Spec me an SFF! Paypal pint for a decent spec :)

[Jonny]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a new SFF.

I need everything, from scratch, aside from hard drive. Got monitor and kb/mouse already, too.

It should be small, Shuttle shaped (though not necessarily made by Shuttle), rather than any other SFF design.

To be used for music, film, and gaming.

Preferably black.

£800 to spend, and I don't mind where I buy it from.

If someone gives me a really good spec that I like enough to go out and buy/buy something similar, I will paypal them the price of a pint!

So get speccing!

Thanks!

[DanceswithUnix]

Do you have a SATA or PATA hard drive?

Which games do you play, what resolution?

[Jonny]

I have a SATA drive.

I play a bit of everything, BF2, NFS, mainly FPS and driving/racing games.

It's all at 1680x1050.


Upped my budget to £800.

[DanceswithUnix]

So quite a lot of your budget is going to have to go on the graphics card at that resolution, which means you need a big enough PSU to drive a big graphics card.

I think that narrows the options quite a bit.

[Jonny]

Most shuttles should be OK PSU wise, I would have thought?

Hows this spec?

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
£5.99 (£7.04)

BFG GeForce 7950 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £149.99 (£176.24)

Shuttle XPC SN27P2 Aluminium Barebones System - AMD 64 (Socket AM2) £268.99 (£316.06)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit GeIL 2GB (2x1GB)
£129.99 (£152.74)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ 2.40GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
£121.99 (£143.34)

Sony AW-G170AB2 18x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer - (Black) OEM £16.99 (£19.96)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk
£66.99 (£78.71)

Sub Total : £760.93
Shipping : £8.95
Vat : £134.73

Total : £904.61

I know it's over budget, but that's all from OcUK and I've found cheaper places for all the components. Just wanted to post the spec on their forums, so could only use their prices.

[Apex]

So quite a lot of your budget is going to have to go on the graphics card at that resolution, which means you need a big enough PSU to drive a big graphics card.

I think that narrows the options quite a bit.

Neg, you will find that with Shuttle SFFS psu that the 250watt + psus are underrated.

You don't need masses of power it's a myth.

[Apex]

Most shuttles should be OK PSU wise, I would have thought?

Hows this spec?

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
£5.99 (£7.04)

BFG GeForce 7950 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £149.99 (£176.24)

Shuttle XPC SN27P2 Aluminium Barebones System - AMD 64 (Socket AM2) £268.99 (£316.06)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit GeIL 2GB (2x1GB)
£129.99 (£152.74)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ 2.40GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
£121.99 (£143.34)

Sony AW-G170AB2 18x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer - (Black) OEM £16.99 (£19.96)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk
£66.99 (£78.71)

Sub Total : £760.93
Shipping : £8.95
Vat : £134.73

Total : £904.61

I know it's over budget, but that's all from OcUK and I've found cheaper places for all the components. Just wanted to post the spec on their forums, so could only use their prices.

Thats a nice set up m8 i would be happy with that

[starbuck_]

Not a bad spec; maybe I would choose a different graphics card.

Radeon X1950 PRO Perhaps

[MadduckUK]

a 7900GT does 1680x1050 fine. so anything better than that will be great.

speccing one out is pretty easy, core2 e6600, 2GB of DDR2, etc. all fit into your price range easy.

the only problem is finding a shuttle size SFF that doesnt cost £300.

[MadduckUK]

Shuttle XPC SD37P2 SKT775 Barebone System

Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4ghz - Skt775 Fsb1066 4mb Cache Boxed

OCZ (OCZ2G8002GK) 2GB (2x1024MB) DDR2-800 PC2-6400 CL 5-5-5-12 Gold XTC DUAL CHANNEL Kit

MSI X1950PRO 512MB GDDR3 DVI VIVO PCI-E

Pioneer DVR-111DBK 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer Internal IDE (Black) - OEM

£853.44 inc vat and postage. No OS on there tho.

