Rebuilding Mame PC - need OS and other Software advice.

[Comp1demon]

I built my machine in 2006 - Moved it from NY to IN then from one house to another.  In that time, the wood took some damage but the hardware was running strong till yesteday.

Machine just died while playing.  After removing the PC I found the Ram died.  Can't have a PC with only 1GB of ram so I decided to RMA the stick that died and buy some new ram from frys.  Surprisingly they sold the same model ram. Corsair Value Select DDR400 DDR1 ram. $50 for 2GB.  SO Now I have the new 2GB and the single stick of 1GB ram (which should be fine considering WIN 32 XP can only see 3.46 max.  When I get back the bad stick (which MEMTEST told me was bad) I will Save it in case one of the new Sticks goes down.

Anyways since it has been 6 years since I built this PC. I wanted to do a few more upgrades.  Got a new Video card. (no issues there).
Also wanted to swap out the HDD - even though the old HDD with my win XP build works fine.  I cloned it to a new HDD - which gave me issues - turns out this MOBO don't really support SSD.
I am looking into a solution - perhaps I will just get a raptor and clone that.  But here is my questions on the software.

is Windows XP still the best OS for a Mame machine?  I play a lot of emus on this.  I am using MAMEWAH and have MAME, Daphine, ZinC, and some console Emu's running on this.
I was thinking about other front ends but I am happy with Mamewah for now.

When I moved to my latest home, I had a secondary out on my video card and hooked it up to my 55 inch TV as a second screen.  I was useful for using the arcade machine and the second screen for spectating so I didn't have friends crowded around the machine when playing.  I also like the second screen for troubleshooting since it shows post and everything, I am using a JVC 27 TV with component inputs as my arcade monitor (see my signature or go read about my machine on my site.) Back when I built it - this was the best Tube TV recommended for an arcade monitor aside from getting a wells Garn, or other dedicated monitor at the time. (just didn't have the budget for those when I built this).   Since I have the Arcade PC out of the Cab and Needed to upgrade a few things I decided to install XBMC and I can use the arcade cab as a streamer to my 55 inch TV, hence the need for the Video card upgrade - the one I had in there stuttered 1080p so I am sure the video card upgrade will be welcomed and it should allow better 3d emulators like ePSXe and such to run on my cab.. I can expand mamewah to include these now. So that is a factor too.. Windows XP still or is win 7 worth going to for a dedicated Arcade machine cabinet?

I might be able to get an SSD working by buying a dedicated SATA 2 card for the PCIEX 16X slot and then booting from that - if it works. . Still gonna try that...  If I get it running, then my clone of the EDIE 10GB to the SSD should be fine, no need to re-install.

What is this I hear about a slimmed down Windows XP?  worth exploring?  Using?  Some people say a full install is better especially if using front ends that require codecs and media player support and such. 
Windows 7 32 bit worth it? 
What is the best overall emulation OS these days?
Should I update my mame from 1.36b (installed when I built the machine in 2006 and never updated) to the latest version?

Should I just bite the bullet and build a whole new machine?  I rather not as this build has all my control panel drivers and such installed and working correctly especially since i am using two Ipacs one for the Quad controller layout and a smaller dedicated one for the coin door so I didn't need to open the monstrosity of the quad panel and screw up trying to wire in the coin door to it.  I rather keep them separate. That config has worked fine for years, but I don't remember how I did it - hence my apprehension from re-installing.

Any other software advice would be appreciated...

Thanks!!

[Howard_Casto]

To answer some of your questions. 


Buy a new PC... that thing is 6 years old and therefore ancient. You'll spend so much on upgrades to get it up to snuff that you might as well buy a new one anyway.   Besides you are talking about putting a SSD (which is quite expensive) on a pos pc that's so old it doesn't even natively support ssd.  From your description, you have a very expensive rig, too expensive to skimp of the most important part.

