Blast from the past

So I was just doing a bit of a look through over at one of my old blogs (actually the oldest still in existence) and stumbled over a picture that made me smile - the very first time I took a bunch of peripherals and tried to make something useful of out them. Amazingly this random idea soon lead to one of the biggest projects I've ever undertaken!

Oh god, this was 11 years ago!

The year was 2015, I had a garage full of junk (I still miss it!) and quite a few free bits and pieces from the computer world courtesy of work who were more than happy to get their shelf space back. And having some good success getting some old arcade games running on my PC at the time one day I asked myself the question...'Hey Al, how hard would it be to build your own arcade cabinet?'

Turns out it took a lot of work and that included plenty of learning along the way including how to use power tools, how to wire things up properly, arcade front and back ends and working with MDF. But after a few months and many many replacements parts along the way, I got to the point where it looked like thus: 

It worked, it worked well. And while the adults in my life marveled at the fact that I'd build something by myself, my kids and extended family kids wouldn't get off it. Which I consider a massive win. 

However that success is not the topic of today's post however (you're more than welcome to read the entire journey of this build over at the blog Adventures of Almigo). No today we're taking a look at the very first attempt at working with components outside of case, just like I am today with project Garage Intelligence!

Let's take you back to 2015!

Whoo boy, what a beast!

Now taking pride of place in a scrapheap somewhere, this setup was my first attempt at getting a M.A.M.E (Multi Arcade Machine Emulation) system up and running. And I say first attempt because the $20 motherboard I bought from the electronics recycling shop (which folded about a year later) turned out to be incredibly buggy. But from the outset we had: 

MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte-M61VME-S2. As mentioned above, it was completely rubbish even after I replaced all the blown capacitors on it (there's another lesson, learning to solder). It did manage to get MAME up and running but not before continually crashing. 

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4200+. Came out in 2006, still found a use 9 years later. Not for long though as I moved onto a different board and CPU combo pretty soon. 

RAM: 246mb of some no name brand just to turn it over. It did run Mame (eventually) but spluttered out trying to load an internet browser. 

HDD: 80GB ex office computer WD HDD. You know what I don't miss in 2026? Ribbon cables. And hilariously in 2026, I'm using a SSD so much faster but still smaller space wise than this thing had. 

GPU: On board graphics! In all of my junk, I didn't have a single spare GPU at the time!

When it worked, it looked like this: 

But then a mere 30 seconds later..

So that's what I was rocking (until I went through a couple more boards and finally found one that worked well) but how does this museum piece compare to what I'm working with now? Well let's consult something that was just a pipe dream back then when I was building my arcade cabinet - A.I!

The comparison (thanks to Perplexity) 

The GA-Z77X-D3H with an i7-3770 is in a completely different class from the GA-M61VME-S2 with an Athlon X2 4200+; it is much newer, far faster, and supports modern-enough features like DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, PCIe 3.0-era graphics support, and UEFI-style BIOS features, while the older board is a basic AM2-era DDR2 platform with integrated graphics and limited expansion.gigabyte+4

Side-by-side

Metric	Gigabyte GA-M61VME-S2 + Athlon X2 4200+	Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H + i7-3770
Era	2006 platform, AM2 / NVIDIA GeForce 6100 / nForce 400	2012 platform, LGA1155 / Intel Z77 gigabyte+1
Age in 2026	About 20 years old	About 14 years old
CPU cores / threads	2 / 2	4 / 8
CPU clock	2.2 GHz base	3.4 GHz base, up to 3.9 GHz turbo
Memory	DDR2, dual-channel, up to 8 GB	DDR3, dual-channel, up to 32 GB
Storage	2x SATA 3Gb/s, RAID support, plus IDE	SATA 6Gb/s support, onboard mSATA slot
Graphics support	Integrated NVIDIA graphics, single PCIe x16 slot that may run at x8 gig	No integrated board graphics, but HDMI/DVI/VGA outputs and 2-way multi-GPU support
Expansion	1 x16, 1 x1, 2 PCI	More expansion, including 3 x16-length slots and multi-GPU support
Networking	10/100 Ethernet gigabyte	Gigabit-class modern networking on the Z77 platform board family
Audio	8-channel HD audio gigabyte	High-quality 108 dB SNR HD audio gigabyte
Firmware / features	Legacy BIOS-era board gigabyte	3D BIOS / UEFI, power management, USB 3.0 acceleration features gigabyte

Speed and feel

On raw CPU performance, the i7-3770 is massively ahead: it has twice the core count, four times the thread count, and much higher per-core throughput than the Athlon X2 4200+. In practical terms, the older system feels like a basic office or retro-light-duty machine, while the newer one can still handle everyday computing, multitasking, light creation work, and older games much more comfortably.pc-builds+4

Platform capability

The GA-M61VME-S2 is a very limited AM2-era board: DDR2 memory, 100 Mbps LAN, SATA 3Gb/s, and only modest PCIe expansion make it suitable for period-correct retro builds rather than serious upgrades. The GA-Z77X-D3H is a much more capable enthusiast board with DDR3 up to 32 GB, USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, mSATA, multi-GPU support, and a far more flexible BIOS/UEFI feature set.tomshardware+4

Best use case

If the goal is nostalgia, XP-era compatibility, or a period-correct AM2 build, the GA-M61VME-S2 system makes sense. If the goal is a machine that is still broadly usable today, the GA-Z77X-D3H and i7-3770 are vastly better in speed, storage, memory capacity, and overall capability.gigabyte+3

Practical verdict

The first system is a relic of mid-2000s mainstream computing, while the second is a much more mature and balanced high-end mainstream platform from 2012. If you rank them by performance, features, and longevity, the Z77X-D3H/i7-3770 combo wins by a huge margin; if you rank them by retro charm and simplicity, the M61VME-S2 still has value.gigabyte+1

The takeaways from all of this

-I had no idea that the maximum ram you could have on the old Athlon board was a measly 8GB. Luckily you didn't need much at all to get M.A.M.E up and running (same with graphics, onboard graphics worked just fine) but I feel that would be incredibly painful now in getting most programs to respond in any sense of a timely matter. 

-Garage Intelligence's board came out the same year my Mazda 6 did. That's never clicked until now now. Both could do with upgrades but they both work when they need to and that's pleasing for things that are creeping up to 15 years soonish..

-Both projects could run MAME but I'd be trying to push vast amounts of excrement up a hill trying to get anything A.I related to do anything on the Project M.A.M.E board. 

-I know I'm comparing apples to oranges here with what these boards can do in terms of technology and what they could still achieve today but now it's got me wondering: Since Garage Intelligence could easily run MAME without a sweat and do some basic stuff with AI...could it add those together? Has someone out there crossed the streams here Perplexity?

Hmm...perhaps that's another use for Garage Intelligence when I run out of possible ideas to throw at it? Decisions, decisions..