EBUYER

[DanceswithUnix]

Neg, you will find that with Shuttle SFFS psu that the 250watt + psus are underrated.

You don't need masses of power it's a myth.

Not masses of power, but you do need enough!

The current entry level Shuttles, like the SK22G2, only come with a 200W PSU. A bigger PSU means either an expensive shuttle, or chucking the PSU it comes with an buying the upgrade (making the cheap shuttle expensive).

Quite a few high end graphics cards seem to have dual slot cooling, so they are out. Do the latest shuttles have the 6 pin graphics power connector? The ones I have used don't, and I don't think they had 2 spare molexes to plug an adaptor lead into.

Whilst I am sure having inadequate power to a graphics card will not do much to hurt the reliability of Windows, I run Linux and don't ever expect to see a crash

[timtim86]

I have the SN27P2 and I think its brilliant, so i would defo recommend that. I didn't choose the C2D version because i didn't like the dual pci-e setup, i think it's rubbish, but it will be faster overall (oh and it only takes up to 667 RAM, not 800).

The SN27 is lovely - quiet, cool, looks great, well built, space for 3 HDDs etc.

I would go for an x1950 if i were you. and most importantly, check the shuttle website for compatibility of the RAM before you buy it, this Shuttle is very picky about which ones work well. Not much in the way of overclocking, but does that matter?

The SN27 has space for a dual slot gfx card but then you lose the use of the other pci slot...not a massive issue. And the PSU is rated at 400W (and shuttle PSUs are known to be pretty amazing).

Let me know if you have any questions at all, considering i have one and have been through the issues....

Tim

[Jonny]

I have the SN27P2 and I think its brilliant, so i would defo recommend that. I didn't choose the C2D version because i didn't like the dual pci-e setup, i think it's rubbish, but it will be faster overall (oh and it only takes up to 667 RAM, not 800).

The SN27 is lovely - quiet, cool, looks great, well built, space for 3 HDDs etc.

I would go for an x1950 if i were you. and most importantly, check the shuttle website for compatibility of the RAM before you buy it, this Shuttle is very picky about which ones work well. Not much in the way of overclocking, but does that matter?

The SN27 has space for a dual slot gfx card but then you lose the use of the other pci slot...not a massive issue. And the PSU is rated at 400W (and shuttle PSUs are known to be pretty amazing).

Let me know if you have any questions at all, considering i have one and have been through the issues....

Tim

Top man, that is a really helpful post!

I want to use this OCZ RAM. It isn't on the Shuttle site under the compatibility list for this shuttle, but not much is .
They havn't tested any OCZ RAM.

Do you reckon it's OK to risk it?



EDIT: Also, unsure what graphics to go for... I'd quite like single slot, as I'll put a soundcard or TV card in the other one.
x1950 seems to be dual-slot only.

[timtim86]

I think it'll probably be fine...though i would be wary as many people have reported compatibility problems. Maybe have a hunt around to see if anyone else is using the ram you'd like? people always report problems but never when it goes well!
Personally, I went for the Corsair XMS2 6400 lot, and it works well (and is on the list). Athlon processors do like good Ram...

Ah just remembered something! I think that the shuttle doesn't like Ram that uses more than 2.0V(or 2.1V, not sure), so check the specs of the one you gave. Other than that, the OCZ stuff has the same timings and speed as mine so it'll probably work.

I would get a single slot graphics card if i were you, I find the Pci slot useful (though if you want a really quiet system you may want to replace the cooler, as stock ones are usually pretty loud, and they normally come as dual slot). I use the pci slot for a WinTV nova-t card.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-134-SP
looks like a single slot to me but for god's sake don't buy it from overclockers!

I'm not sure what the best nVidia non-8800 GTX card is at the minute, sorry! hope that helps

Tim

[Jonny]

I saw that GPU, but at £125 it was cheaper than expected and wasn't sure of the quality.

I'll have a look for a review.

Thanks again!

[dave87]

I'm guessing you don't need a monitor included in the £800 price tag?

EDIT - should read original post.