Best OS? - Looking For Opinions

[mikeyv23]

Hey all,

I am in the process of building a small pc that I plan to use when I am away from home for playing games.  All I want the thing to do is run the emulators for arcade games, sega, nes, snes, etc.  The "newest" system it would need to handle is n64.  No PS1 or anything like that.

So basically I am looking for opinions on which operating system would be the best for this?  I am trying to decided between Windows 98, Windows XP, or a flavor of linux (DOS is not an option due to some of the system hardware).

Please keep in mind when replying that running these emulators is the ONLY thing it will be doing (maybe play video files).  No web browsing, no office work, no high end 3D gaming (NBA Live 06, etc), probably no internet connection what so ever.

I just want a clean and simple (if possible) OS, and if it supports a nice frontend for the emulators all the better.

Thanks for your opinions and help!!   

[youki]

It depends of your machine 's spec.  Memory , Processor..etc..

But as soon as your machine is above of a Celeron 500Mhz , 128 Mega of Ram.  I think the best OS is XP.

[mikeyv23]

Woops...sorry about that, I suppose the system specs might help.

750MHz (might go up to a 1GHz)
256MB RAM


And see I was thinking of XP too, but there can be so much extra stuff running in the background that I don't want/need...but so far it is the direction I am leaning.

[gonzo90017]

Well if you have a Windows xp cd you can do your own streamlined version with Nlite http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html .Since you will only be using it for gaming you only need about 2 or 3 services running in the background.
You can also use GameXP  http://www.theorica.net/gamexp.htm it turns off uneeded services and turns off most of the eye candy in Windows XP. You'll really see a huge difference! Check out this old thread http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=49071.0

[mikeyv23]

Those both look like pretty slick apps.  Now I am really leaning towards XP...hmm...

[gonzo90017]

And they're both very easy to use.

[dax]

Based on my recent experience, I'm not convinced that many newer FEs support Win98 well, so you're probably better off going with XP, but that's a shame because 98 would be a better choice and offer better performance IMO.

[Howard_Casto]

First off 500 mhz and 256 megs of ram is NOT enough to run xp well. 

That is m$'s minimum sys requirements so automatically you increase the mhz to 700-750 and the ram to 512.  Sure with various service tweaking you can decrease that number, but quite frankly if you are going to do more than just play mame, you'll find that most of those services you turned off have to be turned back on for a specific app or emu.  Service tweaking can only give you an extra boost, not make a machine that shouldn't be powerful enough to run xp magically good enough. 

Gamexp will only manage to screw up your system do NOT use it.  I sure wish people would stop recommending that pos. 

I can't vouch for nlight so I'll leave that one be. 


To clarify, while you can run xp in 256 megs of ram and a 500 mhz processor you can't run anything newer than 80's- early 90's era games in mame.  Also all you newer emulators, which would be the reason for running xp won't be happy with such low specs. 


With that being said.  Xp is by far the best os out there, period.  You have more fe choices, more helper app choices, more emulator choices, more stability, a quicker bootup time and more pc games than any other comparable os. 

So there is a best os (for this situation... linux/dos users please calm yourselves) but it's really irrelevant.  If your system is fast enough to run xp, run xp, if it's slightly slower run 98se, if it's ancient run dos.   End of story. 

Notice I didn't mention any other oses.....  that is purely intentional.  Unlesss you have a REALLY good special case excuse, you shouldn't even give oses like linux, beos, win 95, win nt or win2000  (or mac os for that matter) a second thought.  They might have other uses, but they are flat out inferior for gaming and essentially useless in the niche-specific emulator cabinet front. 


In closing please quit asking this question.  I layed it all out...... until m$'s next os comes out for us to evaluate this answer will NOT be changing so please, for the love of god do a search on the forums before you ask a question that gets asked a minimum of twice a month.

[mikeyv23]

Sorry if my question angered you.  I did do a search and read those over.  I was asking because of the specifics of my system.  If you don't like the question you don't have to read it or answer it.

Thanks for those who contributed their input.  Sorry that I bothered to ask a question on forum...

