a change of form...

I'v been having considerable difficulties in the past with my computers I'v bought, constructed, deconstructed and become frustrated over...and it was only recently that I've been interested in these smaller units which - to me - seem a brilliant idea, there's just a few things that I'm not so sure on;
am I right in thinking that the units are sold as the case+mobo+psu from which I have to plug everything else in (dvd/cd rw, a drive, hard drive)?
because I have an nforce2 board (Asus A7N8X dlx), an athlon 2100+ and 512mb ram, plus the usual things...what is there in small form that is equivelent to that?
are there some models better than others/more reliable etc? I know very little about the small form factors but I'd like to know more
any help gratefully recieved

theres a couple of nforce2 shuttles that'd suit you fine - im not too hot on the model designation but perhaps the SN45** shuttles. they just hold mobo/case/psu, and the mobo has everything on.

Howdy.

The Shuttles come with the case, and the motherboards, which include different levels of features depending on how much you pay.

If you are interested in overclocking, or you have a nice AGP Graphics card, i'd suggest buying the Shuttle SN45G.

If you use the onboard Nforce 2 video, then go for the SN41G2, as this has GeForce 4 MX onboard.

They all have the 6 chan surround, LAN and all sorts of other features on board.

You just have to add the following:

CPU,
Ram,
HDD,
CD/DVD drive.

Ben

ah, had a look at some on the web and those two were the ones that stuck out ...though no prices were displayed :( any ideas how much these things are? they seem pretty good in terms of space saving etc.
are they quiet or is it the same as normal pc's where it depends on the fan you get? - thinking it gets reasonaly warm in the case...

no sure how much it would be in pounds but i just got a SN45G for $269 USD... i think they are a little louder then normal pc but thats only when the ICE fan is on full. its that bad yea it can be alot hotter then a mid tower case but i have not run into any temp problems so far.

cause I'm looking for a replacement with basically less to go wrong - plus I don't need all the pci slots etc. - and something thats powerful but can fit snuggly on/near the desk without sounding like a small aeroplane taking off... as is the current problem. and if you say they can be loud do current 'silent' fans operate well in them or is the airflow created by the included fans what works best?..

they are far from noisy just not silent. the fans included are pretty good afaik