Vertical Bartop. Unnamed! Now Named!!!...GRANDSTAND

[Blanka]

mame is more about CPU than GPU power, something like 85/15 ratio

Make that a 99/1 ratio, and that is when you have open-gl filters running. Without those filters the GPU really has nothing to do.

[lettuce]

Right a slight update, have now made the curved marquee....


The marquee is actually a, 100mm x 3mm Clear Acrylic Tube, which i cut to the width of the inside of the bartop, i ordered it from this ebay member, http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Clear-Plastic-Supplies

Have cut out the CP, although the length of the CP shall be shortened, it all depends on what angle the monitor shall be at. The bit of mdf i have cut for the housing of the joystick spinner and buttons, is slightly lower that the curved bit of mdf, this is so when i get round to add a sheet of plexi-glass to the CP, then the plexi shall fit flush with the curved mdf....


I think its best to fit 1 maybe 2 exhaust ports as the bartop wont be that large, and would imagine that it will get rather warm in there. At the moment i have routed out a hole for a 120mm fan and recessed the inside about 1/2 inch so the fan sits closer to the top of the cab. Not too sure if i should add another exhaust port on the back of the cab towards the bottom, 1 fan blowing in and the other blowing out, or if just 1 fan would be enough on the top blowing out warm air, what are peoples thought on this???....


Added a piano hinge to the rear of the cab and back door, i shall either be placing the PC motherboard on the rear door or if there is enough space on the floor of the cab....


And a snap of the inside of the cab...


Heres my PC setup....


Specs:
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard 
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200
OCZ 2GB PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum DDR2
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Enermax EG285-SX-VB(G) 285W Micro ATX Power Supply    LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz (1066FSB)

Ive OC the 2.53GHZ CPU to 2.9GHZ, only a slight OC but i was happy that i got to this speed without having to change the Voltage of the CPU, thus not putting anymore load on the micro 285watt PSU 



Now on to the down side. I said earlier on in this thread that the 20" Dell monitor i have got might be too large to fit in the cab, and indeed it was, so i resold the monitor back on ebay (made a profit aswell i may add  ) and got a 19" Dell 1907FP. After receiving the monitor and setting it up i am not happy with the viewing angles i am getting with it, blanka did say that TN panels are not good for viewing angles and he is correct, here some pics to illistrate the problem...

As you can see viewing the screen from the right is fine!, but...


Viewing from the left side results in really bad results 

Im guessing this is down to the fact that when the monitor is in its usually horizontal position, you wouldnt hardly ever be looking up at the monitor (looking at it from the left side when vertically orientated), say for instance if the monitor was on a shelf above your head hight, and you would be more than likely looking down on the monitor (viewing from the right side when vertically orientated) if you werent looking straight at it on a level plan.

So i guess im going to have to look for a non TN panel 19" monitor, not 100% sure what 19" monitors use non TN panel technology

[lettuce]

Ok got hold of another monitor today a, Dell 1905FP which is surpossed to use the PVA panel technology. And the viewing angels are a whole lot better.....

[lettuce]

Some progress, have now made a bezel for the monitor out of some mdf....



Have recessed the other side of the bezel, so that the monitor fits snuggly! have also recessed spaces out for the buttons of the Dell monitor so they are not be press upon the mdf bezel!...



And a pic with the bezel inside the cab....



Im happy with the way this looks, and just goes to show that a 20" monitor would of been way to big for this size bartop at just 16" wide!!!

Have now attached the fan and added a grill, although a may try and recesse the grill in more, so it sits almost flush with the top of the cab...



Used the router to cut out the slit for the t-molding to fit into, decided to carry the t-molding on the whole way around the cab, i know some people dont bother with the t-molding on the underside of the cab, but i think it just finishes it off better if it goes all the way around!...



I have decided to add a push button either side of the cab, as i am now thinking of also having Visual Pinball installed on the PC aswell, as the vertical monitor is just crying out for some pinball games to be played on it! 

