v0.56 and it runs the games full speed but not by a big margin.  The roms have remained unchanged since then.
- Street Fighter III Series.  Here, I'm screwed.  You need close to 2GHz to play this full speed
- I might be missing other taxing 2-D games that I don't know about.

If using an older computer, full 0.36 romsets can still be found.

Good Luck.

[maxmix]

Argggg Dont fo it ! 

Do you realise how rare that cabinet is here in the UK... We have none left over here 

maxmix