This is more of an informational message than anything.
Quick background. I built a custom stand-up arcade machine on a tight budget, but didn't want to sacrifice quality. I utilized a SDTV made in 2007 (RCA brand) for my monitor, went with Ultimarc controls (8/4 way switchable), goldleaf buttons, and I-pac2 along with a mouse spinner hack and a 3" USB "happ" trackball for my setup. I had an old AM2 X2 Dell lying around so I initially used it to run my emulation w/ Maximus Arcade frontend, since I do MAME, NES, SNES, ATARI, Sega Genesis and Daphne. I've been lurking the forums for a long time and realized very quickly that AMD processors, especially old ones like that wouldn't cut it for games like MK4 in MAME. I have several 775 processors lying around, including the famous Intel e8400 but I have one problem, motherboards. I quickly found out that if I wanted to use that processor, OC it and keep it going for a long time, it wasn't going to happen since most boards I found were $80 and liquid filled caps, not to mention the idea of OC'ing something, while doesn't bother me if I am replacing it every 3 years, doesn't sound like a long term plan.
So after looking around and researching I decided on getting the Intel G3220 3.0Ghz dual core Pentium processor with a motherboard, and boy am I happy that I did.
Based on what I have seen, cores don't really matter, it's single thread performance that makes or breaks MAME. Based on this Mini Review (
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/385/Intel_Core_2_Duo_E8400_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_G3220.html) you can see that the G3220 is 1.3X's faster than stock e8400. If you OC an e8400 to the 4Ghz range they are practically identical in terms of speed only now you get a board you can support and upgrade processors on if needed (and cheaply!)
Games like Gauntlet legends run at 99% to 100% almost all the time. MK4 is always at 100%. I have yet to see any slowdowns at all. Config wise I am running MAME64 with hi-score and no-nag compiled for my system with 22khz audio vs the default 48khz at 640x480@29Hz (interlaced)
Note: if you want me to run a bench on a specific game, let me know and I will do it.Parts and cost below:Intel Pentium G3220 (Amazon had it for $62)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116950 GIGABYTE GA-H81M-S2PH (has ESD protection! $61)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128657GIGABYTE GeForce 8400 GS 512MB (Card from old MAME PC and Fanless)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168141252424GB DDR3 1333 (had laying around but costs $45)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168202311791TB Hard Drive (Any 7200rpm drive will do $60)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339Case and powersupply (I have spare supplies and cases lying around but you can get one for $50-60)
Total build cost: ~$300