Building new computer for cabinet, what OS?

[Jdurg]

I'm currently working on building a MAME cabinet and figured I should start looking at what type of computer I'm going to put in this thing.  Since it's going to be a pretty long while before I'm ready for the computer, I have plenty of time to think this over.  (Since this is a long term project, the computer will be the LAST thing I buy.  Rumor has it there will be some incredibly good CPUs coming out early next year so I'll be waiting until they come out before I buy them).

From what I can tell, MAME is starting to see better and better performance out of 64-bit systems, so when my computer is built it will be a 64-bit CPU and OS.  That means I have two real options for my OS;  Windows XP Professional-64 Bit, or Windows Vista Business-64 Bit.  Which one should I go by?

I like the fact that Windows XP can be reduced to just the bare basics and becomes VERY "resourceless".  It's just that I've heard the 64 bit version is really just a hack and not a "true" 64-bit OS.  With Windows Vista, I've never heard ANYTHING good about that OS and don't think it would be wise to put it in a MAME machine.  However, if people have had good experiences with Vista in a MAME Cabinet I'd like to hear it.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I asked a multithreading question and the user "u_rebelscum" answered it and gave me some extra info about 64 bit OS's here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=74646.msg773085#msg773085

~ DeLuSioNaL

[taz-nz]

The short answer is go with Vista Home Prem 64bit.

Vista is hard on your system resources, mainly memory & hard drive space, but inspite of this it's actual very quick. Turn off the user account control and it's livable for day to day use. Memory is dirt cheap these day even for the good stuff, just slap in 2gb and that side of things is fixed, HDD space is equally cheap these days just allow 20gb for Vista, 15gb for the basic install and another 5gb for drivers, applications, and running space. There are any number of services etc that can be disable or removed to slim things down. The only thing I'd really also suggetst is make sure you graphics is areo compatible not that you likely to ever use it.

Since that basically a list of what wrong with Vista why use it:

- It cheaper: you can buy Vista Home Premium 64bit cheaper than you can Windows XP Pro 64bit. (Of course there are pirate copies of both available)
- It easier to get: alot of places will look at you blankly if you ask for XP Pro 64bit, Vista 64bit is easily found in almost all computer outlets.
- Drivers: this is the big one, Vista 64bit has good driver support for most system harware, and average driver suipport periphals. both will only improve with time, XP 64bit on the other hand was basically still born and as such has only average driver support for system harware, and rubbish support for periphals.
- General Support:  Vista is new and while most people don't like it support for it will only increase over time, XP 64bit is very little support and that will only get worse with time.

The only problem I've seen to date with running Vista 64bit in a MAME cabinet is avialablity of lightgun drivers, but this is more of a 64bit OS problem than just a Vista problem.

Just a side note, Window XP 64bit is not a hack, it is a fully 64bit OS, the only catch is for compatiblity & developemeht reasons it still has a number of hidden limitations left over from the 32bit version. These limitation were removed in Vista 64bit but they are unlikely to have any effect on MAME either way.

Please note I'm not a Vista lover, I run XP Pro for 95% of my day to day stuff, and Vista Ultimate 64bit for MAME and a few other things that gain noticably from the 64bit Enviroment. I still cannot suggest anyone in business use anything but Windows XP Pro, unless they are using high resource apps like CAD.
  
I've also TRIED to run SDLMAME on 64bit Linux, but as linux feels like Windows 3.11 with pretty graphics and an Internet connect, and it's hardware compitablity is rubbish in my book, I can't suggest you go the route either. I tried three different distros and two wouldn't even install on my Core 2 Duo (they isntall on my Athlon64 x2) and one that installed but was useless and crashed and died two days after it was installed.
 


 

[DeLuSioNal29]

Based on that, I have to agree with Taz-nz.  And before you know it, I'm sure that "Nlite" - the program used to make Windows XP into "Tiny XP" will have a newer version out to make Vista 64 into a quicker "Tiny Vista 64" edition.   

By the way, I bought at AMD X2 4000+ CPU, motherboard, case and 2GB RAM for under $200 including tax and shipping.  The RAM was only $40!  I also bought a 160gb hard drive for a mere $50 at Best Buy.      (www.tigerdirect.com)

It should be even cheaper when by the time you finish your cab and buy a computer. 

Wow.

~ DeLuSioNaL

[AMDman13]

I might be way off since I am still running v.103 but my old Athlon 2600 Barton with 1 GB of ram is running all games at least 95-100% with some small exclusions ie.. Gauntlet legends and NFL Bliz..

Id say the specs your throwing around here would be better off in your home desktop PC?

[Jdurg]

Thanks Taz.  That was incredibly helpful.  One other question I have about Vista is how much of a PITA is it to have to "re-activate" it every 60 days?  I don't plan on having this system hooked up to the internet, so having to call MS and re-activate it sounds incredibly annoying.  I guess I could go and have the system plugged into a network jack, but that means some re-wiring in my house.  Plus I'd have to install a virus-scanning software and firewall into the system to keep ass-holes out of it.  That's something I'm hoping MS figures out a way to fix because basically if your system is not one that is connected to the internet yer screwed with this OS.

For the system specs, I currently have a 3.0 GHz P4 system as my home computer.  Where I work they give us a laptop which, although it's kind of crappy specwise, still is good for surfing the web and researching things.  Next year I plan on getting my own personal laptop so I don't have to worry about 'what' I'm "researching" or doing.    These days I rarely turn on my home computer.  I only use it when I need to do some art or video work which it is more than capable of doing.  (Though I need to re-install the OS on it since it's been running for a good 5 years now and has gotten kind of bloated with garbage.  A format followed by a clean install ought to get it back to like-new status again.  It's just that I have to dig around and burn to DVDs all the stuff that I've installed that I still want to keep and all my personal files.  That will take a while).

The system I plan on putting into the cabinet will be a fairly bare bones system.  I'm going to use the ArcadeVGA2 card (which hopefully will have 64 bit Vista drivers by then), a simple sound card, a simple network card, 4 GB of RAM, probably a 160 GB HDD with one partition for the OS and the rest for the emulators, or a 40 GB HDD for the OS and a separate 160 GB drive for the emulators.  It all depends on what's most cost effective at the time.  I also plan on getting a good motherboard, power supply, and CPU to try and get the most I can out of the system.  By the time I go for the purchase, the 45nm CPUs will be out which should hopefully be incredibly powerful.  That's still a long ways away though so I have plenty of time.   

[Jack Burton]

If I am not mistaken I believe Microsoft has decided to remove part of the anti-piracy features of Vista in SP1.   This may mean removing the reactivation every 60 days thing.  But I'm not sure.  You should look it up.

[Jdurg]

If I am not mistaken I believe Microsoft has decided to remove part of the anti-piracy features of Vista in SP1.   This may mean removing the reactivation every 60 days thing.  But I'm not sure.  You should look it up.

Will do.  Again, I don't plan on building the computer until my cabinet is completely built and ready to go, so I have a while to wait before I start that part of the build.  I just figured I'd ask now and get some opinion before it was too late.