Posted by Tony DiCola on 25, 2001 at 4:05 AM:
In Reply to: What would be the best parts to buy to make a complete mame computer? posted by CthulhuLuke on 25, 2001 at 2:02 AM:
Right now I would suggest an AMD Athlon system. Athlons are generally cheaper than Intel processors and have been benchmarked at better speeds in most cases. Athlons, however, produce a lot of heat and need a lot of power. Don't skimp on your power supply! A shoddy power supply is the bane of AMD systems. With the specs you mentioned here is a system I would recommend. I'm going to assume you'll want this done as cheaply as possible while still meeting all your requirements. Prices I list are what I find on newegg.com (one of the best computer component retailers)
Motherboard:
ECS K7S5A $57
This motherboard uses the SiS735 chipset and is known to be reliable, quick, and cheap. Has support for SDRAM or DDR SDRAM. Includes integrated sound and LAN. You'll be able to use your SDRAM initially and then upgrade to DDR SDRAM in the future.
Processor:
I would save buying this component until the very end, that way you'll get the cheapest price in a few months. Determine what your budget can accomodate and buy a Thunderbird or Athlon XP in your price range. Right now the Thunderbird 1 Ghz ($74) or Athlon XP 1500 ($119) look like good deals to me. If you buy an OEM chip make sure to get a heatsink and fan up to the task.
Powersupply:
Again, do not skimp on this. Go for an Enermax or Enhance, at least 300watts. Make sure the power supply is AMD Recommended.
Video Card:
If you're going to be doing 3D gaming go for a Radeon 7500. This has the speed of a top end Geforce 2 and the quality of an ATI card. Newegg has these for around $102. If you can't afford that much, or don't think you need that much 3D power go for a Radeon VE. It has great 2D acceleration and quality video output. Newegg has the OEM version for $47- quite a bargain. Both cards support dual display, a nifty feature you might make use of.
Hard drive:
40 Gigabytes sounds like a good amount. A 7200 rpm one should suite your needs.
Soundcard:
Personally, I would use the onboard audio. For arcade gaming it should be fine. If you'll be listening to music (with an ear for quality) or doing multispeaker gaming than go for a Creative soundcard. I agree with using a SB Live! Newegg lists it for $32 OEM.
CD-R:
Although I question the utility and convenience of having a CD-R inside an arcade cabinet, I recommend a quality Plextor drive- specifically their 161040A. Although it burns at 16x, it is actually just as fast as 20x and up burners because all CD-Rs are limited to low speeds when they burn data on the inside of a CD (where a majority of the data is). I have had a 12X Plextor drive for 2 years and have been quite pleased with its performance. I've noticed that a quality drive, like a Plextor, can read the most horribly scratched disks with no problem. Plextor's also have very quick audio extraction. (not sure how useful that is in an arcade cabinet though) Newegg lists the Plextor I mentioned for $116.
Those components above should provide you with a system ready to tackle any emulated game and then some. Hope I could be of assistance!
-Tony DiCola