Hyperspin build Pc specs advice

[AeronNL]

Hey Guys,

 

i am gathering information about the specs for my system i am planning to build for my Arcade Bartop in progress.

 

Now i want to keep the costs as low as possible, because that was my goal in the first place.

 

The systems i am planning to run:

 

Atari systems

Nes

Snes

Megadrive

Mame

NeoGeo

CPS1

CPS2

CPS3

Turbogrfx16

N64

Gamecube (probably)

PSX (probably)

 

So all the older systems actually, and nothing above PSX, so no Dreamcast, PS2 etc. etc. not now, not in the future.

 

 

I prefer an Intel processor, and a mini itx board, or a micro atx board, nothing bigger due to limited space in the cab.

 

Can you guys give me any advice on what to buy?

[Spawk]

I am no expert here but with the exception of your 2 probably's those will all run on almost any core duo... even with onboard video! Slap a 2gb video card in there and the 2 probably's will most likely be ok too.

 

Ok I am not sure about CPS... Are they part of MAME? And I have yet to set up gamecube so I can't say for sure but I think that will be the hardest one. It may be redundant to say, but have at least 8gb of ram though. I am doing setup on my gf's core duo (1.7Mhz!!!) with only 4gb of ram and windows itself can pretty much chew that up. Even on her machine, bought at walmart about 2yrs ago (the thing about walmart is that the tech is already 2 yrs old when it get's there, that's how they sell it so cheap!) all that old stuff plays fine. Seriously, most of those will probably play on a raspberry pi! LOL Probably not N64 ... it's emulation is far from perfect so a video card and that extra 4gb of ram would probably help that too. PSX can be hit or miss. Some games (smaller? more basic?) seem to run at full throttle. Others (RPG, full 3D) lag quite a bit. Again, almost any video card (that will take the load off system resources) will most likely take care of that.

 

So basically you'll have to figure out your probably's. If your gonna pass on them, almost any machine on sale will do. If you opt for "higher" emulation, then you can consider more. Keep in mind that clock speed (Mhz) is probably more important than cores as far as emulation goes. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single emulator that would even take advantage of more than 1 core. You want 8gb ram so the system has enough to do what it needs, but it will run at a certain speed too and more of it won't make your system any faster, just allow you to have more programs open at once. Wanna see system speed up? Try an SSD! Video cards are the tough one. They can range from $40-$4000 and everything in between. OK anything in the thousands is extreme... I think current top end cards go for about $600-$800 (CDN). Even then, figuring out where you fit in on that scale can be overwhelming. There are just so many choices! The best piece of advice I got when searching what I should get myself was: "Get the most expensive one you can afford".

[AeronNL]

I am no expert here but with the exception of your 2 probably's those will all run on almost any core duo... even with onboard video! Slap a 2gb video card in there and the 2 probably's will most likely be ok too.

 

Ok I am not sure about CPS... Are they part of MAME? And I have yet to set up gamecube so I can't say for sure but I think that will be the hardest one. It may be redundant to say, but have at least 8gb of ram though. I am doing setup on my gf's core duo (1.7Mhz!!!) with only 4gb of ram and windows itself can pretty much chew that up. Even on her machine, bought at walmart about 2yrs ago (the thing about walmart is that the tech is already 2 yrs old when it get's there, that's how they sell it so cheap!) all that old stuff plays fine. Seriously, most of those will probably play on a raspberry pi! LOL Probably not N64 ... it's emulation is far from perfect so a video card and that extra 4gb of ram would probably help that too. PSX can be hit or miss. Some games (smaller? more basic?) seem to run at full throttle. Others (RPG, full 3D) lag quite a bit. Again, almost any video card (that will take the load off system resources) will most likely take care of that.

 

So basically you'll have to figure out your probably's. If your gonna pass on them, almost any machine on sale will do. If you opt for "higher" emulation, then you can consider more. Keep in mind that clock speed (Mhz) is probably more important than cores as far as emulation goes. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single emulator that would even take advantage of more than 1 core. You want 8gb ram so the system has enough to do what it needs, but it will run at a certain speed too and more of it won't make your system any faster, just allow you to have more programs open at once. Wanna see system speed up? Try an SSD! Video cards are the tough one. They can range from $40-$4000 and everything in between. OK anything in the thousands is extreme... I think current top end cards go for about $600-$800 (CDN). Even then, figuring out where you fit in on that scale can be overwhelming. There are just so many choices! The best piece of advice I got when searching what I should get myself was: "Get the most expensive one you can afford".

Thanks alot for your reply, appreciate it!

How about a Pentium G3258 3.2 ghz?

These are not too expensive, and i think most stuff will run on it.

 

I have an Geforce 1gb video card in my other machine, so i quess i can try that one and see if it works (not sure which type, but it has hdmi so it is not too old)

I have 4 gb of Ram ddr3 already, so i best get  4 gb extra right?

 

PSX is not too important actually, Gamecube neither. I made an bartop cab mostly for the older games like Mame and 8 en 16 bit systems, on which the games aren't too big and can be finished in a couple of hours instead a couple of months, which games on Gamecube and PSX can take that amount of time (Zelda the Wind waker etc.)

 

CPS is Capcom Play System, which is running on MAME. These are games like Marvel vs Capcom, Red Planet etc.

[monza]

I was planning to build a Hyperspin machine using an old laptop I have lying around (I think Core2Duo) and everything was running fine until I started playing around with shaders (eg HLSL in Mame and various ones in RetroArch) then the performance dropped to unplayable.

 

I think this is due to lack of dedicated vid card, someone else might be able to confirm that.

 

Of course you can just not turn shaders on but they look so much better....

[AeronNL]

G3258, 4gb ram, cheapest H series motherboard. Overclock to like 4.2 and be happy.

Sounds good!

Any motherboard you can recommend?

I prefer mini-itx, but a micro-atx is ok too as a second choice.

[SIMPLYAUSTIN]

 

To be honest mate with those systems you want to run even the above is overkill... but trust me you will catch the bug and then want PC games and some more PC arcade style games

[AeronNL]

 

To be honest mate with those systems you want to run even the above is overkill... but trust me you will catch the bug and then want PC games and some more PC arcade style games

Thnx for the vid mate.

Will check it out later.

I really don't want to run anything else than those retro systems.

I like to play those old games, as they don't consume too much of my time, and for the nostalgia of course.

Pc games i have zero interest in, althought they are very good, i simply do not have the time to play those huge games, like i did back in the day before i had kids for example.

Also, i am planning to run them on my custom made bartop (which is a build in progress), so just for some short periods of time with friends and family.