Best bang-for-buck SFF of all time

cokecan

cokecan

cokecan

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Hey guys, just wondering what you all think is the best bang-for-buck SFF ever is and why??

by SFF i mean literally every SFF, Shuttle's, Ideq Biostar's, Soltec's, iWill's, mini-ITX's (Via), other SFF's i dont know the name of and aria/aspire X Q-pack's (mATX SFF's) etc


personally for me its gotta be the Shuttle SN45G (suprise suprise :)) V1 inparticular as it didnt have the vdimm problem.

very feature rich for the price, especially for Soundstorm etc, also i reckon one of the nicest looking shuttles ever (nicer than the P series IMO but them i am a tad bias :))

though having said that, the Biostar 200N was very similar and cheaper! i think the only differences were the ddr slots were 333FSB instead of 400 and the pci and agp slot were the other way round which is VERY handy for dual slot coolers :)

what do you guys reckon is the best bang-for-buck ever??
 
Not that I know much about SFF systems but:

Antec Aria with:
Biostar TForce 939 6100

For a total of about £120 you're getting a high-quality small case with a decent PSU, and a brilliant little mobo.

Surpise surprise - I have the above system with an Opteron and an X850XT. The Biostar is simply fantastic for overclocking. One guy over at [H]ard Forum has hit 3.5GHz on a Sempron, and loads have got 3GHz or more out of Opterons. Personally I think it's flippin brilliant value.
 
id go with the Shuttle 45 too although the Ideq 210 runs it a close second although my favourite no hassle shuttle is the sn41 got one in the sons room had it two years almost always on and never missed a beat
 
Shuttle SB75G2 no questions.

I had one, and although I never OC'd it, it was considered the most overclockable SFF ever (won several awards in various magazines too)

It was very nice, although the only thing to let it down would be the un-stealthed front drive slot.. easily fixed though :)
 
:D :p :p
EVH said:
Shuttle SB75G2 no questions.

I had one, and although I never OC'd it, it was considered the most overclockable SFF ever (won several awards in various magazines too)

It was very nice, although the only thing to let it down would be the un-stealthed front drive slot.. easily fixed though :)
Click to expand...

snap :)
wish i never sold mine
 
I gave mine to a mate who needed a budget build SFF.

To be honest i'm glad it got a good home.. sad to see that go, no issues with it EVER.
 
I had a SS51G with a P4 2Ghz and a GeForce 4 4400 Ti. That was a lovely little machine. One of the first Shuttles with an AGP slot. Wish I'd not sold it. Would have made a nice Linux box.

Also had an Sk83G, which I liked a lot. Now I'm building up an Antec Aria.
 
cokecan72 said:
though having said that, the Biostar 200N was very similar and cheaper! i think the only differences were the ddr slots were 333FSB instead of 400 and the pci and agp slot were the other way round which is VERY handy for dual slot coolers
Click to expand...

Later ones were DDR400. In my opinion the cooling is also better on the Ideq - the supplied speed/temp utility makes it very easy to build a silent PC.
 
SN41G2

The SN45 but in a nicer case and with an onboard GF4MX (beats the SN45 in the bang for buck category as at the time the graphics engine wasnt too bad).

Mines still going strong with an XP3200 and 9800 Pro :).
 
SB75G2 though that's from personal opinion after using it since day one. I have an Epia M6000-based box but it was quite expensive compared to the power/power saving it offers (runs Debian Sarge 3.1 now as a file server for my music).

I'd guess that one of the Shuttle's with on-board graphics cards are the best "bang-for-buck" systems.

PS: Hi Arc. :)

Edit: What about the SFF's that can accept the Pentium-M adapters (if any)?
 
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afraser2k said:
PS: Hi Arc. :)

Edit: What about the SFF's that can accept the Pentium-M adapters (if any)?
Click to expand...

Lo afraser2k :).

Well you can get Pentium M shuttle now but they cost around 300 quid, Shuttle seem to have made their newer machines a little too expensive. Not sure about the older 478 shuttles taking M's with adaptors, thought that was only in a couple of Asus boards that could do that? (I may be wrong on that one ;) ).
 
I'd say my Aopen EZ65-II was excellent bang-for-buck. I bought it on special offer for a tad under £100 inc vat + delivery and coupled it with a spare P4 3.0Ghz lying around. The system had sound build quality, stability was excellent, it was quiet and the BIOS was full of features for overclocking.

Mul
 
No, I'm sorry - but if it's bang for buck then it has to be cheap and that means Biostar. They were mostly under £100 new and were specced feature for feature with the Shuttles.

The inboard mounting of the AGP card means you can put a dual width card in and so that is an extra feature as far as I'm concerned.
 
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