some mame machine help

[spectre]

well... I just sold some stuff on ebay and i've managed to get 220 less shipping...
so i'll say I'll have 200 dollars
i can get a cab for 100
then i'll have 100 left
im also getting around 30dollars for some stuff and possibly another 40 maybe a little more
so basically here is my situation, i have speakers, i have a monitor (15inch, but on a tight budget it will do)

200 + 30 + 40(40 if the rest of my ebay stuff sells)

270 - 100(cab) = 170 - 150 (xarcadestick) = 20

so i'm left with 20 dollars for the actlabs lightgun (35 + shipping) and a pc...

basically i need to find a cheap pc...

the pc has to have any ol cd drive so i can copy the mame cds over to it, 2 usb ports, 1 for xarcade 1 for lightgun, soundcard (for obvious reasons) and it has to run all the mame games even the complicated ones like marvel vs. capcom and metal slug, king of fighters 2000, stuff liket hat... i have area 51 and maximum force but they aren't really a required thing since it's pretty high to run those, and killer instinct wont evenrun on my pc now, lol... so basically im looking for a cheap pc (prefereably $130 or under that can run pretty much every mame game decently with the exception of killer instinct 1 and area 51 and maximum force... (the chd drive games)...  with 20 left the lightgun shouldn't be super hard to get, only 15 more, i might pull that off, but the pc is going to be hard...and thats all i'll really need, so if anyone knows where i can get a cheap pc to run all the mame games decently with soundcard and  2 usb ports, let me know pleeeeeeeze... oh and it needs to hold 8 gig of roms and mame stuff... i dunno how big the os will be for it (windows since im using usb ports... so i either need a 10 gig hd or a 20 gig hd... any ideas for a cheap pc like that, juss the pc no monitor or any of that blah blah... i'm lost since i dunno exactly what i need to run the all the mame games decent enough...
      thanks sorry for the long confusing post
                 -SpEcTrE-

[Sasquatch!]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the underlying question is that you need to get a PC for under $130 that does everything that you described?  Yikes.

Unless there's some kind of KA-RAY-ZEE discount store that I'm not aware of, you're not going to get anything new for $130, so a used machine is your best/only bet.  

This is going to be your biggest hurdle, as far as I can see:

and it has to run all the mame games even the complicated ones like marvel vs. capcom and metal slug, king of fighters 2000, stuff liket that...

These games require a pretty decent system.  I have an Athlon 1133 MHz in my cabinet right now, and it runs these games okay, but I think I'm at the bottom end of what will handle these games.  So my advice would be to try to pick up a used PC that has at least a 1 GB processor.  Of course, you'll want as much RAM as you can afford too, but as long as you don't max out your memory slots by jamming them full of smaller memory chps, you can always pick up additional RAM later as you can afford it.  But still I'd say to get at least a 1 GB processor.

My experience has been that on-board sound on most motherboards sounds like crapola, but again, you can always get a better sound card later as you can afford it.

My $0.02.

[spectre]

I assume that you mean ghz? And yea, saving for a good one would probably be my best bet. Right now my main pc is a 1.4ghz 512rd ram and it runs them all fine. Do you think that an 800mhz could do it? How dependant is mame on ram? I heard it was all processor mostly?

[jakejake28]

i have a 633 mhz with 576 ram and i can even run Killer Instinct well. Normal? who knows, but i will not complain.  

[spectre]

i can run ki alright...
but ki2 is way too slow...

[spectre]

I'm hearing different things now between a 600 and a 1000... anyone with definite reqs? lol

[jakejake28]

oh no, by all means, don't buy a 600 mhz. definetely go 1 ghz. i was just saying that for an example of hertz vs. ram, and you should go at least 1 ghz. my newer pc, not for mame, is over 1 ghz and rocks. sorry about the mixup

[Sasquatch!]

Yeah, I meant gagahertz, not gigabyte.  Whoops.

I'm hearing different things now between a 600 and a 1000... anyone with definite reqs? lol

The only "official" specs that I know of are at the MAME FAQ.

[spectre]

thanks, i've got a 1.4ghz 512mb of rd ram... my pc now is just great. But I can't dedicate it to a mame cab =( lol

[Tiger-Heli]

See my comments in this thread:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=7942