ZXman1000 Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 I have always loved gaming and in particular light gun games and been on the fence to go all out and build a computer / cabinet for some time. Aimtrac or Wii Mote guns have never seemed like a really good alternative for the old CRT technologies. That was until I found the Sinden light gun. I have been following the Sinden light gun for some time and finally decided to jump and ordered two guns with recoil. They are due to arrive in October. My goal is build a computer and cabinet between now and delivery. I have a decent amount of "tinkering" in my history but this will be the first real major build I have done. Looking for some advice on a few things: How much power do I really need in the computer? (Seen lots of info out there on this and much seems to conflict) - The items I think would push the limits of the hardware the most I would like to emulate are: wii u / PS3 (when the emulators are more ready for prime time) and TeknoParrot for some more recent arcade shooters such as House of the Dead 4, Too Spicy, and Rambo -I am watching costs and will need to build from scratch as I do not have any old computers to work with so not looking to just overkill it as I don't plan on doing much in terms of modern computer gaming although I have heard there are some decent on rail shooters out there I would like to try. TV Size? - Trying to decide between a full cabinet or maybe a pedestal. I want to be able to play 2 player light gun games comfortably. If I go pedestal I can just mount a 50 or 55 inch tv to the wall and put the pedestal in front but a full cabinet just looks better in my opinion. I also don't think a 50 inch TV in a cabinet looks right (megacade for example). Has anyone built a 40ish size cabinet and how does that play for light gun games (especially once you consider the lack of widescreen in most of these games will reduce size further). 4 player worth it? - I really like the thought of 4 people all around a cabinet playing turtles / Simpsons / X-men etc... But realistically how often do these controls come into play. Anyone with them wishing they didn't have them? Without wishing they had? Think those are the questions I really need to figure out before I start planning out the build. I haven't really made any permanent decisions other then the light guns. Also thought if I could get the computer built first I could start the process of setting up Launch Box and getting Roms and tweaking settings etc... Like to turn this into a long term hobby as gaming has always been important to me and just recently have found the opportunity to do something like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 TV size and 4 player are gonna be personal preference. As for system power I will just say this. You can go with "just enough" power to run the emulators and games at full speed but I will always recommend buying the best CPU you can afford. The reason for this is that Mame and Retroarch have a feature called "frame delay" which you can use to reduce input lag by a good amount, up to a frame. The more CPU power you have the more you can push frame delay as high as possible with the accurate and demanding emulators. Graphics card doesn't matter too much but you should have something that isn't just on board video. If you like and want to use CRT Shader effects instead of the raw upscaled pixelated look you will want a GPU of some kind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallmachine Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 chuck as much RAM in the build as you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 A lot of ram is not necessary at all for emulation, 8 is enough but 16 is more than plenty for Windows 10, LB and any emulator you want to run. Any more than 16 is a complete waste and even 16 is more than necessary but 8 has become the norm for minimum nowadays. I should add one other reason for a GPU and that is LB likes a GPU of some kind rather than on board video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZXman1000 Posted May 28, 2020 Author Share Posted May 28, 2020 Thanks for the CPU and Ram suggestions. I am thinking of aiming for 16. I also am planning on going pc build as it affords the possibility of upgrade a lot easier. I am thinking a pretty strong processor with possible on board or cheap graphics card to start then ability to upgrade once funds are available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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