Don't use a stripped down version of xp, use the full version.  There is absolutely no speed benefit, despite some people might say, it only saves you a modest amount of harddrive space.  If you want xp to BOOT faster you can disable some of the services... there are tons of sites to guide you through this.  Disabling is not the same as removing services.  Generally if a piece of software needs a disabled service, it will enable it automatically.  On the other hand if you are running a stripped version of xp and something goes wrong, you'll never be sure if the issue is with your emulator/hardware/ect or the fact that you aren't running a full version of xp. 

As of this writing there is no benefit to using windows 7 over xp in a cab.  In fact there are a few drawbacks (uses more resources, unsigned drivers are hard to install, ect).   

Unless your machine is too puny to handle it, upgrading to the latest version of mame is always a good idea when you do a major overhaul.  Lots of interesting features and such have been added since 1.35. 

I'm not sure what you are talking about, but ipacs are HID devices.  They don't have drivers and will work perfectly on any machine.  The configuration software written for the ipacs just write their settings directly to the device.  Perhaps you are talking about your MAME/emulator configurations?  Those can just be copied over.  Regardless you are going to have to bit the bullet.  If you hdd wasn't working properly on your machine, then the data is probably corrupted.  You are going to have to fix a few things most likely. 

[Dawgz Rule]

 
I run Win XP pro on my cab and have it tweaked so it boots to the front end in less than 30 seconds.  Once you have the base install completed you can simply go through and disable services that aren't needed.  If you aren't networking your PC, even better.  You can also go in and set your system properties to optimize performance versus appearance.  Lot of tweaks you can do on an XP machine. 

[Comp1demon]

To answer some of your questions. 


Buy a new PC... that thing is 6 years old and therefore ancient. You'll spend so much on upgrades to get it up to snuff that you might as well buy a new one anyway.   Besides you are talking about putting a SSD (which is quite expensive) on a pos pc that's so old it doesn't even natively support ssd.  From your description, you have a very expensive rig, too expensive to skimp of the most important part.

Don't use a stripped down version of xp, use the full version.  There is absolutely no speed benefit, despite some people might say, it only saves you a modest amount of harddrive space.  If you want xp to BOOT faster you can disable some of the services... there are tons of sites to guide you through this.  Disabling is not the same as removing services.  Generally if a piece of software needs a disabled service, it will enable it automatically.  On the other hand if you are running a stripped version of xp and something goes wrong, you'll never be sure if the issue is with your emulator/hardware/ect or the fact that you aren't running a full version of xp. 

As of this writing there is no benefit to using windows 7 over xp in a cab.  In fact there are a few drawbacks (uses more resources, unsigned drivers are hard to install, ect).   

Unless your machine is too puny to handle it, upgrading to the latest version of mame is always a good idea when you do a major overhaul.  Lots of interesting features and such have been added since 1.35. 

I'm not sure what you are talking about, but ipacs are HID devices.  They don't have drivers and will work perfectly on any machine.  The configuration software written for the ipacs just write their settings directly to the device.  Perhaps you are talking about your MAME/emulator configurations?  Those can just be copied over.  Regardless you are going to have to bit the bullet.  If you hdd wasn't working properly on your machine, then the data is probably corrupted.  You are going to have to fix a few things most likely.

Thanks for the quick response guys. I really appreciate it.

