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Challenge: Build a MAME computer for <$350 [PARTS ORDERED! - Comments??]

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Howard_Casto:

--- Quote from: zenmasterbooty on June 12, 2006, 02:17:45 am ---Me thinks you misunderstand,
by today's standers a 1.5 gig processor is darn pretty slow. In fact it's so low-end it would be hard to find in a new system. Unless of course you live in a 3rd world country.
I'm not suggesting you could get away with a 333 and run all the games you want, but you don't need a 3 gig machine to run these programs.

--- End quote ---

That might have been what you meant to say, but that isn't what you said. Go up and look at your post, you pretty blatently implied that a 333mhz is all you need by the way you worded things.  :)

Regardless, as of .106u3 the bar has officially been raised.  People seem to think that these new dx8 core changes are supposed to increase speed and functionality.  Quite the opposite really.  If anything the new changes will make things slower on lower-end systems.  What we get is increased functionality (and that is a HUGE understatement). 

While you might not need a 3 gig processor to run some of these games, a 1.5 isn't going to cut it anymore. (Even though I eluded to that and I'm sorry.)  The range is gonna jump to around 2-2.5 gigs, which is around the specs of a typical middle-of-the-road pc you would buy new today. 

And actually, as of .106u3 you DO need a fairly powerful video card.  Not top of the line mind you, but fully dx8 compliant.  (Meaning radeon or better).  You can still run mame without it, but you won't have the benefit of hardware accel, meaning things will be slower than they could be. 

I'm by no means saying buy top of the line either, or even new for that matter, but you can't get away with scraps if you want to play Killer Instinct. 


Anyway, this guy says he is new to building computers (meaning he doesn't have spare parts lying around).  Because of this it would be impossible to get a machine for less than 350 without either buying the system, or some of the parts used.  Ram alone is 100-175 bucks if you want a gig (which you don't need unless you are preparing for vista or something).  Wireless nics are fairly expensive and it's hard to get used cards because the tech is farily new.  We haven't even gotten to the actual pc yet. 

It's not a lost cause, but a more realistic figure (assuming you want to buy all new parts) is 450-500.  Now you can get a pre-built pc for around 350 or less, but it's probably going to have a video card you don't want so there's another 50 bucks and all of these pre-built pcs need more ram then they come with so that's another 50-100 bucks.  And I'm not talking about a brand-spanking new 3 gig+ pc, I'm talking about whatever is on sale (probably around 2.2-2.5 gigs). 

javeryh:
Thanks Howard - that's some good information...  I am going to post something later today in hopes people will critique it for MAME usage...

Buddabing:
I wonder if the older ArcadeVGAs will be able to utilize the new screen display code. According to the Radeon Wikipedia entry, the Radeon 7xxx is a DirectX 7 part, and the new display stuff is DX8.

It's possible that the 7xxx AVGA may run into the same problems running the new rev of MAME is it does with Daphne, in which case it's time to upgrade to a 9xxx AVGA.

Howard_Casto:
Judging from what I am seeing in the new u builds and my own experience with dx8 I can without question say:  "Yes, No, Maybe?"

Most of dx8 is exactly like dx7 in terms of hardware effects.  The things it differs in is alpha blending (used for the new menus) and pre-transformed vertex processing (I'm not sure if this is what is used to display graphics or if sprites are used, but juding from the new on the fly rotation, I'd say pre-tran verts are used.)

So it'll work with software vertex processing, which is slightly slwoer than hardware vertex processing. 

Bascially yeah, the 7x AVGA is starting to die. 

theCoder:
Take a quick look on EBay.  I just found more than 12 machines that have sold in the past few weeks at around $250 plus $25-50 shipping.  They are in the 2.0 - 2.4 ghz range with 128 - 512 meg ram and include an OS. 

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