New MOBO recomendations...

[moonchilddave]

Well, my old Dell Dimension 4300 (P4 @ 1.6G) has gotten to the point that it's not worth repairing as it's likely the motherboard (lightning hit the house and went down the phone line and in through the modem).

I mainly use MAME to run the classics (1970-1987 or so)... I'm currently looking at this combo:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4910400&sku=B69-3101

I liked the fact it had the built-in video which beats what I had (an old GeForce 2 MX/MX 400).  Should this be a good replacement?  Or could someone recommend something better?  I'm looking in the under $200 range.  With my old system, running MAME .131 things got pretty slow when I turned on scanlines and I had issues with the choppy audio.

[Beretta]

well if price is a concern then check out this thread by dr zero: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94657.0

the price is pretty good for a still pretty capable system.


DO NOT buy a phenom processor, they are the sux, the phenom II however is'nt bad.

if you've got enough parts to salvage then i'd say go with either a intel e5200, or a phenom II x2 550

both those go for less then 100 bucks, and boht over clock pretty well.
a mother board should be easily had for less then 100, there are better deals to be had on the intel 775 boards, i've seen some nice gigabytes go for like 40 bucks AR lately.

micro center had one about 3 weeks ago.

if you dont care about over clocking i can recommend going with ECS boards, they're pretty no frills, but all the ones i've had been rock solid stable and are cheap.. usually under 50 bucks even when not on sell.

[drventure]

You might also want to check out this thread.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94595.0

[moonchilddave]

Thanks for the tips... I'm now looking at:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz

with either

ECS BLACK SERIES GF8200A (V1.0) AM2+/AM3 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

or

ASUS M4N78 Pro AM3/AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Any other good MOBO recommendations for this CPU with integrated video welcome!

[Beretta]

that ECS should be fine, i've heard good things of the black series although never used one my self..

[PCMedics]

We replace a ton of mobo combos here. Asus would be my choice over ECS but that's personal from the amount of bad one we have seen. I prefer MSI to either since they have decent support stateside. I would be leery of tiger direct they usually are the rock bottom price unless your a reseller . But take a look at the FL BBB site they have pages and pages of complaints for not warranting their products . So if the part is good from the get go they seem ok  but if a issue arises might not be the best choice.

[Beretta]

i use to like asus, back in the day they use to be great.. it's been hit and miss with them for the last 6 or 7 years.

a lot of people like them still but i think gigabyte has got to be the best motherboard maker out there these days, high quality boards and even their cheaper boards have lots of features.. they have a board in just about every price range.

[PCMedics]

I agree on gigabyte being a good board. I personally look at the support end now since our store warranties its sales we try to get boards we know will not be hard to rma to the manufacturer if out of our wholesalers  warranty. Asus is next to impossible now not even a 800# that is easy to find .

[moonchilddave]

Ok, just when I thought I had settled on the ECS Black board - I'm unsure if it will work with the processor I selected.  ECS website says that the board is "AM3 ready" but doesn't list the AMD Phenom II X2 as a compatible CPU.  Also the manual for the board says the socket is AM2/AM2+.  I'm a little confused now.  Does anyone know if this combo will work?  If so, I'd like to go ahead and get this ordered.

ECS BLACK SERIES GF8200A - Company Product Page

If not, I'm still in a quandry over the board... My goal is to get something with the best available onboard video - and something that is hopefully compatible with the AAE emulator.  However, my budget for the board really can't go over $140 and I'd prefer $100 or cheaper.

Maybe this would be a better option:

GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

[Beretta]

personal choice here, i do like gigabyte, but there is nothing wrong with that ECS.

AM3 processors are backwards compatible with AM2+ sockets.. ironically however AM2+ processors wont work in AM3 socket boards.

AM3 boards also require DDR3, which is pretty damn expensive compared to DDR2 (AM2/AM2+).

if you click on specifications at ECS it states it supports Phenom II.

either board will work.

[moonchilddave]

I went with the ECS GF8200 motherboard and the AMD Phenom II x2 500 Black Edition... Yeehaw!!!!  Just got it all set up and running and ALL my games now run 100% / no skip with scanlines enabled under MAME .133 compiled with the hiscore patch.  I did notice the northbridge does tend to get a little hot so I ordered and installed a Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II CL-C0034 Copper Fan & Heatsink.  The temp went from 66C at idle to 44C.  Well, once I noticed people saying to be sure to take off the CLEAR plastic on the bottom of the copper that was easily missed and not described anywhere in the instructions.

Thanks all for the advice and input!!!  I'm a very happy camper now...  Beats the hell out of trying to figure out which version of mame a certain game runs best in on old hardware.

[Beretta]

congrats, im glad it worked out for you.

it's nice to beable to run every thing in one version i agree 

[mytymaus007]

congrats on your new PC.  Just wondering if you can get surf planet running 100%. Im not sure what the problem is on my side but it doesnt work, please let me know if it works with your new pc