Buying new computer components for MAME cabinet - looking for suggestions

[cmoses]

I am looking to purcahse a new MB, CPU, memory and video card for a MAME cabinet.  Looking to run MAME 0.127, playing mostly classic arcade games, but also the occasional, NBA Jam, NFL Blitz and some fighters.  Also planning to run Daphne, VPinball with VPinMAME and some console emulators.

Not wanting to break the bank, looking for the most bang for the buck.  Would sacrafice not being able to play some of the higher end games for getting the components at a better price.

I will be running Windows XP on the machine.  Specific questions I have - Is more memory always better or do you get to a point where there is no return on investment.  Same thing with video - is onboard sufficent, or do you need a seperate card, and how much video memory. 

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Turnarcades]

You're going to get a huge range of opinions on this so let me just give you some benchmarks I'm happy with after much testing:

P3 1Ghz, 128/256mb RAM, on-board graphics and sound; More than good enough to cover most arcade games (even Neo-Geo) excluding most .chd games and more advanced polygonal (post-16-bit era) games like Tekken etc. Some Midway games will run ok with a small amount of frameskip but others will be far too choppy to play properly. Will be able to play pretty much all 16-bit era consoles and lower with no trouble. 32X+Mega CD emulation is near-perfect, and if you add a decent graphics card you should be able to squeeze N64 emulation out of it or similar.

P4 1.6Ghz+, 256/512mb RAM, on-board graphics+sound; As above but will play some .chd and Midway games better, plus you will see noticable improvements in 3D fighters etc. N64 emulation is great even without an extra graphics card, plus you can run PS1 and a few other consoles on the same level with little trouble. Noticable improvements in rom boot times and lag/frameskip across all platforms.

P4 2.4Ghz+, 1Gb RAM, decent graphics+sound cards; As previously but will be closer to achieving playable speed on the most demanding MAME games. More RAM should improve seamless launching between emulators/games/frontends and allow for more front-end frills and visual filter effects on games with little impact on performance.

This is just my opinion after much testing of various-grade platforms. I advise using XP (but be sure to remove/stop all unwanted services and memory-sapping background apps) and simpler front-ends that don't demand too many resources if you go further down the scale.

[taz-nz]

Have a read of my post from the other day for a Preformance MAME machine on a budget.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72776.msg898707#msg898707

If your buying new I really wouldn't waste your money on anything less than an entry level core2duo & a g45 chipset board, sure if you've got an old P4 or Athlon laying around that you can clean up, go that route but if you don't spend a little more and get something that is atleast isn't going to be out of date the day you get it.

MAME really doesn't care about your graphics card much, but some of the other emulator may, 64bit OS and 64bit MAME are a must if you want the most out of your CPU in MAME these days.

[cmoses]

You're going to get a huge range of opinions on this so let me just give you some benchmarks I'm happy with after much testing:

P3 1Ghz, 128/256mb RAM, on-board graphics and sound; More than good enough to cover most arcade games (even Neo-Geo) excluding most .chd games and more advanced polygonal (post-16-bit era) games like Tekken etc. Some Midway games will run ok with a small amount of frameskip but others will be far too choppy to play properly. Will be able to play pretty much all 16-bit era consoles and lower with no trouble. 32X+Mega CD emulation is near-perfect, and if you add a decent graphics card you should be able to squeeze N64 emulation out of it or similar.

P4 1.6Ghz+, 256/512mb RAM, on-board graphics+sound; As above but will play some .chd and Midway games better, plus you will see noticable improvements in 3D fighters etc. N64 emulation is great even without an extra graphics card, plus you can run PS1 and a few other consoles on the same level with little trouble. Noticable improvements in rom boot times and lag/frameskip across all platforms.

P4 2.4Ghz+, 1Gb RAM, decent graphics+sound cards; As previously but will be closer to achieving playable speed on the most demanding MAME games. More RAM should improve seamless launching between emulators/games/frontends and allow for more front-end frills and visual filter effects on games with little impact on performance.

This is just my opinion after much testing of various-grade platforms. I advise using XP (but be sure to remove/stop all unwanted services and memory-sapping background apps) and simpler front-ends that don't demand too many resources if you go further down the scale.

In option 3 can you be more specific as to what decent graphics and sound card would entail?  PCI-E video card with how much memory?  Is there a better choice between ATI and Nvidia?