This blog post provides technical information on how to put together a Pump It Up MK9 v1 or v2 arcade main logic board.
[What Games are supported on the MK9?]
Pump It Up Pro
Pump It Up NX2 (NX2 v1.54 for example throws a kernel panic on some MK9s, however, it works for others. Your mileage may vary.)
Pump It Up NX Absolute (Support for NXA can also vary.)
Pump It Up Pro 2 (Using an MK9 will render the 3D arrow graphics on Pro 2! An MK6 cannot do this.)
Pump It Up Fiesta
Pump It Up Jump!
Pump It Up Fiesta EX
Pump It Up Fiesta 2
Pump It Up Infinity
Pump It Up PRIME
Pump It Up PRIME 2
Pump It Up XX ***
*** Runs in HD mode ONLY. SD mode is now unsupported as of XX's release. Any input physical connector type is ok (I.e. HDMI, DVI, VGA), but monitor MUST support 720p or higher and GPU must pump out a HD signal.
[MK9v1]
The MK9v1 was first shipped DURING the release of Pro1/NX2 (Late 2007-2008). At the time, NX2/Pro machines had either: MK6 or MK9 hardware.
There isn't much sense in building an MK9v1 (It doesn't have any advantages over the Mk9v2 board.).
Motherboard/s: Gigabyte GA-945GZM-S2 - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-945GZM-S2-rev-21/sp#sp
Sound Chip: 5.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC888)
Chipset: North Bridge: Intel® 945GZ Express Chipset | Southbridge: Intel® ICH7
RAM: (The mobo reserves RAM for PCI devices etc regardless of bitwise OS - 3145728K shows as usable even on 4GB RAM) - 4GB RAM MAX (DDR2 667/533/400 MHz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-945GCM-S2L - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-945GCM-S2L-rev-10/sp#sp
Motherboard: MK9 GA-945GCM-S2C (Should also work, but not official) - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-945GCM-S2C-rev-10/sp#sp
Sound Chip: 5.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC662)
Chipset: North Bridge: Intel® 945GC Express Chipset | Southbridge: Intel® ICH7
RAM: 4GB RAM MAX (DDR2 DIMM 667/533/400 MHz) - NOTE: The mobo reserves RAM for PCI devices etc regardless of bitwise OS (I.e. 3145728K shows as usable even on 4GB RAM)
IO: Official USB PIUIO and JAMMA Interface
Security: A USB security dongle (except for the Pro series).
MK9v1 Graphics cards used:
Geforce 7200GS (PCIe 1.0 x16 | 256MB / 512MB DDR2)
Geforce 8400GS (PCIe 2.0 x16 | 512MB / 1GB DDR3)
[MK9v2]
Motherboard: Asrock G41M-S3 - https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/g41m-s3/index.asp
Motherboard: Asrock G41C-GS (Should also work) - https://www.asrock.com/mb/intel/g41c-gs/
BEST CPU: See here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/socketType.html#i5
- Socket 775 (LGA 775 / Socket T)
- Supports FSB 1333/1066/800/533 MHz
Sound Chip: 5.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC662)
Chipset: Northbridge: Intel® G41 | Southbridge: Intel® ICH7
RAM: 8GB RAM MAX (DDR3 DIMM 1333(OC)/1066/800 non-ECC, un-buffered memory)
IO: Official USB PIUIO and JAMMA Interface
Security: A USB security dongle (except for the Pro series).
MK9v2 Graphics cards used:
Nvidia Geforce 9300GS (PCIe 2.0 x16 | 512MB DDR2)
NVIDIA GeForce 210 1GB (PCIe 2.0 x16 | 1GB | DDR3)
[COMPATIBLE PARTS LIST for the BEST MK9v2 UPGRADE]
Here is a list of compatible parts in order to obtain the BEST upgrade when building an MK9v2 main board.
Motherboard: Asrock G41M-S3 or Asrock G41C-GS
Processor: Socket 775 - 3.2 GHz, 12 MB L2 Cache, 1333 MHz FSB (MAX on both boards)
BEST CPU: See here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/socketType.html#i5
BEST CPU vs Availability: Intel Xeon X3370 @ 3.00GHz / Intel Core2 Quad Q9650 @ 3.00GHz
RAM: 8GB RAM MAX (DDR3 DIMM 1333(OC)/1066/800 non-ECC, un-buffered memory) - MAX RAM SETUP on both boards
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 210 1GB (PCIe 2.0 x16 | 1GB | DDR3) (Low Profile Preferred to fit in case - Not Essential). Any memory (128mb, 256mb etc), any manufacturer (Pny etc) and any output type (VGA, DVI etc) will work.
HDD: Image official drive (with security dongle) or put in any IDE or SATA drive to run emulators like StepF2
IO: Official USB PIUIO and JAMMA Interface
Security: A matching HDD USB security dongle for an official mix, or no security required when using emulation.
Game Graphics Card Support
Not ALL MK9 mixes will work with all supported graphics cards. See the list below for compatibility options.
To have the BEST compatibility, an NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS or 9300GS is recommended.
NVIDIA GeForce 7200GS (NX2 to Prime 2)
NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS (??? to XX)
NVIDIA GeForce 9300GS (??? to XX)
NVIDIA GeForce 210 (Fiesta to XX)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 (Prime 2 - XX)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (Prime 2 - XX)
EMULATION
Of course, if you are ONLY interested in building a system for emulation (Running Stepmania, StepF2, StepPrime, Stepmania etc), then there is really no point spending more money on official MK9 hardware. You would be better off buying something current as it would be not only easier to find, but also cheaper. Again, you will not be limited by the limitation imposed by old motherboards and such. It's also probably the cheapest option! You would just need to purchase a J-PAC / barr.io / STAC board (or something similar) to get your computer to "talk" with the arcade cabinet. The J-PAC, for example, would be a replacement for BOTH the PIUIO AND the PIU JAMMA Interface parts.
The best (and most expensive) solution would be to build an MK9v2 machine as outlined in this post and also place a secondary drive inside the system. You could, for example, install Windows 10 on this secondary drive (because StepF2 / StepPrime / StepP1 are all Windows only software titles and are really great pump it up simulators). I personally have a bunch of ~160GB drives will many OS' and games pre-installed. It's very easily to swap them out when you want to play a different mix. The possibilities are endless!
