Arcade VGA 3000, 2 questions

[Pixel Fun]

Hi all, first post from a newbie here. Just so we got that confession out straight from the start.

Having grown up in the 80s and 90s I have been gradually nursing the idea of building my own cabinet for good old memories sake. This is probably a familiar story. I'm very interested in building a small bartop / table top (dependent on what you drink I suppose) machine, geared mostly at early 80s games but, given enough performance, I may try out to put some favorite Windows games on it as well.

Anyway, I've been gradually collecting information on the technical setup required. My table top must be small so I'm first looking around to see how I can fill in the innards, with one exception: I definitely want a CRT setup (which is bigger), preferably TV / Arcade Monitor rather than PC CRT Monitor / LCD screen. Arcade Monitors are very hard to get by where I live (Netherlands), if at all, so I think I'll settle for a nice 15 inch color TV. My other main requirement is that the setup is silent: I actually don't want any fans in it. So I'm thinking of a small lower power Atom-CPU motherboard or comparable and a solid state disc to keep things silent. This is important because from from these requirements, I have two questions.

1. The Arcade VGA 3000 seems to be the card to use for a clear, non-bleeding non-fuzzy image. I noticed however it has a fan op top of the GPU. I suppose it's used? Is it permanently on? How 'loud' is it?
2. I notice this card is primarily used for arcade monitors and CRT monitors. Has anyone tried a setup to convert its output to CRT TV?

Any comments / recommendations welcome. If there's any topic containing information with regard to this (cursory search did not yield anything) a link is also welcome. 

[rCadeGaming]

I wouldn't recommend an ArcadeVGA.  I'm using a Geforce7300GS (fanless) to output native arcade resolutions to my standard resolution CRT TV.

Sample pics:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=120798.0

All about how to achieve this:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,121491.0

[Pixel Fun]

Oh, and I see there's a whole range of video cards to choose from, actually. That's really useful information and gives me some space to move in. Thanks!

I'm kind of getting the idea that a 15" TV is too small for a two-player bartop arcade though, looks like bigger screens could be fitted. There's such a load of information to deal with, but I'm happy with the way many of the people on this forum seem to go out of their way to give information. Awesome place.

[jslsbcw]

Guys.
I actually have WG 7400 arcade tube that only does 15kz.  What was the driver you used out the signal. I want to use hyperspin FE so i need to upgrade my PC.  I have an AGP version of arcadevga but i think arcadevga 3000 is sold out.

i want to see what the best alternative here.

[MTPPC]

lots of reading: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=66402.0

[epicfatigue]

Hi there,

Few things from my experience.

Arcade VGA will make it nice and easy for you however your not going to get the correct resolutions 50% of the time, the rest you will have rolling screens or black boarders
You wont be hearing that fan that i can assure you.

If i were you and if you are like me, when i made my machine i wanted it to be like it was when i was a kid whackin in the 20c and playing aslong as i could that means.

TRUE RES for all games aswell as emulators etc etc

If this sounds like what you want and your prepared to do some reading and spend a few hours in configuration then here is the link to all the information you need.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/board,52.0.html
   
Get a Radieon  card that supports Calamity Drivers.
Then use Groovymame as your MAME and it will auto select the right res for you 90% of the time tweak it and you will get 100%


For me i had a quick look first time around and said nup not for me and got an arcade VGA card, unpacked it paid 100 for it aswell inc postage used for 1 hours spend 5 hours trying to fix it to work etc etc and was impossible. Went and got a x550 Rad for $8 followed the link above 1 hours later was fully working and love it.

Good lukc mate they will help you in that forum if you have questions or issues,

[sandheaver]

If you are only going to run one game for a long while, or cycle between a few games, then the ArcadeVGA works well, I think.

There's a Windows utility you can use to tweak ArcadeVGA settings for games individually, and save the settings.  Then, you can recall those settings upon game launch via script, batch file, or front-end, whichever you're using.  This is a windows-only solution, though.

When I had an AVGA I would just run a single game on the cabinet for weeks or months.  adjustment wasn't really a problem on those monitors because it was so infrequent, but obviously my experiences will not be the same as anyone else's.

[MTPPC]

Use a soft15khz with a cheap radeon 9200se. Then you set your individual game resolutions in the game.ini files and you can run all your games at native resolution because mame will throw out the correct resolutions. There are tools that allow you to define the resolutions that will work on the monitor and then it will fly through all your games and pick the "best" fit. AVRes and Mame Res Tool are the programs.

[rCadeGaming]

Doesn't necessarily have to be a radeon 9200se.  It could be anything that's listed as compatible with Soft15kHz.  Sticking with an ATI will be better for GroovyMAME though.