[gonzo90017]

First off 500 mhz and 256 megs of ram is NOT enough to run xp well. 

That is m$'s minimum sys requirements so automatically you increase the mhz to 700-750 and the ram to 512.  Sure with various service tweaking you can decrease that number, but quite frankly if you are going to do more than just play mame, you'll find that most of those services you turned off have to be turned back on for a specific app or emu.  Service tweaking can only give you an extra boost, not make a machine that shouldn't be powerful enough to run xp magically good enough. 

Gamexp will only manage to screw up your system do NOT use it.  I sure wish people would stop recommending that pos. 

Hey all,

I am in the process of building a small pc that I plan to use when I am away from home for playing games.  All I want the thing to do is run the emulators for arcade games, sega, nes, snes, etc.  The "newest" system it would need to handle is n64.  No PS1 or anything like that.

Please keep in mind when replying that running these emulators is the ONLY thing it will be doing (maybe play video files).  No web browsing, no office work, no high end 3D gaming (NBA Live 06, etc), probably no internet connection what so ever.

Nes: FCE Ultra
Sega: Kega Fusion Runs 60fps even with SuperScale 75% scanlines
Snes: Zsnes
N64: UltraHLE, Corn

I'm currently building a bartop which will run with an Nlited version of Windows xp. It's a pentium 3 500mhz 128mb of ram. Using Mamewah as a frontend with in game previews. Most of the games run full speed using Fastmame v.71 The only reason I recommended GameXP was because he mentioned it was a gaming only pc. The only thing I know it messes up from experience is Windows update which you can avoid by unchecking the services tweak before you run it. And anyways it always makes a backup everytime you run it so you can undo any changes. I've built alot of PC's for friends and family and GameXP is always the first thing I install. It really gives XP a boost. In fact I used GameXP on this computer about 6 months ago, no problems whatsoever.

Hey  mikeyv23 don't get offended. If you need any more help, just ask and i'll be happy to help.

[USSEnterprise]

Windows 2000 is just as good as XP, if not better, as long as you have SP4. Much more stable.

[gonzo90017]

Do you mean in terms of performance?

[loadman]

Sorry if my question angered you.  I did do a search and read those over.  I was asking because of the specifics of my system.  If you don't like the question you don't have to read it or answer it.

Thanks for those who contributed their input.  Sorry that I bothered to ask a question on forum...

Hey Dude. Have fun and Enjoy asking questions after a search.  Howard_Casto knows his stuff and gets passionate about some things, but don't take any offence its just appears to be his manor.  :-)

[youki]

My Development and Testing machine for AtomicFE is a Celeron 533MHz with 256 Meg of RAM under XP.
My XP is heavly loaded.  Huge development tools , internet connection,  and lot of other things loaded in memory. And i can still run properly  AtomicFE and Fastmame for old game like Donkey kong, pacman, 88 games... etc..

Win2K is very good as well. Very similar to XP. But so why not take the most recent?

I think XP will be faster than a Win2K .  In the PC in my cab, it boots from power off to Atomic Front End  in about 11 seconds.

I would discourage to use "light" version of XP , you can find on the web. The best thing is to take a normal one, and stop services you don't really need.   I tried some of the "light" version, and i got problem when i needed to update something  and it was not faster than my other XP optimized by hand.

[gonzo90017]

I would discourage to use "light" version of XP , you can find on the web. The best thing is to take a normal one, and stop services you don't really need.   I tried some of the "light" version, and i got problem when i needed to update something  and it was not faster than my other XP optimized by hand.

I would have to disagree.I feel it's significantly faster. And if you have problems updating it means you've removed things you shouldn't have. With Nlite you only remove the things you want. Of course just like using frontends there is a very small learning curve. The Windows XP iso I made for my bartop is only about 250mb. Of course it won't do anything else but use emulators running under AtomicFe or Mamewah. And he mentions it's a GAMING ONLY pc. So no need for updating.

[leapinlew]

First off 500 mhz and 256 megs of ram is NOT enough to run xp well. 

