Arcade hardware suggestions

[neit]

I'm in the process of trying to fix a motherboard of mine.

I threw the idea of converting it into an arcade cabinet (mame and other old skool emulators), and was wondering about the general hardware requirements. My mobo is a msi 6340 version 1, so i don't think i can get higher than 1GHz (i'm assuming i won't need anything that high).

I would like to use linux and mame as my main software (and some small web daemons for personal sites)
for video card, i might have a friend who can toss in a voodoo3 w/ tv out, would another card make much of a difference?
i'm thinking of getting a duron (cheap is key), would the cache on the Tbird help?
as for ram, would 128 be enough? i'll go for 256 if i do more daemons, but cheaper the better for now

anything else i'm missing? i'm planning on using onboard sound

 

[DeschutesCore]

Depends entirely on what games you want to run. Newer CPS titles will bog down on anything less than a GF2 GTS and 1.2 GHz, whereas older classics will run like a dream on even a K6-2 500 and 128 MB with onboard video (My old cab had these).

DC

 

[TheWart]

yea, you kinda need to decide this based on how intensive the games are.

 

[neit]

well, i kinda wanted a pretty comprehensive collection of arcade games.

where would the hardests games hit? the video card, the ram, or the cpu?
i haven't used emulators in a while, so i'm not too sure what the heavy hitting games are like.

I'm gonna try to hit the fs/ft forum for a 1gig tbird and get 256 ram (would pc100 vs 133 make a difference? my mobo won't do the 266 tbirds/durons, would it make more sense to keep the ram in time?). with this, what types of games would tax the system? i looked at the mame gamelist, but i honestly don't know what will slow the system the most.

since the games are mostly 2d, i don't think i'll need more than the voodoo 3. I'm still looking around for different emulators, and mainly wanted to try to get some feedback from others who have tried this.

i'm still trying to revive my mobo ( /me prays that a hot swap bios flash won't screw the sh!t out of my good board).

thanks for the reply's, i'll try to formulate better questions and specifics as soon as i can

 

[DeschutesCore]

Emulation is hardest on the CPU. Next would be RAM for loading and sorting larger ROMS, Video will dictate some things as well.

Here's a suggestion, try to stick with your 1GHz idea if possible, get a 64MB GF2 MX 400 and use the 128. If the ROMs you desire are iffy, try bumping the CPU up.

Onboard audio is going to be fine. Most of these ROMs use compressed low quality samples anyways. I used onboard for mine for two years and we never had any issues with it.

DC