Cheap SFF for running MAME

[Project86]

I'm considering picking up an old Shuttle or something to run MAME and other emulators on my big screen. Anybody have suggestions as to where I could get a cheap older sff unit? I don't even need to run some of the newer romsets, I'm talking about Centipede and Galaga. Maybe Final Fight or TMNT would be as new as I'd need to go... so very low system requirements.

Does anyone use a small box to run MAME?

 

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

Have you tried ebay? You could pick up a new shuttle barebones pretty cheap,and pick up the rest of the components used...I also seen a sff AM2 b'b' on newegg (Actualy I seen it in their holiday catalog)..ok I just looked at ebay, and I seen one for $76.00 (current bid)..it is the neon blue one, and it has a pentium D @2.4g...heck, put in a tv tuner card, and you've got a decent home theater rig...the hdd is kinda smallish though.

 

[Project86]

I just helped my mom pick out a laptop, so now I have her old system. It's an Athlon XP 1600, 512mb ram, 40GB HD, and a radeon 7000. I'm sure that can give me plenty of juice for some MAME action. Without spending any money on upgrades, what else can I do with that system? I don't imagine it can play videos very well... or can it? I guess it could be an mp3 jukebox and MAME box if nothing else.