Thinking about SFF again

[Craig]

After booking myself into a few lans I have decided I need something a *bit* smaller than my Coolermaster Wavemaster

I have three options!

SN25P - 3500 Athlon 64 - 6800GT - Onboard sound
SB925PV2 - Pentium 4 640 (3.2) - 6800GT - On-board sound
SD31P - Pentium 4 640 (3.2) - 6800GT - On-board sound

Now then...

The thing that will make me choose between these three is the on-board sound. I don't use 5.1 or even 7.1 sound - just bog standard 2.1 speakers/sub and headphones. I currently have a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS - How much will I notice the difference? I play BF2 and CS:S and as stated above this is mainly for lans but will also be used as my home pc.

All answers welcomed

Craig

[Gordy]

I'd steer clear of the amd shuttles at the moment the 64bit ones are suffering from lots of issues

You seen the matx silverstone could be a good comprimize for you.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=244419

[Dav0s]

£140 for just a case?? ouch, thats expensive

[jonny4288]

Hehe you seen the price of shuttles

some go as high as 300 quid

[Craig]

Thanks for your replies

That SilverStone case looks lovely It is a bit big compared to a shuttle but I will keep it as an option.

Right now I am looking at the Shuttle SD31P as it has the SoundBlaster onboard audio.

Spec will be;

Intel Pentium 4 640 (3.2) or 650 (3.4) - Depending on how much I save
2x 512mb Corsair TwinX 4300 DDR2
GeForce 6800GT or 7800GT - Depending on how much i save
1x 74GB Raptor + 1x 250GB Maxtor DiamondMax 16mb OR 2x Maxtor DiamondMax 16mb
Some form of Dual Layer DVD-Writer

I will be moving from an nForce 3 based system, which has an Athlon 3500 processor. Always fancied going Intel but never got round to it.

Does anyone have any opinions on the SD31P. Also does anyone have any reasons why I shouldnt go from AMD to Intel

Regards,

Craig

[Gordy]

The new shuttles with more hard disc spaces are great had a look at one at a lan on the weekened.

I've been a big fan of the amd 64 cpus for a while now and they are very nice. They will be much cooler for one. However some of the new intels are sweeet too. The dual core one we got from intel for a prize was lovely, not to mention not out yet.

My only concern with the newer shuttles is the 60mm fans on the top.

£140 for the silverstone is not bad thats a whole chunk of aluminium that thing

[Craig]

Ahh, thanks Gordy

I am now torn between AMD and Intel

Abit LG-81 with a 3.4 Intel 650

or

Gigabyte GA-K8NMF-9 or RS480M2-IL with a Athlon 64 3700+

All will be kitted out inside the SilverStone SUGO case, it worked out cheaper than a Shuttle

Which one would you lot rather have?

Also, will the ATI chipset play nice with my GeForce graphics card?

[kalniel]

If it was just for gaming I'd go with the 3700 AMD. But personally I would like the extra system responsiveness and non-gaming performance of the intel.

ATI chipset should play just fine with NVidia cards.

[Craig]

Cheers for your input kalniel - anyone elses is welcome, the more the merrier

The PC will be mainly for lans - which I suppose are about gaming The PC will also be my home computer as I dont have the cash to have two PC's!

Craig

[Gordy]

Defo the amd at the moment.

Beware on the cooler front with that case there isnt much clearance with the full sized psu above.

Get either a matx psu or get a full one with 120mm fan