EricBall's Tech Projects - Tempest MAME 2015 - new PC

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A while ago my son asked when I was going to fix the Tempest cabinet. The fire cleanup crew removed the PC I was using to the Tempest cabinet and insurance wrote it off (although I did get the hard drive back). So the first step is to obtain a PC. MAME is still primarily a single threaded app, so I used https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.htmlto judge different processors. I figured a Core 2 Duo was probably what I wanted. I started looking at the lists of refurbished computers at local stores online and quickly realized I wanted an E7xxx or E8xxx processor rather than the E5xxx and E6xxx versions. I found a couple E8400s (3GHz) with DDR3 RAM for less than C$200. Not a bad price, but high enough for me to control my impulsiveness.

But then I decided to check Kijiji. And someone had posted a E8400 w/ DDR3 for C$100 just an hour before. A few emails and an extended lunch hour later I now have a PC.

The first thing I did was make an image backup (using a Linux USB boot) in case I screw things up or want to use the Office 2010 install (corporate license) he put on. And unfortunately it seems there's an issue with Windows Update. Sigh. Windows Update Repair isn't able to fix it. Maybe do a repair from the Win7 install CD, and if that doesn't work try a restore or a full reinstall.

I did have one idea for the cabinet. Rather than use a doorbell as a power button for the PC, wire it into one of the coin slots. So you have to insert a coin to power on the PC.

http://atariage.com/forums/blog/7/entry-12273-tempest-mame-2015-new-pc/