Considering going small form factor

greengiant · 24 Oct 2008 at 11:38

At the moment my system is an AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 2GB ram, GF4 MX440 (which I kept from two upgrades ago - I don't do gaming but it does struggle with many windows open at 1680x1050!), SBLive soundcard and tv tuner card, all housed in a Antec 3700BQE case. My main use of the computer is photo editing / panorama stitching and light dabbling in 3d graphics.

Looking at my rig if I want a faster CPU then I pretty much need to change everything, so now may be the time to downsize to a smaller case which would fit on the desk rather than bashing my knee off the tower case as it sits under the desk.

Thought about this spec:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000 3.10GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (£70.49)
Silverstone Sugo SG01B Evolution Aluminium Micro-ATX Case - Black (£88.11)
Asus M3N78-CM NVIDIA 8200 Micro ATX (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 (£52.86)
Antec EarthWatts 380W PSU Antec EarthWatts 380W PSU (£35.24)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) (£24.66)
Total £271.36

hard drive I'd retain from current build, wouldn't need graphics card or sound card as the ASUS M3N78-CM has them onboard?

Quite out touch with current processors so not sure if this would be a reasonable build for my needs?

The other plan I had was to replace the system with a laptop, however it would be hard to get a decent a spec as above for a similar price, plus I don't think I need the portability of a laptop.

jellybeard999 · 24 Oct 2008 at 13:00

Id go for something like over the AMD setup, will be more than adequate.

Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £52.86

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz £58.74

I'd also go for 4gb (given the price) and case/psu is your own choice

greengiant · 24 Oct 2008 at 16:20

jellybeard999 said:
Id go for something like over the AMD setup, will be more than adequate.

Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £52.86

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz £58.74

I'd also go for 4gb (given the price) and case/psu is your own choice

Thanks for that - I might try Intel.
Only thing I'm unsure of is if my choice of PSU would be sufficient? Although I'd run with the onboard graphics to start with I might get a better graphics card in the future, so would a 380W psu for example be enough?

Nanobot · 24 Oct 2008 at 17:29

Or maybe a Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R. More memory slots and sata connectors if needed.

greengiant · 24 Oct 2008 at 17:32

Nanobot, thanks for that suggestion of motherboard, however it has Intel integrated graphics and I'm not sure how well supported that will be in Ubuntu. Nvidia is pretty much a fair bet for linux users.

Guardsmon · 24 Oct 2008 at 19:08

I would look into the support of intel chipsets for ubuntu, the board nanobot suggested is a better board than the nvidia listed above though also more expensive. A good combination between the 2 might be the Asus P5QL-CM. The PSU have selected would be suitable for your current setup, but if you are looking to put another graphic card in in the future, I would look at the Akasa ultra quiet 400W or the Gigabyte superb 460 Watt if you don't want to spend any more money. I'm guessing it won't be too far in the future that you put a new graphic card in if you are doing photo editing and 3D design.

maybe:

Silverstone Sugo SG01B Evolution Aluminium Micro-ATX Case - Black £74.99 (£88.11)
Asus P5QL-CM Intel G43 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Asus P5QL-CM Intel G43 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99 (£70.49)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99 (£58.74)
Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel £34.99 (£41.11)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) £31.99 (£37.59)
Total including delivery : £307.73

Other case options would be the Lian li V350 (if was in stock) or if you want to go a little cheaper then the Thermaltake LanBox

Nanobot · 24 Oct 2008 at 19:19

greengiant said:
Nanobot, thanks for that suggestion of motherboard, however it has Intel integrated graphics and I'm not sure how well supported that will be in Ubuntu. Nvidia is pretty much a fair bet for linux users.

I could have confirmed that but ended up taking ubuntu 7.10 off a long time ago when I tried to learn/play it. I'm sure its easy (and I can hear and imagine the hiss and eye-rolling from linux users out there...) but couldnt get my head around ubuntu so ended up back with Vista. I'm sure one day it will make so much sense but hasnt yet!

Spookily as per Guardsmon, I do have the motherboard in a Thermaltake lanbox with Antec NeoHE 500W PSU and at the time I had ubuntu running fine with Geforce 7600GS 256MB PCI-E graphics card at 1680x1050.

accod · 25 Oct 2008 at 13:53

greengiant said:
Nanobot, thanks for that suggestion of motherboard, however it has Intel integrated graphics and I'm not sure how well supported that will be in Ubuntu. Nvidia is pretty much a fair bet for linux users.

Pretty well supported. See http://intellinuxgraphics.org/download.html

I've got an Asus P5E-VM HDMI motherboard with onboard Intel gpu for a media PC using accelerated xvmc for media playback.

I'd look at this route first since you can always add a gpu if you don't like it or don't get the performance you need.

greengiant · 25 Oct 2008 at 21:16

accod said:
Pretty well supported. See http://intellinuxgraphics.org/download.html

I've got an Asus P5E-VM HDMI motherboard with onboard Intel gpu for a media PC using accelerated xvmc for media playback.

I'd look at this route first since you can always add a gpu if you don't like it or don't get the performance you need.

The 3d software I use in linux is Blender, which is an opengl app. Nvidia supports opengl very well in linux. Besides the intel gpu boards are a lot more expensive!

Only other query I have regarding my spec is that the stock intel cooler will fit in the sgo1?

-- Edit --

Not entirely sure whether to go SFF or not! I had a look and if I ditched the £70 I would spend on the sugo SG01 that would be a bit more money to spend on a faster processor + graphics card.

Hmmm... Well, in the end decided to stick with current pc case. Thanks for all the help none the less.