PC critique

[Jedirampage]

All,

I'm about to start building the PC for my Arcade Cabinent.  Please critique the specs and tell me what you think.  I know for most of the stuff I'll be running i wont need that powerful of a graphics card however I do plan on running some Zinc, Model 2, and N64 games on this Cab, which will require something thats not bottom of the barrel.  Here are the specs so far.

AMD Sempron 3400 Processor
Windows XP
1GB of memory
160 GB HD (will use to backup Pics and Music on my current PC as well)
256 MB Radeon X1300 Pro, Graphics Card.  (S-Video, VGA, and DVI connections)

Please let me know if i'm missing anything, or is something needs to be upgraded.

Thanks,

[david656]

well as a PC im running

Pentium 4 HT
DVI VGA and S-Video outputs
1GB RAM
250GB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 256mb video memory

and that runs all my XP Emu's fine and the N64 games work very well using project 64

hope that helps

oo and btw my IBM T21 laptop will play the N64 games but quite blocky/jumpy

so look up teh T21 spec and you obviously want something between the 2

[Jedirampage]

Can anyone give me a good running comparison between the cards.  I'm pretty good with all PC stuf except for graphics cards

[torez]

X1300 is bottom of the barrel, just newer.  ATI released X1300 Pro, X1600 Pro, X1800 Pro, etc. first, then they added XT (instead of a pro) and then X1650, X1850, X1950 XT/XTX.  Now they have new cards coming out that will support DirectX 10 in Vista.  Basically, what I'm saying X1300 is the total minimum from the lineup, the kind that is used in lower end desktops.  I would recommend something like 9600/9800 XT, as the price is about the same compared to X1300.  I just got a nice 9600 XT for my spare computer at around $45 plus shipping.  Well, this all applies, assuming you have AGP video card.
I've seen one 9600XT with a big heatsink and no fan.  It will cost you a bit extra, but might be worth it, if you want less noise in your computer.  These little fans generate quite some noise.  It's more fun when you can hear the game, not the computer.

[AtomSmasher]

The X1300 may be bottom of the line in the current gen of cards, but it should still be powerful enough to run the games you want.  My advice is to try the games on that computer, if something isn't running at full speed, then start worrying about upgrading.  No point in upgrading until you know that you need to do it.

[torez]

It's not exactly clear, if the X1300 was already purchased.  My suggestion was in case Jedirampage was was thinking about buying it.

[Pik4chu]

that PC should be more than enough to run everything from MAME to Project64 and PSone (PSX emulator) maybe even beyond that (PS2/Xbox) but plenty for an arcade.

[Jedirampage]

I havent bought the Card or the any of the parts yet, so any suggestions would be helpful. 

[Havok]

You're fine with what you've got. I have practically the same setup, except an ATI X300 PCI-e card, and everything I've thrown at it in Mame runs great. I get a slight stutter with DDR games (of the CHD stuff I have tried) but I think that is more an emulation issue with Mame, as the game is not fully supported.

[knave]

I'm sure those specs will run most of what you want. 

Why the Semptron CPU?  For not too much more you can get a full AMD CPU not their budget version. 

Checkout some prices at newegg.

My 2¢ is that unless it's just an amazing deal I'll avoid the Celeron and Semptron CPU's. They may work fine but will limit options for that PC. (and run a little slower)

[Jedirampage]

Someone a few comments ago mentioned PS2 and Xbox.  Can you emulate those consoles yet are is it still to early for something like that?

[langdoguk]

I read earlier that the ATI 9600/9800 XT was good cards so I checked for a price but I'm not sure it would be compatable with my board
(Asus P4PE (i845PE) ) , it says mine can only use 1.5V AGP 4x video cards , and the  9600/9800 I looked at said 8x ,  . Is this no good to me ?
If not what card (not too expensive, ok quite cheap)could I get to run Mame(not chd's), N64 ,and Daphne .
thanks Craig 

[torez]

8X AGP card is backward compatible with 4X and 2X.  You will run the card, but not at full speed, but Mame is not that graphic intensive anyway.  As you have just 4X, you may consider ATI 9250 or 9500 (9500 had all redesigned engine).  Again, I would recommend a card with a big heatsink and no fan.