mini-itx MAME project - input sought

ambro25

Heya,

Looking to put one of these:



VIA EPIA 5000 Fanless Motherboard (and obviously RAM + 1.8" HDD or Compact Flash as RAM-Drive)

Into one of these:



To turn it into a "MAME console".

Now, I've built several PCs and upgraded/troubleshooted countless others over the years and would consider myself 'fairly handy' ( :rolleyes: ) with standard ATX config + build, and standard Win/Linux, etc.

But this will be a first for me in regards to:
(i) all-in-one mini-itx boards with VIA CPUs
(ii) minimal OS build which will ideally :
* boot directly to a MAME front end
* boot directly to TV out
* use HotRod as only input required for front end navigation (btw, it's PS/2 out)

So, whereas I've an idea of what I'm trying to achieve (eventually - I will finish this project, honest! ), I must admit to not really having any idea as to where to start, other than buying the components (providing the spec is adequate for the purpose, of course) and envisaging cut-outs for air and board connectivity.

Any helpful hints would be welcome at this early, 'planning stage'.

um7y1h83ge06nx

Interesting project!

I have a X-Arcade joystick and am half thinking of building a MAME PC using one of those motherboards in a Shuttle PC case. Would prefer this as I would greater flexibility but the Shuttle case would be handy for me to put beside my Xbox 360, and hook it to my HDTV.

Anyways, one thing I can answer is the frontend. You should do a search for MAMEWah or GameEx. Both meant to be good frontends and they support loads of console emulators as well as MAME.

ambro25

Thx for input...

... and it's a no go already

As I found out this weekend, the HotRod needs to have a keyboard plugged into it, for the sticks/buttons to work. The unit is designed to act as a pass-through between a PC and a standard keyboard, and does not 'register' input unless there's a keyboard plugged into the pass-through port.

So, meh... now on eBay.

I'll get hold of an X-Arcade as and when (should be doable/easier using the X-Arcade USB adapter) and try again.

Well, I guess that gives me some time to source a cheap mini-itx mobo on eBay to cut my teeth into

8T8

This forum generally only deals with the building of home PC's your project is pretty cool but you probably wont get too much feedback here.

You could try posting over at Bit-Tech's forums which is generally where the cream of the crop resides when it comes to advanced custom builds.

mick.fr

I am a real noob in this mini ITX thing.
Does this EPO is i386 compatible ?
Can I actually install a NixBSD, Linux or even Windows for example on it ?

I have seen there is some Dual Core mini ITX motherboard.

I am looking to build my own micro tiny PC to act as small and very silent server at home, so I do not need any sound port, parallel port, but something like 4 x RJ45 ports will be great. I did some search on the web but most of the motherboards I found are for desktop/multimedia appliance.

I guess I would have to get an extra network controller for this.

Do you know anything that could suit my need ?

Thanks

weeder

yeah, they are i386

hopeful

ambro25 wrote:

Well, I guess that gives me some time to source a cheap mini-itx mobo on eBay to cut my teeth into

I happen to have a Mini-itx board and case

It is THIS board (M1000 version) currently in the silver version of THIS case.

Bought it off adverts a while back and haven't got round to using it for anything yet. Drop me a PM if you might be interested.

SouperComputer

As I found out this weekend, the HotRod needs to have a keyboard plugged into it, for the sticks/buttons to work. The unit is designed to act as a pass-through between a PC and a standard keyboard, and does not 'register' input unless there's a keyboard plugged into the pass-through port.

You can get PS2 dongles for this IIRC. Failing that, you could just pull the PCB out of a keyboard and put it inside.

Linuxwise, you could use DSL, or maybe ubuntu server which is pretty light. Thats combined with ratpoision or fluxbox is a very quick booting solution even on the oldest of hardware. IIRC there is a BIOS available for MATX boards that contains a linux kernel that can be called on to speed the boot process even more.

ambro25

SouperComputer wrote:

You can get PS2 dongles for this IIRC.

Not sure what you mean

Only connectivity is PS/2 female (x 2: 1 for the PC-to-joystick lead, 1 for the keybard-to-joystick lead).

But...

SouperComputer wrote:

Failing that, you could just pull the PCB out of a keyboard and put it inside.

Keeewl, me likes it. I'll try that before the week-end.

hopeful wrote:

I happen to have a Mini-itx board and case etc.

Consider yourself pm'd