OS Questions

[bsoder52]

So after a couple years I've decided to redo much of my MAME cabinet, starting with a larger hard-drive and a multi-emulator front-end (chosen HyperSpin). 

My question is around the OS for the HD.  I have a legit copy of Windows95, will that work to run Hyperspin and Mame and all the emulators? I know its an older version, but this is all the PC will be used for so I don't need a new sexy OS unless these pieces of software require it.

Any words of advice are appreciated!
Bsoder52

[Ginsu Victim]

You should use XP.

[HaRuMaN]

You should use XP.

Before listening to this advice, what are your PC specs?  XP may be a bad choice depending on your hardware.  Depending on the age, you may want to consider Win 98SE.

[severdhed]

windows 95 blows.

post the specs of your PC.  i'd go with xp if possible, but on older hardware, win98se is probably a better choice

[Ginsu Victim]

You should use XP.

Before listening to this advice, what are your PC specs?  XP may be a bad choice depending on your hardware.  Depending on the age, you may want to consider Win 98SE.

I used XP on a 700 mhz with 256 MB of RAM. Once you kill all the processes you don't need, it's fine for a MAME cab, even on an older machine.

I *did* consider saying Win98SE, but thought XP would do fine for MAME. I could be wrong, though.

[HaRuMaN]

Mebbe he doesn't have 256 MB of RAM...

[Ginsu Victim]

I think he should sell it and get a Tandy.

[RayB]

One advantage of Win 98SE is setting it up to boot into DOS mode for FAST boot time (but then you get all the DOS disadvantages like setting up drivers, not being able to play Daphne, etc)

[Ginsu Victim]

One advantage of Win 98SE is setting it up to boot into DOS mode for FAST boot time (but then you get all the DOS disadvantages like setting up drivers, not being able to play Daphne, etc)

Not being able to change maps on the U360 is what has prevented me from trying this.

[Beretta]

what are the specs?

he said he's redoing the mame cab so im assuming its' a newish computer.

xp is fine imo.. if it's a 64bit processor go for xp x64, also use a 64bit build of mame you'll get a small speed increase over the standard 32bit version.

95 is pretty old, the first version did'nt have USB support, the 2nd had a patch that could enable usb support, but it was'nt very good i dont think.. win98 supports usb out of the box, stay away from windows ME it sucks period.

personally i like windows 2000 (evolution of window NT line and XP is based on 2000)
it's easier on resources then XP but stable and has good usb support, most XP drivers will work with win2k.. personally i think 2000 was the best version of windows but they've long killed support for it.. this is'nt a big deal for a mame cabinet though.

if it's a old pc say 500mhz or less then a direct dos boot might be good, but driver support as was mentioned sucks.. especially for anything usb.


i'd probably go for 2000 or xp, this is especially true if you have mutli core processor although it is only a small increase in speed you can turn on multi thread rendering on and it will make sure of 2 cores.. also windows will beable to use the 2nd core to spread out the load.. making any background services or programs less of a problem for mame.. since mame can really only effectively use 1 core at a time the other can be used for everything else windows might wanna do without slowing mame down.

windows 9x/me has no mutli core support so even if you have a quad core processor only the first core will actually be used.

also there was a problem with windows 95 (maybe 98 also i dont remember) where if the computer was fast (back then) say 1ghz+ the system would crash they fixed it with a patch i think i never ran into the problem my self since anything over about 500 mhz always got loaded with 2000.

[bsoder52]

Thanks for all the responses everyone!  I ended up buying a used and wiped SeaGate 160 HD and managed to find a XP HOME which I'm installing right now.  Once it installs I'll try to give you some of the pC specs.  I'd be interested in any advice to optimize itps performance as this PC will solely be used to run MAME and about 7 other emulators if I can get them and Hyperspin all up and running.   

[bsoder52]

I have 146 GB of free space on the HD.  AMD Duron(tm) Processor 1.29 GHz, 512MB of RAM.  Windows Home Edition w/ Service Pack 3

Thoughts???

[Ginsu Victim]

You're using XP now which we mostly suggested depending on the hardware. That hardware is fine for XP, so, question answered.

[bsoder52]

ok, kewl  thats a relief!