That is m$'s minimum sys requirements

I believe the min. requirements are more like:

233mhz and 64 megs of ram.

With that being said - I agree that a 500mhz machine will run XP a little slow. 256mb is fine for most users of XP. If you tweak XP - 256 is more then adequate for a machine dedicated to old school Mame.

[Shifty]

Something I found by trial and error -- Windows 2000 and XP do NOT support the gameport and multiple joysticks well. Windows 2000 and XP have issues with two gamepads connected at the same time (not via USB), if you can even get them to work one will likely be flaky. Dual gameport Sidewinders also don't work well, if at all.

XP is much more stable and easier to use than Windows 98, and if you're going to use USB, Windows 98 generally requires drivers (only 98SE supports USB). A 533 mhz with only 256 MB will be sluggish, but not bad if it's pretty clean and you're just running emulators. It depends on what you plan on plugging into the system.

[eastbayarb]

I thought of giving nlite a try. I am creating an emulation-only computer (not gonna run n64 since I have my xbox that will take care of that, and I will probably do PSX yet I am still debating) like the original poster. My computer will be STRICTLY for emulation and nothing else.

Here are my system specs (while they are father ahead of the original poster's
specs, every bit of speed does help

AMD 2800+
512 MB RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
450 W Power Supply

If I try Nlite, what things should I eliminate in order to get a fast, stable, quick booting emulation PC?

thanx!

[leapinlew]

I thought of giving nlite a try. I am creating an emulation-only computer (not gonna run n64 since I have my xbox that will take care of that, and I will probably do PSX yet I am still debating) like the original poster. My computer will be STRICTLY for emulation and nothing else.

Here are my system specs (while they are father ahead of the original poster's
specs, every bit of speed does help

AMD 2800+
512 MB RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
450 W Power Supply

If I try Nlite, what things should I eliminate in order to get a fast, stable, quick booting emulation PC?

thanx!

This is something you should do some research on since your needs will definetly vary compared to someone else. There are a variety of web pages that explain all the different optimization options. For example: Should you eliminate network services? Do you plan on installing or using a network card? If so, do you plan on using a wireless card that needs the wireless zero configuration screen?

You do realize you will still be running Windows right? I mean, you don't think nlite is an operating system? You can get nearly the same results by installing windows and then turning off services you do not intend to use.

Most people use Nlite for the opposite reason. They will create an XP disc and slipstream in all the updates. I don't know that I would go through all the hassle of nlite for a 1 time install of a stripped down windows OS.

[leapinlew]

I thought of giving nlite a try. I am creating an emulation-only computer (not gonna run n64 since I have my xbox that will take care of that, and I will probably do PSX yet I am still debating) like the original poster. My computer will be STRICTLY for emulation and nothing else.

Here are my system specs (while they are father ahead of the original poster's
specs, every bit of speed does help

AMD 2800+
512 MB RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
450 W Power Supply

If I try Nlite, what things should I eliminate in order to get a fast, stable, quick booting emulation PC?

thanx!

Also, you should create your own thread instead of hijacking this one. Your PC requirements are quite a bit higher then the ones the OP was discussing.

[eastbayarb]

I thought that this thread would apply to me and others because we would all like the best solution for an emulator-only PC.

Only hardware I plan on having in my PC (and I plan on having NO updates) is the video card (maybe an ATI card with S-Video output since I do plan on using a 25" TV with S-video), 2 hard drives (one boot, one for ROMS) and the motherboard, RAM, CPU and Fan(s).

Thank you for the suggestions, and I already knew that nlite is not an OS.

[krick]

These are the best operating system choices for cabs:

DOS
98 Second Edition (NOT first edition)
XP
Linux

Which is best for you depends on your situation.  i.e. what hardware you have, what software you're trying to run, and what you're most comfortable with.

I don't believe in the "use XP unless you have old hardware" line.

My MAME cab has and AMD Opteron 148 overclocked to 2900 MHz with 1GB of memory and is running Windows 98 Second Edition.

