advice small case + low noise pc?

[Pob255]

Friend has asked me about getting a shuttle for use as an internet and media pc, mainly playing internet radio, mp3 collections, watching DVDs.

He's got an old athlon xp1800 so I don't think there's anything salvageable from it, except the 19" widescreen monitor he wants to keep (not hd)
And maybe to odd older game.

He's considering a shuttle mainly because of the small size.
I'm not exactly up to date on shuttles (only experience is a couple we have at work, nice machines but not cheap) so I don't know what different models are like or best place to get one.
Don't know what they are like of onboard graphics with relevance to gaming and media playback or ease of fitting a graphics card. (power & size restrictions?)
I'm open to a self build, as I've never had the chance to do a very small build before.
He was also interested if they are noisey or not
Doesn't have to be a shuttle, he looked at them as a brand known to him.

So Base requirements are:
Small case
Quiet
Occasional gaming on a 19" (so nothing major needed)

Budget £400ish

I was thinking a e5200 as a lower tdp cpu (less heat less fan work needed = quieter)
Not sure what the AMD's are like heat wise?
Not sure what other small cases to go for look at?

[Pob255]

Just had a quick check looks like it's the Shuttle SD30G2 Plus we have at work, although I think we have a 2nd different model as well

Quick look £170 but is seems to have been discontinued. intel 945 chipset
Anything better?

[Webby]

Okay this may be right off base but how about,

Case: Silverstone Sugo SG04 or SG03 £90-100
PSU: Enermax Modu82+ 425W £57
MB: XFX 8200 AM2+ £68
CPU: X2 7750BE £65
Mem: 4GB OCZ DDR2-800 C5 £35 (C4 for £45, DDR2-1066 £55)
HDD: Samsung F1 320GB £31
GPU: 9600GT £72 or 3870 £75

Extras:
CPU Cooler: Silverstone NT06-E £28 or another low profile cooler of your choice
Fans: 2x Quiet 120mm £8-£20

That probably comes in at £460ish oh and you would need an OS on top of that...

Or save yourself £40 and get a TJ08 then any CPU cooler you like

[staffsMike]

That probably comes in at £460ish oh and you would need an OS on top of that...

Or save yourself £40 and get a TJ08 then any CPU cooler you like

+1

I'd get a scythe shuriken in the silverstone case though.

The Asus T series aren't too bad.

[Webby]

Oh by the way in case anybody was wondering why the XFX board when I was talking about the SG03/4 the heatpipe cooling will be beneficial in a case where the only exhaust fan is the PSU (you get plenty of airflow from the 2 front 120mm fans but the extra surface area of the cooler can only help matters.

This would be less important in the TJ08 where the is an exhaust fan so any 740G, 780G or 8200 board would do I would still consider that XFX board to be a good option though.

Oh and the swap to Intel would require a G31/33/35 or a 630i perhaps and obviously a E5200.

[Pob255]

Ta, for that webby.

Quick couple of things, upgrade now save later.
What's the onboard graphics like for dvd play back? Always stick a graphics card in there later if needed.

Any one had any expeirence with the Aplus Blockbuster?

Asus T series? any reviews? or internal layout pics?

[staffsMike]

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Anitec_SilenT3_PC

It's a PC review but a lot of great shots and obviously a deep focus on noise.

Anything will play DVD's these days, blu ray is fine on 8200 or most of the modern ATi boards.

[Webby]

Yep as Mike says the modern ATI boards and the nVidia 8200 will all happily play blu-ray without a problem, Intel wise you are a bit more limited for normal DVD no problem the G31 will be fine for Blu-ray you would need a G41/45 or an nVidia 9200 (i think thats the right number ).

[Pob255]

I just found that after I posted google first post 2nd

Looking on the asus website they do a p43 chipset version

However after looking into the m3n8200 it uses the nVidia MCP78S chip
Which uses the nvidia hybrid thingy-me-bob, should in theory open up a lot of possibilities
d-sub, so can run current monitor, hdmi if he fancies getting an hd tv, hybrid T-M-B so we could put a decent card in there later and it doesn't have to constantly chew up elec when not doing much.

would hybrid t-m-b be of any other benefit with an additional card in there?

any other options things I should be considering?

[Mithrandir]

The Silverstone TJ08 is a fantastic little case. I built a pc for my bro last month and it's very silent.

