Arrghh cant decide HELP please

nintenjo

nintenjo

nintenjo

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... Ok i have a pretty old system that is requireing a full update. And after recently moving house i have decided i need a nice small neat PC.

Now.. for the past month i have been trying to decide what laptop to get, this way i thought it would be both small neat and convienient, and there are some pretty powerful options out there. Saw a nice 7950 GTX 512mb Rock laptop for about £1400..

But nowww i have been looking at a similar priced SFF pc i could get for the same price and it would be a BEAST!! .. But what do i do? All my flatmates have laptops and usually sit around the living room using them.. they seem so handy but none of them play 3D games...

Can i get an 8800 in a shuttle?? (as i know the best shuttles are only 400watt)

Is a shuttle easily portable if i should want to visit a mates and tag it along?

How noisey are shuttles.. compared with a regular tower with a few 80mm fans in?

Shuttle XPC Barebone SD39P2 is this the best shuttle out there for performance?

.. someone decide for me as i cant :)
 
If you go for a laptop that is capable of good gaming it's going to weigh a lot, plus the battery life will be really poor. It'll need strong cooling too, it may get really hot.

The main advantage to high end laptops is just the portability when packed away IMO. You can slip it in a bag and off you go to a LAN, without worrying about keyboard or monitor.

Then again some of the SFF solutions are very portable. Two I can think of are the Shuttle range, and the Sugo SG01 Evo, as they both have carry bags specifically designed for them. I've got a Sugo, with the carry bag, and it's great. The only other box I need to carry is the monitor, everything else goes in the Sugo Pack.

You really need to decide just how much portability you need, and how much you have to spend.

And yes, the Shuttles will take an 8800. ;)
 
Yes i did look at the Sugo a while back.. and yes its cheaper slightly more portable but also slightly larger...

Would be nice to see them side by side.

The benefit of a Sugo / shuttle is i can plug it into my LCD tv for some big screen game etc.. would just make doing work a bit more tricky as i dont like resting my keyboard on my lap and nothing for a mouse to rest on :)
 
Well weighing it up the Sugo isnt that cheap an option..

Sugo £80
Intel DG965OT -- micro ATX £81
NT06-Lite cooler £30
400watt PDU £60

£250 total.... hmmm might get a shuttle after all.
 
nintenjo said:
Well weighing it up the Sugo isnt that cheap an option..

Sugo £75
Asrock Conroe 945G-DVI £49
Zalman CNPS8000 £30
Seasonic S12 400W £47
Click to expand...

Fixed as you picked pretty crap and bad value components.

That's just over £200, a saving of ~£100 on the SD37P2.

Yes the Sugo is a bit bigger, but not by a large margin. In transit, they're both going to be a "large" bag, regardless. :)
 
Sweet :)

I may actually keep my current PSU i forgot i bought a fairly good one..

Only thing is that Mobo i mentioned the Intel has dolby digital gold.. 5.1 encoder built in which i really wanted.

PS: does that cooler fit the Sugo and PSU ok?
 
The cooler fits brilliantly, i'm using the exact same case/mobo/cooler combo in my machine and it's perfect.

And really, I would still go for the Asrock. It's such a stable board, i've heard some bad stories about the 965G chipset - graphics corruption and general instability. I can probably find the links for you if you want. :)

The cooling would probably be better on the Shuttle, and it's going to be slightly more overclockable, but that's only due to a lack of overclocking boards for Core 2 Duo, which may be corrected in the future. For now, the Asrock gives amazing stability at stock, and the C2D chips still tear through the frames even then. ;)

[Edit] Hell, here you go anyway...

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35660

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33660

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33433

I'd steer clear, the 945G is a far better chipset. :)
 
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Ok then.. how does this sound as a rig:

-- Buying New --

Sugo
Asrock Conroe 945G-DVI
Zalman CNPS8000
2 Gig Gskil PC2 6400
OcUK 8800 GTS 320mb
Core2Duo E6600
(a nice Wireless KeyB and Mouse)

-- Salavaged from old rig --

My 400 Watt PSU
Samsung Spinpoint 200GB HDD
Plextor 760SA 18x DVDr
 
There *might* be issues with long PSUs and DVD drives, as effectively the PSU and DVD drive goes along the top of a Sugo. But i've never had a problem before my SATA drive, nor after.

*dons flame retardant suit* Ah, the 8800GTS 320MB.
If you're running a 20" TFT or smaller and plan to for a while, then this card would be a good choice. However, they do fall apart quickly at very high resolutions. If you can afford it, I would REALLY recommend you go to the 640MB version. :)

And be careful of the PSU, it's going to need to be a reasonably good make to power an 8800 of any type at 400W. I can't stress this enough, as you're going to have no end of problems if it's not up to the task.

Apart from that, you might want to pick up another 80mm fan as the Sugo has 3 slots but only two fans. And there's space for the FX121 Cross Flow Fan, on the back panel. This helps keep the VRMs around the CPU cool, but i've found it's a bit whiney so i've removed mine. It's really up to you though. ;)

Enjoy. :cool:
 
okwell the DVD r is pretty short compared to my old IDE lite-on drive so it should be ok.. and the PSU isnt anything to big.. its a:

Jeantech 450Watt PciX model

And out of interest is the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD any good? and does the fact its got an ATI chipset mean it only runs ATi cards or is that just being silly? (i havnt kepth in touch with ati's chipsets)

Plus i think i will go for the 640mb version, as its not that much more.. and a bit more future proof.

EDIT: Either way on the motherboard i could keep my Fatal1ty X-Fi card.. just wanted optical out on the rear for neatness :) Dont like that frontplate thing.
 
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It doesn't overclock any better than any other mATX Core 2 Duo board. However it would be better in this case to go for a proven good and stable board like the Asrock. You can use any graphics card you like in it, however it seems to be built more as a HTPC board than a gamers' one.

And regarding the PSU, i'd try it, but be wary that it might not cope.
 
nintenjo said:
Would be nice to see them side by side.
Click to expand...

Well, it's not the same Shuttle as you were thinking off, but I hope this helps.

image.php


image.php
 
Tute said:
Does size tend to vary a lot between all the Shuttles?
Click to expand...

All P2 chassis are same size, just the front fascia that changes

I'll take a pic of my SD37P2 and Sugo SG-01 side by side tonight for full effect if you wish

As far as powerful portable laptops for gaming is concerned, my M90 scores 5850 3dm2k6 and has a nice 17" screen, it cost me approx £1000 all in to get it to its current spec due to my job and a few nice purchases on ebay.
 
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