I use MAMEWah as my front end and I run official command line MAME.

[Grasshopper]

In closing please quit asking this question.  I layed it all out...... until m$'s next os comes out for us to evaluate this answer will NOT be changing so please, for the love of god do a search on the forums before you ask a question that gets asked a minimum of twice a month.

With respect Howard, this is a completely ridiculous thing to say. The situation is not static. New emulators are appearing all the time, new front ends are appearing all the time, Linux is constantly evolving etc.

In any case there is no consensus on this issue. Your opinion is but one of many. What you ought to have said is that YOUR answer will not be changing.

Also, one issue you forgot to mention is cost. Many people simply don't believe that XP is worth paying for when there are free alternatives available.

[muzland]

Something I found by trial and error -- Windows 2000 and XP do NOT support the gameport and multiple joysticks well. Windows 2000 and XP have issues with two gamepads connected at the same time (not via USB), if you can even get them to work one will likely be flaky. Dual gameport Sidewinders also don't work well, if at all.

I disagree on the sidewinders. I have two gameport ones daisychained together and they appear to work just fine. Did not have to install any drivers either.

Anyone have any views on using XP embedded? I believe that you can turn it off without having to shutdown with no issues.

Muzland

[gonzo90017]

Here is my Last Session.ini in case anyone wants to experiment. Just open up Last Session.ini with Notepad and delete everything there,  now paste everything here. Run Nlite! it's located in your Nlite>presets folder. The only thing I couldn't get working was controluserpasswords. Just install TweakUi http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/tweakui then go to Logon>AutoLogon and do it from there. Also I set the resolution to 640x480 16bit color 60hz since my pc is 500mhz RivaTnt for those of you with newer systems you can change it to whatever you want. Just look for those two in Notepad and change it. REMEMBER THIS IS FOR GAMING ONLY PC's.




[Main]
Env = 1.0 RC1 - 1.1.4322.573.Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600.0
Target = Windows XP Professional Sp2 - build 2180 - English (United States)

[Tasks]
Remove Components
Unattended Setup
Patches
Tweaks
Create a Bootable ISO

[Components]
;# Drivers #
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Ethernet (LAN)
InfraRed
ISDN
Modems
MultiFunctional
Printers
Scanners
SCSI/RAID
Wireless Ethernet (WLAN)
;# Hardware Support #
ATM Support
Floppy Support
Modem Support
PCMCIA
Printer Support
Smart Cards
Teletext codec
Video Capture
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
;# Languages #
;Western Europe and United States
Spanish (Mexico)
;# Multimedia #
Intel Indeo codecs
Windows Media Player
;# Network #
Active Directory service
Internet Explorer
IP Conferencing
MAC Bridge
Map Network Drives/Network Places Wizard
NetShell Cmd-Tool
Network Setup Wizard
NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Protocol
TAPI Application Support
TCP/IP Version 6
Vector Graphics Rendering (VML)
;# Operating System Options #
Disk and Profile Quota
Document Templates
Framework
Help
Shell Media Handler
;# Services #
Application Layer Gateway
Autoupdate
Background Intelligent Transfer (BITS)
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Internet Authentication (IAS)
Management Instrumentation (WMI)
Network Provisioning
Performance Logs and Alerts
Shell Services
SNMP
Text Services Framework
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
Wireless Zero Configuration
;# Compatibility #
Compat03
Compat07

[KeepFiles]
msconfig.exe

[RemoveFiles]
blastcln.exe
clock.avi

[Options]
ClassicSetup
BlackSetupBack
HigherCompress
DisableFreereq
DisableMinMem
OemBranding
ProfilesDir = "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings"
TargetPath = "WINDOWS"
SrvpEnabled
NoKeepCp
RemoveMUI
;#ISO maker#
isovol = WinLite
isoatt = -allow-multidot -relaxed-filenames -allow-leading-dots -N -l -d -D -joliet-long -duplicates-once -no-emul-boot -b boot.bin -hide boot.bin -hide boot.catalog