[Pob255]

Only thing is it's basically an aluminium matx tower.

Actually looking at the Lian Li PC-V350B now, I saw a very nice example where someone shoehorned water cooling into that one.
found it http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1256461

Also still considering the ASUS T3-M3N8200
esp as the Shuttle Prima XPC SN78SH7 (the shuttle with the same chipset) is twice the price
And due to non standard psu in the shuttle it'll be a bugger to replace if it dies.

[Pob255]

Just been told the case is going on the desk next to the wall which is on the right.
That means the Lian Li PC-V350B is a no go as the dvd drivers eject to the right.

Has anyone had any exerience of the Aplus Blockbuster? seems ok for a low cost option.

[Pob255]

The more I read up about the n8200 the more I like it
Shame amd/ati didn't go this route with the 780g being able to crossfire a 3450 with the onboard really doesn't cut it, the nvidia descrete over rideing the onboard when the power is needed is a far better system.
Shame too as the J&W JW-RS780UVD looks like a very good motherboard for £55

Would be lovely to see this n8200 chip on an intell socket775 board, any idea when the new 9series one is going to come out? I know there was plans to match it up with the 330 atom, wonder if it'll be socket 775 as well?

[staffsMike]

That hybrid stuff from nvidia didn't work very well last time I checked.

The cards are still running in lower power (10 -15W less for a 9800GTX, from memory) with no fan. So they can get quite hot and obviously still waste power.

ATi's is flawed though I grant you that but for occasionally gaming an HD3470 (or newer equivalent) passive might be ok when paired with the IGP.

[Webby]

The more I read up about the n8200 the more I like it
Shame amd/ati didn't go this route with the 780g being able to crossfire a 3450 with the onboard really doesn't cut it, the nvidia descrete over rideing the onboard when the power is needed is a far better system.
Shame too as the J&W JW-RS780UVD looks like a very good motherboard for £55

Would be lovely to see this n8200 chip on an intell socket775 board, any idea when the new 9series one is going to come out? I know there was plans to match it up with the 330 atom, wonder if it'll be socket 775 as well?

What this 9 series chipset

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/XFX-G...-VGA-Micro-ATX

As for hybrid crossfire/SLI if it really worked then it would be great by that I mean for SLI it turned of the discrete card completely so it consumed 0W or maybe 5W in a standby mode and for crossfire it just doesn't give enough more performance if you have a 780G, 790GX then if you want to game either you cope with the IGP or you buy a gaming card getting a 4350 (or whatever) just seems a bit of a waste of money since the playable settings probably wont change drastically, 1.75x rubbish is still rubbish you need at least 4 rubbishes before you getting near anything useful

[Pob255]

why the heck did they hide it in the Socket 775 - NVIDIA nForce 610i/630i/650i section?
the 9300 is based of the 730i

At £100 that's a bit steep

As to the 9300 hybrid system, I'm still reading up on this, however
http://hothardware.com/Articles/NVID...700a_Chipsets/

Hybrid Power mode is also fairly self explanatory. With a monitor connected to the mGPU, the discreet graphics card can be completely shut down to reduce power consumption when no in use. A side effect of the reduced power consumption will also be reduced heat and potentially less noise output from the system. The discreet card is shutdown (or enabled) using the SMBUS connection inherent to the PCI Express graphics slots.

So the graphics card should be totally shutdown when not in use, and only turned on when demand is high.
At which point it totally takes over from the onboard, it shunts it's frame buffer back out through the pci-e lane to the onboard frame buffer which is then sent to the monitor.

The Hybrid crossfire was different, the 780g onboard works with the graphics card emulateing two cards in crossfire, however from what I read it only worked with the hd3450, and two 3450 in crossfire was still stinky.



Ahhh NO it seems Hybrid power isn't working yet on the 9400 & 9300
http://www.nvidia.com/object/hybrid_sli_desktop.html
only on the 8200 & 8300

Hybrid SLi, doing the same as ati/amd of using the onboard with the graphics card in sli mode seem to only work on the 8400gs and 8500gt
Both of which where rather bad 3d cards to start with.

well makes me feel better about not haveing to pay £100 for an mATX motherboard.

EDIT: ok Hybrid power seems a bit patchy, talk of nvidia dropping it from the retail market and only supplying to the OEM market on request (eg roumor new 9400+gpu Mac books)