Opinions - Asus Eee B202 for a MAME table

I'm looking at an Asus Eee B202 machine (Atom/1GB/160GB) as a machine
for MAME table stuff.

None of the games I'd be playing would be modern - R-Type would be the
most modern, so I'm hoping the GMA950 graphics won't be an issue here.

It superficially appears to be a nice, small form factor machine.

Just wondering what other people might think. My only concern is that it
ships with XP Home, and I'm not sure if that's going to be ideal. I'm
sure MAME doesn't have any issues with it, but the lack of Remote
Desktop would be a (very minor) hindrance. XP Home can do file sharing,
right?

Thanks for any input.

Jim
--
"My idea of a fair fight: I'm in a main battle tank. My opponent
is 3 miles away, on a hill top, armed with a pistol."
- Dave the Australian.
http://www.UrsaMinorBeta.co.uk http://twitter.com/GreyAreaUK

jim wrote on 03. January 2009:
>
> I'm looking at an Asus Eee B202 machine (Atom/1GB/160GB) as a machine
> for MAME table stuff.
>
> None of the games I'd be playing would be modern - R-Type would be the
> most modern, so I'm hoping the GMA950 graphics won't be an issue here.

As far as I know all EEE can also be ordered with Linux. That means that
the hardware will be supported from Linux.

> It superficially appears to be a nice, small form factor machine.
>
> Just wondering what other people might think. My only concern is that it
> ships with XP Home, and I'm not sure if that's going to be ideal. I'm
> sure MAME doesn't have any issues with it, but the lack of Remote
> Desktop would be a (very minor) hindrance. XP Home can do file sharing,
> right?

The issue might be the relative small screen.

Though I also tend to buy a netbook. May be an Acer Aspire One. Not
decided yet. And sure will play MAME on it.

If you don't want to wipe Windows you can try to split the HD that you
can install Linux and a swap partition.

You can also try to install Linux on a USB stick. I take that it, lacking
a CD/DVD rom for my knowledge, can boot from USB and so run Linux and
XMAME from it.
--
Andreas
Old school arcade classics at <http://www.ankman.de/mame/>
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