If you are going to be building a MAME cabinet, you should have a look at the Mini MAME Cabinet that Greg Kennedy built for some tips. He built this thing from scratch and kept the costs down, using some older electronics was a great way get some use out of the hardware that might not have had a use otherwise. The hand made cabinet turned out very nice, at a glance you can’t tell that it was home made.

“Hardware

• Intel 1.3ghz Pentium 4
• 128mb RDRAM
• 256mb CF card, CF< ->IDE adapter
• 250W PSU
• PCI: S3 Virge DX, 4mb VRAM
• PCI: Creative (Ensoniq) Sound Blaster PCI
• Monitor: IBM PS/1 13″ CRT VGA (max res: 800×600)
• Speakers: cheap no-brand PC speakers

• MDF: $35
• Screws and wood glue: $15
• Joysticks, buttons, T-Molding: $30
• Plexiglass scraps: $10
• Paint: $15
• Printing: $5
• Fluorescent lamp: $7
• Hinges, lock, misc. fasteners: $30″