Upgrading A Mame Cabinet

[TimmyB]

I'm using my old computer (Win98, 700MHZ, 128MB RAM, GeForce2 64MB) as a MAME cabinet but it is incapable of properly running games more advanced than about Street Fighter 2 level at the moment (such as Outrun and Smash T.V.).

If i wanted to spend a small amount of cash to improve the system and get more games working full-speed then which part of the computer should I upgrade given the specs above? Is there any way of finding out where my 'bottle neck' is?

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

I'm using my old computer (Win98, 700MHZ, 128MB RAM, GeForce2 64MB) as a MAME cabinet but it is incapable of properly running games more advanced than about Street Fighter 2 level at the moment (such as Outrun and Smash T.V.).

If i wanted to spend a small amount of cash to improve the system and get more games working full-speed then which part of the computer should I upgrade given the specs above? Is there any way of finding out where my 'bottle neck' is?

Will your motherboard allow you to upgrade to a better CPU? That will make a huge difference with MAME! Upgrading the graphics card won't make much of a difference I'm afraid.

 

[TimmyB]

Will your motherboard allow you to upgrade to a better CPU? That will make a huge difference with MAME! Upgrading the graphics card won't make much of a difference I'm afraid.

Thanks for the feedback.

Damn, that's what I was affraid of. To be honest I haven't checked whether a CPU upgrade is possible. It's just embarrasing having a MAME cabinet that's barely more powerful than my GP2X. :lol: But it still gives my old tower something to do I guess.

 

[Fishbong]

RAM and CPU speed is all that matters.