It has been a long time since I updated this thread, but my cabinet has been done for several months. I just thought I'd give a few final pics and some thoughts after playing this cabinet for the past 6 months.
Final thoughts:
Design:
1) This is the largest cabinet design I have done due to the size of the monitor. If I had to do it again, I would probably angle the monitor slightly less and reduce the depth of the cabinet. The control panel sits out far enough that proximity to the large monitor would not be an issue.
2) The shelf that the control panel rests on could be a little longer. The CP is sturdy using 4 clips, but I think it could be a little better.
3) The bottom panel could be a little lower. I put red cathodes under the cabinet to give a glow effect, but there is only about 1/2" of clearance on the bottom and when the cabinet is on carpet you can't really see the glow.
Components:
1) The 29" XM29 is the best monitor I have ever purchased and is perfect for MAME. It does low res games 15Hz perfectly using Advmame, and can run 1024x768 or 1280x1024 interlaced. I cannot get it to do 25Hz games, but I just play those at a higher res. The fan on the back is loud, but when it is inside the cabinet it is not noticeable. There are a couple low res games I can't seem to get work with Advmame.... but it's probably just my lack of knowledge.
2) The 3" high-ball trackball is nice, but mounting it was a pain in the arse. It has started to get rough when rolling, so it probably needs to be cleaned. I didn't have any issues using the trackball in DOS. (see next bullet)
3) I used a 933Mhz DOS PC to power this beast for a while, and while it worked great I miss some of the newer games. It was also a giant pain to configure certain games to work correctly with Advmame. I used a 4GB compact flash card as the 'hard drive'. This works well, but the load times are a little slower than I would like even when using a disk caching program and loading the MAME executable from a RAM drive. I have since switched out to a C2D machine running windows XP.
Other Thoughts:
1) Flushing mounting the trackball was a PITA, but well worth it. The only issue is that the mounting plate has a rough surface and this slightly shows through on the artwork if you look closely. Next time, I'll sand down the trackball mounting plate to get a smooth surface.
2) Most of the panels are covered in laminate, and although this is expensive, in my opinion the durability is well worth the extra cost.
3) I wish I had enough $$$ for side art! I made some pretty cool space invaders themed side art in photoshop, but just can't bring myself to pay that much... yet.
4) I am pretty happy with the control panel. I had a hard time getting the CP sides cut correctly since the CP is slightly angled, but in the end I am happy with the it.