I decided that I am not going to build a new pc.  I just don't have the funds for it right now.  The upgrades done to this PC were minimal. The RAM (2GB) was $33.00 and the video card was $40 with a $15 dollar rebate.  The SATA card I am buying is $30 with a $15 rebate and the SSD drive (I have 3 of them) have been sitting here since April (slickdeals I couldn't pass up but really had no use for them at the time), so no additional cost to me.  For JUST Mame, this pc before the upgrades, is more than adequate for JUST mame, (and other arcade emu's daphne, ect..).   In all reality if I can't get a SSD working for the boot drive, then a raptor Drive is less than $30 for a small 36GB (my boot drive now is 10GB), so that should be fine.  TO build a modern PC The MOBO alone will cost more than the upgrades so far.  The last upgrade I am looking at is a new processor..  MY PC NOW, It has a AMD 3200+ in there (which is lightning fast for mame and 90% of the games mame runs), sure a newer processor with the newer build of mame will probably allow CHD games and such to run better but all that cash for a hand full of games is not worth it when it comes to an entire new PC.   I think I can find a better socket 939 processor than what I have for under $50 and double the speed of this PC.  The passmark CPU score of the AMD 3200+ is 499 - I can get for $37.99 on ebay a Opteron 180 for $36.00 shipped and the CPU benchmark score is 1217. That is more than double... I am sure this PC will be more than fine for MAME and other emus.  I even think I might be able to get some of the newer emus on that configuration to run well.  I did add the New HD 6XXX series ATI card as well so I am sure CPU + GPU combo will be great even for a 6 year old PC.  But this is a software forum and I will worry about my hardware issues in the hardware forun, though I think a background of my specs was necessary for the thread for proper advice, I really don't want to detract from the software side and go off topic on hardware.

SO THANK YOU.. I will stick with XP.  FULL VERSION. Thanks for the explanations.

As for what to enable and disable, anyone kind enough to link me (LMGTFY) to some of the threads about services to disable and such?
I do need networking.  My arcade machine is hard to get into and though I meant to do it I never mounted a SD, USB and CD ROM in an easy to get to area inside my coin door - the PC is in the back of the CAB and is hard to get to. It is so much easier to just Network into the drive I need.  Also with me using the arcade machine as a jukebox and media playback device (it is hooked up to my 55 inch too)  I want to be able to access all the content on my mediatank PC in my office.

I will upgrade to the newest version of MAME too.. Thanks!  Even on the old Hardware I think it can handle it.

I am going to want to tweak my Front end and perhaps explore a new Front end as an alternative. Always wanted to try hyper-spin but never had the time or patience to get it working.

Any tricks for it booting right into the front-end other than putting a shortcut to mamewah in my startup?

Any tricks on changing the BOOT Win XP logo to MAME?

Any other advice?  All will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys!

[rablack97]

http://www.gameex.net/Community/InstantSheller/tabid/73/Default.aspx

Here some reading material, i just use instantsheller, works perfect for me....

Hides windows and gives you the option to change the bootup logo....

[Comp1demon]

http://www.gameex.net/Community/InstantSheller/tabid/73/Default.aspx

Here some reading material, i just use instantsheller, works perfect for me....

Hides windows and gives you the option to change the bootup logo....

Thanks for the reading materiel.  I went through it and I understand most of it. Seems like a great solution.  This will be the last thing I try once I have the machine configured the way I want.

One Question though?  I can still use MAMEWAH with this?  Have it boot and launch Mamewah?

Thanks in advance.

@ DAWGZ Rule - Perhaps you have some reading material for me on how to streamline what boots and what don't?

Thanks to you too in advance.

[Dawgz Rule]

I just went into the computer management utility and reviewed what services were running.  From there I just started disabling those that seemed unnecessary.  You really can't break anything by disabling services.  If you reboot and find something askew, just boot up in safe mode and turn that particular service back on.  It was all trial and error on my part.

[Comp1demon]

Sounds good - I will do that then.

[Drnick]

Here you go,
http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-xp-x86-32-bit-service-pack-3-service-configurations/

[mcseforsale]

Yes.  I'm running Mamewah 1.63 on various flavors of old processors...P4 3.0, CeleronM, etc and it works great.  You won't be able to get things like Hyperspin to run very well on something without a dual-core or dedicated video chipset, so I don't run that on my P4s and such.  It would run, but the whiz-bang stuff would really look like crap anyway.

Also, you'll need a dual core to run anything that came on a disc, such as Wii, PS2-3, etc.  At least that's what I've been told. 

AJ