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How does this sound?

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cadmium:

So how does this sound for a dedicated PC for Mame cab:

[*]Asus M2A-VM HDMI $76*
[*]AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ Retail $62
[*]Seagate Barracuda 250GB $55
[*]2GB DDR2-800 ~$50
[*]Radeon X1550 or X1650 ~$30
[*]In-Win C589T $54

Total $337 or $299 with the MSI mobo.

Based loosely on the Ars Techinca Budget Box

I might go even cheaper on the mobo using something like a MSI K9VGM-V AM2 VIA K8M890 for $48.

I'll probably stick with onboard sound and video. If I did add a card, it would only be for TV-out (though I'm going to stick with a monitor for now), so I'd probably just get a super cheap ATI card.

I also priced a similar rig with an Intel E4600 C2Duo, but it was about $50 more.

*Edited to update the hardware, include case price.

Ginsu Victim:

Go with the cheaper mobo and get separate video and sound cards. Some people have issues with onboard a/v.

cadmium:

I think I have an old SB Live! Lying around.

Would a Radeon X1550 or Radeon X1650PRO be enough video card? Both are under $50.

Ginsu Victim:

Yeah. I'm using an X1650 myself.

That sound card would work just fine.

Paul Olson:

If you are near a Fry's, they have an e7200 with a cheap ecs mobo for $119. Mine is running hot with the stock heatsink so I am not able to oc it right now, but once I figure that out, this chip clocks to 3.17ghz just by changing FSB to 1333. Mine crashed after 10 minutes of burn in at that speed. I haven't tried MAME on it, I picked up an e8400 combo for $159 for the cab; I'm putting that one together now. You will get a lot more out of a c2d chip than you will with the AMD for MAME, so you might want to look into it. These are the first intel chips I have bought since the P3 first came out; but better performance and similar price was plenty to make me switch back.

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