MAME Computer?

[Avenger]

so im building a MAME Cabinet, and im on the look out right now for a used PC...bu the prob is i dont know what kind of specs are too low...i know i could go and test every single PC with the software but that could be a waste of time...does anyone have any idea of what kind of specs im going to need to run MAME well? if you do can you please list them out and i can use that as a guide in my hunt for the perfect PC...thanks guys!

[stargate]

I guess it depends what your budget is and what type of games you will be playing. I do believe that some games will still run slow on even the best PC's.

If you have the cash, I would get like a 1.6 Gig P IV or better. I would also get a PC with a video card, at least 64 Megs and decent memory, like 512 Megs. This might be overkill, but would definitely do the trick.

Now, if you are on a budget, you can definitely get by with a PIII 650 Mhz or better processor, 32 Meg video card, and 512 Megs of RAM. This is what I run and I have little to no problems with 80% of the games on MAME. You could pick up a system like this for cheap, around $175 on ebay.

[Avenger]

im looking to play all of the mame games...and budget is still a factor but like, hey i know its going to be an expensive project...i just want to make it as cheap as i can so i need to know the minimum i should be looking for

[SirDrexl]

I think 512 MB could be overkill for a MAME cab. Having that much memory (or more) helps with multitasking, but if all you're going to be doing is playing games in MAME I don't see why you would need that much. I would start with 256 MB. It would be easy to add more if you find that you do need it.

Definitely get a fast CPU though-at least 2 Ghz.

I'm not sure about the video card. I think that MAME just uses the CPU instensively and the video card really doesn't matter that much. Just about any card you buy nowadays is probably going to be adequate. Also, if you get a card with 64 MB or more you're probably going to be paying extra for not only the memory but also some fancy 3D hardware that MAME will not use at all.

[whoisKeel]

first off, you really should consider building you're own pc for this. if you know how to install a sound card and a cd-rom drive, you can do some research and put you're own together. it's pretty easy really.

here's why: if you opt for a cheaper system, most likely it is gonna have an integrated videocard (ie, video memory is shared with system RAM)...this isn't ideal for gaming, especially if you want to play newer games.

you'll get to custom choose all your parts as well which is really nice, and generally it will be cheaper to build your own. this is especially true if you can find a pc to sacrafice...don't buy a cd-rom drive, mouse, keyboard, floppy, case, and possibly sound card and speakers and hard drive, strip it from and old system (maybe goodwill if you have to). don't forget you can buy OEM parts (white box) as oppossed to retail, which will save you quite a bit of $$$.

those specs posted by stargate are good imo...tho you could always opt for an amd vs. an intel which is cheaper, they're both good, just a matter of preference.

www.pricewatch.com is a great site.

also, what kind of monitor are you putting in there? tv? pc monitor? rgb monitor? figure this out before you decide on a video card.

alternatively, if you are short on cash from building the cab, you could go for the p3 like stargate said, then 6 months down the road, strip that system and upgrade.

[Jibbajaba]

Dude you should definitely get an AMD processor if all you are going to do is play MAME roms. It's way cheaper and plenty fast.

I also totally agree with the guy before me that you should build your own system. Just buy a run of the mill soyo motherboard and pop in an AMD athalon processor, get a stick of 256 MB RAM and like a 64 meg video card, like a GeForce3 or something. If its for MAME only then all you need is like a 10 gig hard drive, too. Maybe 20 at the most. You could build this thing for hella cheap.

[TNTPLUST]

I run Mame on a Sony Vaio PCG-c1vn

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/3069/trans_vaiosm.gif

That uses a CURUSOE 600mhz processor (UGH!) w/256mb ram and I a can run near everything I want with no troubles.

I agree save some money invest in an AMD chip w/256 ram. Personally I don't think you need much video processing power. Any current card should handle it. You might want to have more than a 10gig drive though. My current MAME File is 10.1 Gig and the ROM File for mame is 8.01 Gig.

[Pantechnicon]

Depending on exactly which games you want to play, you'd be surprised on how low a system you can run MAME upon. The last three cabs I built went out the door running PII-400MHz, 128MB maximum, ISA sound cards and 4MB video. The secret is that they were running DOS with ArcadeOS as a front end. I should also point out that the games in question on these machines were primarily pre-1990.

Now my personal MAME cab runs a PIII-800MHZ with 512MB and a 16MB video card. It runs Win98 only because I have multiple other console emulators running on it. Everything works to my satisfaction.

In a nutshell, not using Windows will allow you to use a comparatively slower (i.e. - cheaper) machine with no noticeable difference. If you feel you absolutely have to run Windows, though, use Win98SE. You should be able to find whatever hardware drivers you need for this OS, plus less OS means more system resources available to run your games.

If you run MAME in a DOS environment, it's definitely easier to do this with an older machine. I can tell you from personal experience that trying to configure modern PCI sound and video cards under DOS can be a real :frustrated: . Get yourself something with a legacy ISA slot, slap in a $5 Sound Blaster from Goodwill and you're in business :D

[zektor]

On my previous system (Pentium 3 1ghz...which I actually sold to a member here recently) I was able to play just about everything in Mame at full speed except for the CHD hard disk images. Here were the specs for that system:

Pentium 3 1ghz
448MB PC-133 memory
TNT2 32MB Video Card w/tv out
SB Live!


You can probably get these parts for pretty cheap now, and it will make for a great cab. Or, you can go spend alot and get a P4 3ghz, 1GB of PC3200, and a 256MB video card like I did...just to get those CHD image games running good.....but if you ask me I wasted money for now...

[SirDrexl]

I think the way that MAME works is it loads the entire ROM into memory and then runs the game. I think that if you have enough memory for it to run, adding more memory will not make it run faster-the same thing goes for video card memory as well. 256 MB of system RAM is probably going to be enough for most games, and that's why I think you should start with that amount. Just make sure you have an extra slot or two in case you need to add more to run roms that need it. It would be a lot easier to add more memory than to replace the CPU and/or motherboard.

I wouldn't spend much for the videocard. MAME does not make use of the 3D capabilities today's videocards have. It also doesn't use MPEG-2 decoding or DivX acceleration or anything like that. A large amount of memory on the card, which is used for very high resolutions and storing 3D textures, is not made use of either. Dual display capability probably isn't needed. If you're planning on using a TV for your display, make sure the card has an S-Video output.

As for the soundcard, anything PCI that supports Directsound should be fine. I don't know of any games that use 3D sound or Dolby Digital so you don't need a fancy sound card. If you do want to spend a little more, you could get a card with a 48khz sampling rate (such as something in the Live! series-I think the basic SoundBlaster cards top out at 44.1 khz) which would allow you to check the 48khz option and it might make games sound a little better, but it probably isn't worth it. Just make sure you have a dedicated card (no onboard sound) as onboard sound takes a little away from the CPU.

[Avenger]

thanks for all your help guys....im plannin on using a PC monitor so the Video Out wont matter