Full MAME computer for $170???

[javeryh]

Would this be enough to run games like Mortal Kombat 3, Killer Instinct, Street Fighter Alpha 3, etc.?  I'm trying to put together the cheapest MAME computer possible but still be able to run some of the more recent games...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1697022&Sku=M452-2628%20A

[delta88]

Id say so. I have seen Killer Instinct played on a 2.5ghz system using advance mame.

If not just spend more money

 -d88

[quarterback]

I wouldn't hold my breath on getting that $90 back.  Tiger Direct is notorious for not coming through on rebates.

[NIVO]

their new rebate guarantee is alot better than the old crap system they had. You should have no troubles on rebates as long as guidelines are strictly followed. I personally have had decent luck with them, but YMMV.

[javeryh]

So do you think this will work for what I want it to do?

[danenick]

A PC isn't quite full unless it comes with an optical drive(s) and a hard drive, which the PC you picked out has neither. Honestly, I'd opt for a little more expensive computer with AT LEAST a 3000+ Sempron, or anything socket 939 based. AMD, of course. The Celeron D's are very poor for anything power hungry. Not saying that those games are power hungry, but the extra power of the Sempron would be nice. I have a P4C 2.4@3.3ghz and a A643000+@2.3ghz for MAME computers and the A64 kills the P4 in any intensive game. The Sempron/Celeron would be no different.

[missioncontrol]

I wouldn't hold my breath on getting that $90 back.  Tiger Direct is notorious for not coming through on rebates.

yep if it's tiger direct don't expect to receive your rebate.

[TurboC--]

A PC isn't quite full unless it comes with an optical drive(s) and a hard drive, which the PC you picked out has neither.

Optical drive seems like mostly a wasted component for a MAME machine.  Once you load your desired stuff on the HD, what good is it really?  And he could use an older existing HD preloaded with what he wants, since I doubt most games would require massive blazing HD access.  I haven't looked at his specs, but in general a budget machine is the way to go for MAME I would think...

[TurboC--]

Man after looking at that, I think I want it!  If it can run PacMania I think I am golden.     Well as long as it can manage to get to Win98 DOS mode with that hardware, hmm...

[SirPoonga]

I wouldn't hold my breath on getting that $90 back.  Tiger Direct is notorious for not coming through on rebates.

yep if it's tiger direct don't expect to receive your rebate.

This has got to be coming from someone who DOESN'T use tiger direct.

I've received every rebate from tiger direct.  You just have to read the rebate ahead of time.  Like when there was that dlink rebate going on where for each dlink product list said $25 off.  So for the $25 usb 802 adaptor it listed as free.  But if you read the rebate it says $25 rebate with $100 purchase of dlink products.

In this case it is three rebates.  If someone didn't look at the rebates, expecting a $90 rebate on the whole system, they might have also ordered an extra Ultra PC3200 512meg ram thinking they'd get a $20 rebate on that too.  Well, you might be able to in this case, I didn't read the rebate carefully.  But Tiger states somewhere "most rebates are limited to one per household" so I usually assume 1 per household.

Many tiger direct rebates use a nice online system that can deposit the rebate money into paypal within 7-14 days.  Most of my rebates for my new computer did that.  It was pretty nice.

I've scene better deals on tigerdirect.  Sign up for their newsletter.


FYI, what that barebones system doesn't have is case fans or drives. 

I hate celerons, except for the old 300/366 for the cast I had an awesome overclocked system.  I agree with danenick, A real processor would be better for emulation.  The old mame benchmarks show that.  The processing in mame benefits greately from the extra caching and features of a P4 or Athlon

[SirPoonga]

Optical drive seems like mostly a wasted component for a MAME machine.  Once you load your desired stuff on the HD, what good is it really?  And he could use an older existing HD preloaded with what he wants, since I doubt most games would require massive blazing HD access.  I haven't looked at his specs, but in general a budget machine is the way to go for MAME I would think...

If you only run mame, yes.  If you run pc games like golden tee golf, blitz, etc, then you need it.  Otherwise I have my arcade wirelessly networked so an optical drive isn't really needed for mame.
I have a loud cd drive in there.  I have been thinking of using daemon tools to mount images of the CDs I use on it and getting rid of the drive.

[quarterback]

I wouldn't hold my breath on getting that $90 back.

[Howard_Casto]

I've used tiger direct almost exclusively for 5 years... I've never had any trouble with rebates. 

As sirp said, the key is reading... but we all know how some of the people on these forums have difficulty following directions. 

[missioncontrol]

I wouldn't hold my breath on getting that $90 back.  Tiger Direct is notorious for not coming through on rebates.

yep if it's tiger direct don't expect to receive your rebate.

This has got to be coming from someone who DOESN'T use tiger direct.

your right I don't use them

anymore....

After losing out on $15 rebate, a $35 reate and a $20 rebate I pretty much decided to quit using them. Maybe their ways have changed in the last year and a half and that's good for their current customer baseline, but they will not get my business ever again, and I've got the right to bad mouth them as a bad business....

[daywane]

I can not say much about there rebates.
some I get , some I do not.
Tiger Direct has been great with me for the last few years up till a few months ago.
I never consider the rebate's I look at the total cost.
say my Light on DVD burner. $50.00 ( love it)  every thing on my PC came from them. All my blank Cd's and 99% of my blank DVDs come from Tiger Direct
My only complaint is I used to be able to place a order and in 3 days it was at door .
Last 3 times I ordered I got run around. Took weeks.
Customer support would say it's shipped and another call later I would get HM MM It's due to ship any day now. This has been 3 months ago so maybe they have there shipping fixed again.

If I was asked about Tiger last year I would have told you Never look at the rebate as a factor in buying. Look harder and you can find something worth the price even if you do not get the rebate. ( if you do ...That is even better)

I am thinking of building a larger PC again... I will start looking there 1st.
but I am one of the few that have never had a problem with a celleron CPU
I want to back up DVDs
I can do it just fine
Play Mame ...YEP
burn MP3's ... yep
Have I found something I wanted to do and a celeron CPU could not do... Nope.
I am sure a Pentium is better but I have NO need of the extra power
Kinda like my Mazda RX7  VS  my S10 V6
Mazda for showing off and speed , S10 gets me to work and back