[Patches]
DoTcpip
TcpIp = 100
UsbPoll = 125
DoUxTheme
DoSFC

[Services]
Alerter,4
AppMgmt,3
ClipSrv,4
Browser,4
CryptSvc,3
DcomLaunch,2
EventLog,2
HTTP,3
HTTPFilter,3
HidServ,4
IpInIp,4
IpNat,4
IpFilterDriver,4
Messenger,4
NDProxy,4
NetLogon,4
Netman,4
NetDDE,4
NetDDEdsdm,4
NLA,3
xmlprov,3
NtLmSsp,4
PlugPlay,2
ProtectedStorage,4
RasAuto,4
RasMan,4
RpcLocator,3
RemoteAccess,4
SamSs,4
LanmanServer,4
SENS,4
TapiSrv,4
VSS,3
AudioSrv,2
LanmanWorkstation,2

[Tweaks]
;# Boot & Shutdown #
Auto-End Tasks
Auto-Kill Hung Apps
Auto-Kill Hung Services
Disable Standby
Do not Parse Autoexec.bat
Disabled
;# Desktop,Taskbar & Startmenu #
Remove Internet Explorer icon
Remove My Documents icon
Remove My Network Places icon
;# Disable Visual Effects #
Disable: Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
Disable: Show translucent selection rectangle
Disable: Show windows contents while dragging
Disable: Slide taskbar buttons
Disable: Smooth edges of screen fonts
Disable: Transitions and Shadows
Disable: Use a background image for each folder type
Disable: Use common tasks in folders
;# Explorer #
Advanced Search: preconfigure options
Disable Beep on errors
Disable Prefix: Shortcut to
;# File Open/Save Dialog #
Disable File MRU-List
Preset Places Bar to: C: D: E: DESKTOP LAN
;# Internet Explorer #
Disable Download Complete notification
Disable Go Button
Disable Internet Explorer link creation
Disable Market Place bookmark
Disable Media Player 6.4 created bookmarks
Disable Password-Caching
Disable sound when popup is blocked
Set Internet Explorer to accept 10 connects a time
;# My Computer #
Remove Shared Documents
Show details in Device Manager
Show non-present devices in Device Manager
;# Network #
Disable administrative shares
Disable automatic search for network folders and printers
Disable DCOM protocol bindings
Disable Microsoft-DS (close port 445 TCP/UDP)
Disable Simple File Sharing
Remove remote-computer NameSpace
;# Privacy #
Clear most recently opened documents list on logoff
Disable and Remove Documents List from Start Menu
Disable Driver Update Internet prompt
Disable Last accessed Timestamp on files
Disable Logging of executed programs
Disable User Process Tracking
Remove Alexa Spyware
Use single TEMP folder for all users
;# Speed #
Classic Control Panel
Disable Info Tips on Files and Folders
Disable Optimize harddisk when idle
Disable Tracking of Broken Shortcut Links
Disable Warn on low disk space
Do not cache thumbnails
Increase Foreground Process Priority
Use Windows classic folders / No Tasks Sidepanel
;# Start Menu #
Disable Highlight newly installed programs
Disable popup on first boot
Do not use Personalized Menus
Expand Administrative tools
Expand Control Panel
Reduce popup delay
Remove Logoff User
Remove My Documents
Remove My Music
Remove My Pictures
Remove Search the Internet from Search
Remove Set Program Access and Defaults
Remove Windows Catalog from Start Menu
;# Taskbar #
Disable Balloon Tips
Disable Group similar Taskbar buttons
Disable Hide inactive icons

[Unattended]
UnattendMode = DefaultHide
ComputerType = Automatic
ProgFilesPath = "C:\Program Files"
HibernationNo
AutoLogonYes
Resolution = 640x480
BitsPerPel = 16 bit (High Color)
Vrefresh = 60 Hz
MaximumDataStorePercentOfDisk = 12
DefaultThemesOff
DefaultStartPanelOff
DataExecProt = 0

[Drivers]

[Hotfixes]
HotfixingReports
HotCatCleanup