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| jakejake28:
--- Quote from: paigeoliver on June 20, 2003, 01:31:13 am ---Hee hee. You don't even NEED a hard drive. I recall seeing a bootable CDROM Mame setup in the past, and someout out there has a Ms. Pac-Mame machine that only has one drive, a floppy drive. (I think he called the project Ms. Stacy, or something like that). --- End quote --- you could skip on a hard drive and just make a ton of advanceCD disks. not the easiest idea, kind of annoying. just an idea |
| bionicbadger:
I would keep the dvd rom and floppy (I only needed a floopy once for my cab and didnt have one, so had to rip one out of another computer to use for 5 minutes, but i wish woulda spent the $8-10 for one). You might be able to get away with a cheaper sound card. Do you plan on using more than 2 speakers or 2 + a sub? Many older games are mono. You can get a cheap ATI card off ebay, I paid $6 for mine (8MB card with s-video out) and it works great. You dont need anything fancy. Speakers again, look for used stuff, ebay has lots, or garage sales. Ditto for ethernet cards. You didnt say if you needed a motherboard/processor or not. If you do, there are some good deals for cheap available if you keep your eyes open. Last week Fry's had a sale on an ECS motherboard(K7S5A)& Athlon 2000+ package for $69. Not the best/most modern setup, but more than adequate for a mame cabinet, and cheap. As for cooling, just make sure your cabinet has adequate venting and you should be ok. My cabinet is in my basement which is pretty cool, so I dont need a fan inside my cabinet, it never gets that warm. If you need a fan for airflow, consider using 12"+ oscilating fan or desk fan from wal-mart or someplace inside your cabinet. They are super cheap, quiet, and move alot of air. You can set them to not oscilate and just blow where you want. No one will see it since its hidden in your cabinet. 27" TV, I have a toshiba as do some other people here. Toshiba has some nice features, small case for a 27", remembers power state and settings when unplugged (so you can leave it on and set to s-video and unplug/shut off power bar and then plug in again and it turns on set to s-video). I got mine used, look around, pawn shops, garage sales, moving sales, local paper or forsale newsgroups. Good luck. |
| mccall:
2 removable caddy's are gonna cost you $20 while a nic costs you $10. So you'd rather spend double the money and make it harder to do. Really if you can't afford to spend $10 on a nic aren't you in the wrong hobby anyways. The OP asked what he NEEDED. Does he need a NIC? No. Might it make things easier for him? Maybe, if he has the other required components and the skill set to utilize them properly. Plenty of people run their cabs without attaching them to a network. The cost of the NIC has nothing to do with it. I was telling him how I handled not having a floppy, CD drive, NIC, and DVD - all things he listed. |
| pmc:
I built a general purpose box (not for a cabinet) with good name-brand parts from www.newegg.com last fall. $400 and more than what you need for MAME. Newegg is a great company and really easy to do business with. I'll likely revamp my cab at some point and build a new PC specifically for that purpose -- and therefore use parts that specifically meet the purpose and are OEM/off-brand because it's not for a daily-use machine. Here's what I'd consider doing if I was starting from scratch today (and I do realize this is a bit off-topic): This stuff is all new and ships FedEx. No inflated eBay shipping and handling... [*] Cheap AMD Athlon mobo (start at $44). Consider a micro-ATX Shuttle mobo because you can buy a shoe-box sized case for it and skip the mid-tower sized PCs. Also consider integrated sound so you don't have to buy a soundcard. [*] PCI Soundcard. $8. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=29-117-104&depa=1 [*] 8MB ATI AGP Video card. Get the refurb one for $9! http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=14-102-178&depa=1 . Of course if you have a TV you'll need to upgrade an an S-Video out card. [*] CPU (Athlon XP at 1.1GHz is $33). http://www.newegg.com/app/listProduct.asp?submit=list&catalog=343&DEPA=1&sortby=11&order=0 . You can also go with a Duron or Celeron to value engineer things further but make sure your mobo is made for that CPU. I find that for the money, Althlon XP chips are great performers, and overclock easily if you want to. [*] Gut another box for a case/power supply, otherwise, you can get a rock-bottom ATX case with a 300W power supply for $22 (Dynapower Model# METIS CS-I3ALB.701 (Light-Blue). You can even leave the case behind and flush-mount everything to a piece of plywood in the cabinet. Spend the extra money on the power supply. Alternately, buy a micro-ATX case. Just make sure your power supply will provide enough for the CPU. [*] 52X CDROM drive ($16). http://www.newegg.com/app/ListProduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=list&catalog=55&description=&sortby=22&order=1 . Easiest way to manage the machine (OS updates, additional software (e.g., OptiPac s/w)) but not entirely necessary. [*] WiFi PCI NIC. If you have a WiFi (802.11b) network in your house, $45. Otherwise, get a $5 10/100 wired NIC at Best Buy or Circuit City or eBay or wherever. High-speed Internet is great to be able to transfer files to the PC and also read this board right from the cab. OK. Newegg has them too. $5. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=33-128-001&depa=1 [*] 40g HD. $50. http://www.newegg.com/app/ListProduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=list&catalog=14&description=&sortby=22&order=0 [*] 256MB RAM. $36. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=20-150-532&depa=1 (2x128MB). I never used anything but Crucial, but it's not like I need to overclock here. [*] No floppy. You'll likly never use it. But you can buy a new one for $10 if you really want an emergency boot disk or something like that. [*] Steal the mouse and keyboard from another machine or buy a set from newegg for $10. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=23-131-108&depa=1 [/list] OK.... how'd I do? $233 including the case, 10/100 NIC, mouse, and keyboard. Plus shipping (newegg ships some stuff for free). Maybe $250 if you are lucky. You might be able to get close buying from Tiger Direct or another outfit like that, but beware of some of those Internet vendors. Now, I might consider upgrading that video card and soundcard a tiny bit, and getting name-brand RAM and/or going to 512MB, but it's all gravy... Good luck. |
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