Got an arcade cabinet, need assistance

Tee Hee Johnson · 28 Mar 2022 at 09:25

Did you erver do much with the motherboard, etc?

Some Pentium 4 motherboards support some C2D cpus for a quick and cheap upgrade

Cyber-Mav · 31 Mar 2022 at 06:11

The mobo is a socket 775 but i dont think it supports c2d. Iv got a pentium d 945 in it at the moment. Not come across a mame game that runs less than full speed.
Would like to replace it with something more power efficient so less heat in future. Waiting to see if intel release a gracemont only core CPU. That would be ideal.
Arcade is not used often so not in any rush to do upgrades but looking to build a bigger cab that uses the full table space i have available.

Ravenger · 4 Apr 2022 at 18:53

I'm running a Q8400 on an old Nvidia nForce motherboard and WindowsXP on my arcade cab, with a GTS450. When that MB fails I'll probably go to one of the more powerful ARM boards, but the main thing is the monitor is an old VGA LCD, so I'd have to replace it. I have a dell 5:4 IPS monitor I picked up cheap a long while ago as a backup, but again that has VGA/DVI, and I wasn't that impressed with the colour reproduction when I tested it externally to the cab.

Cyber-Mav · 8 Apr 2022 at 23:18

I got some parts lying around like a 4th gen i3 cpu but finding a cheapo itx mobo is an issue.
The gt730 runs crt-geom shader perfect in mame and it should run full speed too on the igpu of a 4th gen intel i3.
Also one of those thin client pc's would be ideal but how to use an external power switch with it??

Ravenger · 9 Apr 2022 at 14:34

Cyber-Mav said:
I got some parts lying around like a 4th gen i3 cpu but finding a cheapo itx mobo is an issue.
The gt730 runs crt-geom shader perfect in mame and it should run full speed too on the igpu of a 4th gen intel i3.
Also one of those thin client pc's would be ideal but how to use an external power switch with it??

I use a smart plug with my arcade machine. When the PC shuts down the plug detects that and turns off the monitor and the separate PSU that's running the lights and audio amp. I tried using just the PC PSU but got some grounding issues causing a mains hum on the speakers, so I use a separate PSU that was originally supplied to run a 60-in-1 arcade board.

Cyber-Mav · 9 Apr 2022 at 19:58

@Ravenger thats excellent do you have a link or model number for the smart plug your using?

Ravenger · 9 Apr 2022 at 21:53

Cyber-Mav said:
@Ravenger thats excellent do you have a link or model number for the smart plug your using?

Sorry it was a good few years ago I bought it, so probably not available any more.

It's like a normal multi-adaptor plug, just with a master socket you plug the PC into.

It seems that modern smart plugs are much more complicated so not sure if you can just get a simple power sensing plug - they all seem to be alexa or wifi enabled.

Cyber-Mav · 17 Jun 2022 at 12:58

Got mobo cpu and ram from @Chris Beard amd 760k. Will get this into the cabinet to give it some cpu power over the pentium 4 era pentium d 945

Test rig setup to make sure its all working

Cyber-Mav · 26 Jun 2022 at 08:10

got this fitted into the cab now. cant believe how big a boost its given in bootup speed and even loading games. going from pentium d 945 to amd 760k is a large jump. games themselves run same as before but general response in the games menu is night and day difference. thanks again to @Chris Beard
waiting for some ram to arrive now, currently its got a single 4gb stick but i got 2 x 2gb coming so can use dual channel, much harder to find single sticks of 4gb ddr3 these days.

Cyber-Mav · 26 Jun 2022 at 15:57

Good thing i changed it out. The old pentium 4 mobo had a lot of leaking and puffy capacitors. I wasn't getting any issues yet but it be just a matter of time. Will get some pics up

Cyber-Mav · 26 Jun 2022 at 16:52

Can see old mobo vs new setup

Chris Beard · 26 Jun 2022 at 18:38

This is so cool

Cyber-Mav · 26 Jun 2022 at 20:01

I may be able to get away with using an apu and removing the gt730. Depends if i can get a high spec one for cheap. The 760k has plenty of grunt so don't want to downgrade on the cpu side much.

Chris Beard · 26 Jun 2022 at 20:05

Cyber-Mav said:
I may be able to get away with using an apu and removing the gt730. Depends if i can get a high spec one for cheap. The 760k has plenty of grunt so don't want to downgrade on the cpu side much.

I think you could probably exchange the GT730 for some kind of voucher that would then be possible to exchange for some other electronics - potentially an A10 that's the max for that board.

I think the GT730 would blow the igp away though.

Cyber-Mav · 26 Jun 2022 at 22:30

yea gt730 is working perfect especially in opengl mode. its a passive card too so i think i might just stick with this config for now. plenty of cpu power now, 760k is running in eco mode so it seems to limits its power usage to 67w which i tested in prime95. clocks a little less but much more efficient than the old pentium d 945.

brendy · 28 Jun 2022 at 17:39

Love this kind of stuff

, ram is on its way and should be there tomorrow matey, what emulators are you set to use?

Cyber-Mav · 29 Jun 2022 at 07:52

brendy said:
Love this kind of stuff , ram is on its way and should be there tomorrow matey, what emulators are you set to use?

cab is running mame only for arcade stuff. when kids are on it they play a lot of final fight, turtles, double dragon and other scrolling beat em ups.

Cyber-Mav · 29 Jun 2022 at 13:53

ram arrived and each sticks tests out fine in 1 slot but all 3 sticks i have now dont work in the slot closest to the cpu. so thinking iv got a duff slot. if thats the case then will hold off on getting an apu and leave the gt730 in it.
@Chris Beard do you know if both the ram slots were working on this mobo? would have to pull out the board and put it on test bench and clean out the slots if it was working for you in the past. either way single 4gb stick of ram is plenty in this system since its running Tiny10, a stripped out windows 10 os. even 2gig would be plenty for my needs lol.

Chris Beard · 29 Jun 2022 at 15:26

Cyber-Mav said:
@Chris Beard do you know if both the ram slots were working on this mobo? would have to pull out the board and put it on test bench and clean out the slots if it was working for you in the past. either way single 4gb stick of ram is plenty in this system since its running Tiny10, a stripped out windows 10 os. even 2gig would be plenty for my needs lol.

Hi Cyber-Mav - I don't know that all the slots are working. I had two sticks of RAM and one of them stopped working (which is why there was only one stick in the board). I had assumed it was the RAM stick that failed (as RAM so often does), but it could have been the slot.

My apologies - I didn't mean to create any bother!

Cyber-Mav · 29 Jun 2022 at 15:33

Chris Beard said:
Hi Cyber-Mav - I don't know that all the slots are working. I had two sticks of RAM and one of them stopped working (which is why there was only one stick in the board). I had assumed it was the RAM stick that failed (as RAM so often does), but it could have been the slot.

My apologies - I didn't mean to create any bother!

no worries, for free i cant complain

it works well with just the 1 stick but going from what you mentioned it now saves me the hassle to taking it apart and cleaning it up. also im not sure if the memory controller is in the cpu or chipset on this board otherwise i could try the A4 apu i picked up for 3 quid incase if its an imc on the cpu thats got issues. will do some digging about.