Update cabinet from Windows XP to 7?

[rabidpuppy]

Background
I built an arcade cabinet back in 2009, using GameEx as the front end, running mame and quite a few other emulators (both computer and console. I grew up using a ZX81, Sinclair Spectrum etc). Running Windows XP 32bit.

I recently moved house and in the house, the CPU heatsink got damaged. I pulled most of the guts out because I didn't know at first what the problem was, fixed it, and figured while I was there would get a cheap 60GB SSD for the boot drive. It previously had a 160GB boot drive (only about 20GB used), and a few other drives for my roms and emulators.

So eventually I get XP re-installed on the SSD (I had no idea it would involved me rooting around for a floppy drive to put the motherboards sata drivers on for AHCI, let alone actually finding a usable floppy disk to install them on because the motherboard didn't come with one).

Question
Even though it actually boots up real nice and runs quick, that whole process got me thinking. Right now I'm looking at the long road of re-installing and setting everything up, which I perfectly happy doing, but should I just go and update to Windows 7? I haven't kept up to date in the last 4 years so no idea what the status of any emulators are.. fine under 7 or any that don't run under it? What about GameEx?

Thanks for any input from anyone that has either gone to 7 from XP (for their arcade cabinet I mean, my normal PC is running Windows 7 64 on a SSD), or looked into it and decided against.

Cheers!

[nullPointer]

Hi rabidpuppy!

I can honestly say that I've never had any problems running any emulators under Windows t 64 bit. I suspect that if there are any emulators that don't cooperate well under Win7 that they are either so terribly out of date as to be not relevant, or have been surpassed by more modern emulators. It's hard to say without knowing what you plan on running, but I'm relatively certain you'd be safe with this upgrade.

Hardware might be the bigger determining factor here. You said this was for your cabinet? You might want to verify that you're not running any hardware that relies on XP drivers (in the event that they've not been updated for Win7)

Let us know what you decide!

[hansolo77]

I think the major benefit of updating to a new operating system would come in the way the OS handles program requests. This would include things like more recent .net and directX support. It's always nice to have the latest OS anyway. I never upgraded to Windows 8 though because this is my Media Center as well, and I have no use for touch screen support on a 42-inch LCD. Another advantage (or disadvantage) is the added ability of tech support. A lot of bugs have been fixed (but then theres always new ones) and Windows XP is probably close to expiring its MS support. I know Windows 95 and 98 are already listed as no longer supported. So you may be ahead to upgrade just for the added support capabilities. However, XP is stable, and has always been the most stable of any Windows OS. I've only had Windows 7 lock up on me twice, and usually it wasn't the OS but rather a memory hogging application that just froze the computer. It really depends on your necessities. Another advantage to upgrading is the compatibility with newer hardware. But if you just plan on using this as an emulator machine for MAME and older consoles, you're fine with XP (or even 95 for that matter) and then need to upgrade for more heavy emulations like Dolphin and actual PC gaming.

[rabidpuppy]

Okay thanks great feedback!

The only hardware is an iPac4, nothing else too flash. Joysticks and buttons go through that, button lighting comes directly from my PSU.. coin slot slot, speakers, marquee lighting, fans etc not reliant on software. The emulators, well I don't really recall the names of anything as I haven't tinkered with the cabinet in a few years (running emus for zx81, c64, spectrum, amiga, 2600, 5200, st, and the usual nintendo and sega console suspects)

What also got me thinking about updating was as well as the SSD I also got two 2TB drives, to update my old "roms only" mame to a full 0.148 roms and chds (as well as expanding my psx and gamecube collection by x-hundred GB).

So I guess I'm already halfway through updating the hardware anyway, I will just go ahead and go the win7 route. I have spare joysticks and buttons so I will keep my existing hardware to perhaps construct a mini-cab or something, running the existing build from 2009.

[u-man]

i would say, it depends on your pc which you want to move to your cab. you did not wrote your processor specs and how much ram you have.

upgrading to windows 7 makes only sense for me, if you have a Coreduo at least and if you have more than 4GB Ram.

if not, i would recommend to stay with XP, because it do not eat up much resources from your PC. the minimum requirements for Windows 7 are much higher than with XP.

if your cab have a CRT-screen, then stay even more with XP. a CRT-screen in most circumstances is low-resolution VGA (640x480). so why putting a decent processor in your cab, if you will play only VGA resolution? something more than a Pentium4 would be somehow oversized IMHO.

if budget is no matter, you can crank it up off course. end of line with a Pentium4 would be Playstation2 and Model3 emulators, these Emus are too CPU hungry, all Emus below that, are fine with a Pentium4.

[Koop]

Let us know how your upgrade goes. Even if it goes smoothly your input would be valuable to others!