Been away a long time - help me with Shuttle Upgrade Please

[tinners]

Hello there.

I've been away from PC building for a while now (kids / work etc). Hence reason I decided to move to a Shuttle a few years ago now.

Current setup is:
Shuttle SP35P2 S775 / P35
Intel Q6700 Quad Core CPU
4 Gb DDR2 800
146 Gb Raptor X
ATI 5770 Graphics Card
Bluray Drive

Considering 2 options - 1. move to iMac or 2. Upgrade Shuttle to a new one.

Moving to a new Shuttle setup I'm looking for something which will do me for some gaming and video encoding (handbrake / x264) and which will be stable and reliable.

Am thinking of the following:
Shuttle SZ68R5 Barebone
i3 2100 CPU
Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX XMP Memory Kit
OCZ 60GB Nocti SSD - mSATA SATA-II
Graphics, Bluray and HDD from current setup

This is about a £500 setup. Is this worthwhile investment ?

Which CPU should I go for - i3 2100 / i5 ? What will give me a reasonable performance improvement without costing the earth ?

Also is the SSD worth getting for the "Intel SSD cache"

Thanks for your help with this....

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would go for the SZ77R5 which should be out soon.

I had a Q6600 at 3GHZ in my SD37P2 and changed over to mini-ITX motherboard in a modfied G2 case with a Core i3 2100. For gaming the Core i3 2100 is much faster,however for HandBrake 0.9.5,the overclocked Q6600 was faster. The Core i5 would be faster in both cases,but TBH I am running a Core i3 2100 with a higher overclocked HD5850 1GB(at least around HD5870 1GB level performance) and it is not a limitation for the graphics card.

Here is the old HandBrake thread:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...ded-power.html

I have one with HandBrake 0.9.6 which I need to get updated too.

Also,I would just go for a normal SSD TBH. I assume you have a copy of 64 bit Windows too.

[tinners]

Thanks for the info, the handbrake link is really useful.
Looks like the new Shuttle will be about £100 more than the SZ68R5.
I only play the odd BF3 / COD game so want to avoid excessive cost, and would rather spend a bit extra on CPU.
How's about
Shuttle SZ68R5 Barebones
Intel Core i5 2300 2.8GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache retail Boxed Processor
Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX XMP Memory Kit CL9 1.65V
Corsair 120GB Force 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read = 550MB/s, Write = 510MB/s
Graphics, Bluray and HDD from current setup

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

CCL has the SZ77R5 on pre-order for around £300:

http://www.cclonline.com/product/801...es-PC/BRB0088/

I would get the Crucial M4 128GB over the Force 3 as it is a very reliable drive, and uses synchronous NAND unlike the asynchronous NAND in the Force 3.

You can also get the Core i5 2320 for £129.98 delivered:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...623i52320.html

You can get cashback from both TopCashBack and Quidco too on Novatech purchases.

If you want to overclock,you need to get the Core i5 2500K for around £156.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There is also the Xeon E3 1230:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...tio-80w-retail

It is basically a lower clocked Core i7 2600K without the IGP,so you cannot use Quick Sync but has a lower 80W TDP and should be decent for HandBrake.

Ideally,this is what I want for my current system,but the Core i3 2100 seems to fine for my purposes.

[tinners]

Looked at the Dell Outlet and they have some Alienware X51s. How would they compare with the Shuttle ?

Alienware X51 £498.02
Processor: Intel Core i5-2320 (3.00GHz, 6MB L3 Cache, 4C)
Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT) Certified Refurbished
1 TB 3.5inch SATA III Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
Graphics: 1 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 545
English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64Bit OS)
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Wireless : Dell Wireless 802.11g/n
Matte Stealth Black Chassis
Dell 105 Key Soft Touch USB Keyboard Black

Alienware X51 #2 £468.56
Processor: Intel Core i3-2120 (3.30GHz, 3MB L3 Cache, 2C)
Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT) Certified Refurbished
1 TB 3.5inch SATA III Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Memory : 4GB (4x1GB) 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory £22.00
Graphics: 1 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 545
English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64Bit OS)
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Wireless : Dell Wireless 802.11g/n
Matte Stealth Black Chassis
Dell 105 Key Soft Touch USB Keyboard Black

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looked at the Dell Outlet and they have some Alienware X51s. How would they compare with the Shuttle ?

Alienware X51 £498.02
Processor: Intel Core i5-2320 (3.00GHz, 6MB L3 Cache, 4C)
Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT) Certified Refurbished
1 TB 3.5inch SATA III Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
Graphics: 1 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 545
English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64Bit OS)
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Wireless : Dell Wireless 802.11g/n
Matte Stealth Black Chassis
Dell 105 Key Soft Touch USB Keyboard Black

Alienware X51 #2 £468.56
Processor: Intel Core i3-2120 (3.30GHz, 3MB L3 Cache, 2C)
Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT) Certified Refurbished
1 TB 3.5inch SATA III Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Memory : 4GB (4x1GB) 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory £22.00
Graphics: 1 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 545
English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64Bit OS)
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Wireless : Dell Wireless 802.11g/n
Matte Stealth Black Chassis
Dell 105 Key Soft Touch USB Keyboard Black

I would get the Shuttle. Your current HD5770 1GB is generally faster than a GTS450 and I suspect the GT545 GDDR5 is around GTS450 or HD5770 level IMHO.

Of course,I consider Shuttle system much nicer too,easier to upgrade and having more expansion when compared to the Alienware X51.

Here are some pictures of the X51:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5439/a...-x51-is-coming



Here are some pictures of the SZ68R5:

http://www.motormice.com/reviews/SZ68R5/

The Shuttle can take a longer graphics card,can take more hard drives and has a bigger 500W PSU. The motherboard also supports overclocking and the case has mounts for a mini-ITX motherboard.