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The ideal pc
dreamakuma:
I'm planning to buy a pc for my cab, And I'm going to get a used custom one from a place so I need to know what would be a good pc that's not a crazy-new overclocked to all ---cleaveland steamer--- setup. I'm mostly running cps2 and neo geo games(and classics), Killer instinct 1 & 2, although 2 lags so I'm about to drop it. any idea's on what I should be asking for?
atomikbohm:
When asking about specific games people seem to have an idea on what min requirements are for at least some games. Is there a database around that I don't know about that has this information?
I too am building a new PC in the near future and don't what to overspend but don't want to be underpowered either.
mlalena:
There used to be this benchmarking site: http://benchmark.mameworld.net/
but mameworld.net let the domain name lapse, and now it is a typical domain parked for ads site.
I can summarize what the site would have told you:
Multi-core processors don't help with emulation, but the newer processors also have a faster bus and RAM so a 3GHz Core 2 Duo is still better than a 3.5GHz Pentium 4/D.
For the price, the current best bet seems to be an overclocked Intel 6850 or similar. It can run Gauntlet Legends and NFL Blitz at 100% if you do it right. See this post for details: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72776.0
I expect that the new Intel i7 would run MAME even faster, but the new architecture makes it a bit expensive. I think i7 motherboards start at $250 and would be more for one that will let you overclock.
wbassett:
Right now in my cab I have an old AMD Thunderbird 1.2GHz with 256MB of ram and some generic AGP video card. It plays probably 98% of the games I have loaded. I haven't tried driving games on my cab so I don't know how it would handle them, but other than Pole Position I doubt it would be up to the task.
My son gave me a 'broken' PC, 3.2Ghz Hyperthreading CPU, 1GB of ram and onboard video. The fix for the PC was a $14 heat sink and fan. :) Anyway, one game that definitely won't play on my cab, and my main desktop also can't handle is a Star Wars game from Japan. It won't even come up on the Thunderbird, and on my main desktop it's like watching it a frame at a time. (Desktop is an older 2.6GHz with 512MB of ram and an NVideo video card). The new PC I fixed runs this game with no problems or studders at all.
The main differences as noted are more ram and a faster CPU that does hyperthreading. It's not a dual core or anything like that. Aside from being .6Ghz faster and more ram, the biggest difference is the hyperthread technology.
I'm not trying to say this is the ultimate setup or that there isn't anything better out there- I'm just passing on my personal experience running MAME on three different PCs and how well each worked.
One thing I'd definitely recommend looking for in your new PC is if you can set it in the BIOS so that it comes on when power is applied. This way you can just flip one switch on a power strip or external cab switch and the PC automatically boots up. My monitor also turns on as soon as power is applied, so my cab comes up with just one flip of a switch and no need to go inside and turn anything on.
mlalena:
Thanks for the followup wbassett.
After reading your post, I realized some very important information was lacking in my post.
The overclocked Core 2 Duos help with some of the higher performance CHD games.
If you are only interested in pacman and similar, the old retired Pentium 3 would work.
Don't waste the money if you don't need it.
Also, I figured that mameworld.net would have acquired a new domain so I did some poking around and found they are now at http://www.mameworld.info/
I didn't see the benchmarks there (didn't look that hard) but it appears that they are still in the process of migrating to the new domain. I would keep checking back at that site for the benchmark database.