Waveryder here on the forums is kindly making up the artwork for the Marquee and Control Panel, based on my ideas, and he has come up with some great suggestions, his a real pro, and his artwork would be the icing on the cake for any cab!!  We have finalised the Marquee design and looks great!!!....



Just awaiting the CP design and then they'll be send to MameMarquees for printing!!

I have decided to do away with the chrome T-molding idea and am going for Galaxian Green T-molding to matched the marquee design nicely!

I shall be ordering my controls this week, Mag Sick Plus, amongst other stuff, not 100% sure on what colour push buttons to go with, i have an LED Wiz kicking about here somewhere so would like to put that to use, so i think illuminated buttons are the order of the day.

I am looking at getting a Dell Soundbar to use for the speakers, this will save alot of space and the sound form them is great when you think about how small they are!

I shall be using black laminate to cover the cab, rather than painting or spray hopefully this would look good, as this will be the first cab that i have not painted or sprayed!. Any ideas on what sort of thickness laminate i should be looking for, want it as thin as possible?

Hopefully should be finished up early november at the latest

[drawfull]

I used some cheap vinyl (matte) from B&Q and it imo looks good. Only did it as a test to see how durable it m ight be and there's side art going over top so should be ok?

[ark_ader]

I agree with the vinyl.  My nightmare with matt black paint, both aerosol and water based is definitely not going to be recreated on the next project.  You need to make sure the sides are free of dirt or dust.  But why black?  How about teal or dark green?

I sure do like the work you did on the cuts.

Real class, man - congrats.   

[lettuce]

What did you use to stick the vinyl down?

[Franco B]

  Wow, this is awesome lettuce! It completely slipped by me somehow.

Awsome work. Love the profile!     

[Martijn]

the marquee reminds me of mask crusaders intro

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=13157150

nice work 

[thatitalian]

Afro man says: This is too cool for school!

[drawfull]

What did you use to stick the vinyl down?

It's self adhesive, but I used a little clear nail varnish lacquer stuff on the edges.

cheers

[lettuce]

the marquee reminds me of mask crusaders intro

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=13157150

nice work 

Oh yeah forgot about that intro

[Santoro]

Love the design, and that curved marquee is an AWESOME idea.  It's gonna be great.

[lettuce]

Its update time again!! On friday i received my Dell AS501 Soundbar, so yesterday, saturday (sound be renamed mameday), i proceeded to fit it into my bartop, i couldnt really find an easy way to install the soundbar, so i ended up making a bracket housing for it, its such a snug fit that i didnt need to glue or screw it to the bracket housing...




I got some of those Cold Cathode PC case Lights, which ill be using to light the marquee, these are great as they produce no heat (or very very little) at all, and is important when considering the curved marquee and small sized design, i attached them via some clips i had lying around....



the actual colour of the lights are green, as to match the theme of the cab, im not going to know 100% what this will look like until i get my marquee print from mamemarquees


I was undecided as to how to fit my LCD display within the cab, ive see alot of people put a mdf beam across the inside of the cab, and attach the monitor to that, but i will be struggling for space inside for my PC components, so this was really wasnt an option! In the end i made 2 brackets up.....



I'll lay the cab on its front, place the LCD screen in the recesse that i routed out in the mdf bezel, and then screw the brackets in place behind the LCD monitor, which with the help of the recesse in the bezel holds the monitor in place...


I Cut a mockup of my CP, to make sure it fitted all ok...



And thats where im up to at the moment. I'll need to lengthen the 12 volt power cable from the dell soundbar so if reaches to the socket on the rear oy my dell monitor, hopefully it will just be the case of justing the wire and adding some mains wire inbetween??

[Martijn]

about the Cold Cathode.

i also have them.



like this,

i received my art from mamemarquees.com and installed the marquee.

i noticed a black line in the middle on the 2 cold cathodes, i will do one of the following options

or place a 3rd one in the middle, or i will move them closed together

just to let you know you might also get this problem

Or maybe you think its fine or i am hard to satisfy 

and btw GOOD WORK