Help needed on SFF rig

[Johnz0r]

Hi

Right, I have decided I want a shuttle. However, after being out the loop for so long I don't know what is decent anymore, so I thought I would ask the gurus that reside here.

The main usage of this will be gaming in particular CSS and the assorted HL2 mods. I would prefer an Intel chip but was unsure as to whether a quad would be worth it? My max budget would be around £750 for the essentials, not worried about monitor, sound card and all the rest as I have those already

Thanks a lot

Johnz0r

 

[Johnz0r]

it really does depend on what you want, a lot of 775 shuttles dont actually properly support quads and some time not even c2d, so should have a look at what you want, c2d or c2q?

also what gfx would you be looking at? as all 8800's would run slightly hot in a shuttle and are dual slot, so you need to find that out. how many harddrives would you have? again most these days only fit 2 or 3 (if you put one in the floppy drive bay.)

personally i'd go for the SD39P2 which does support quad cores and does have space for a dual slot gfx card and she be a lovely shuttle or SG33G5 this porperly supports quad core rather then virtualization technology, but does not support dual slot gfx cards

one last thing you have to think about is the heat issues with having a quad core in a shuttle even with the extremely optimized cooler that it has i wouldnt expect temps less then 50.

Well I would be looking at future proofing the machine, is quad core really that necessary? If not then I wouldn't bother really.

I would only be using one hard drive since I have an external already. Yeah I had a look at the G33 and asked for peoples opinions, but seems that no one had any. I am not looking to buy this machine until after my student loan so hopefully the price might drop and I will be able to get the sd39.

What about graphics cards? Is the 8800gts going to last for a fair while or not?

Thanks for your reply mate, appreciated

 

[Johnz0r]

nice spec, but one flaw. the SG33G5 does not support dual slot gfx cards, which the 8800GTS is.

as for quad cores, a lot of the time only one core is used, let alone two or four . people still get duos over quads. ill prob look to get a duo soonish.

as for the 8800's they are bloody good graphics card but we wont be seeing another few versions for a while so they are the best at the moment.

Ah right nice one, looks like a core 2 duo will do then. So biffa's spec is a good 'un then (bar the case)? Pretty much what I wanted really, and I wouldn't want to overclock with it being a shuttle an all. I think it will be plenty fast anyway.

 

[Johnz0r]

yes but you wouldnt be able to just change the case as the cpu has choosen has a FSB of 1333mhz which very few shuttles support

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £154.99
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £35.99
NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM NEC £15.99
Shuttle XPC SD39P2 Aluminium Barebones System - Intel Core 2 Duo (LGA775) £276.99
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 PK PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400 £59.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £104.99
Sub Total : £648.94
Shipping : £9.95
VAT : £115.31
Total : £774.20

bit over but would be nice

Would the 6850 work in the sd39?
edit: Just checked apparently not... oh well might go for the one 6420 like you mentioned

 

[Johnz0r]

nope fraid the not, the SD39P2 wouldnt be able to support the 1333MHz FSB, the max Fsb the SD39P2 can support is 1066MHz

The difference in speed worth the extra dosh between the 6420 and 6600? A few fps at best?

 

[Johnz0r]

no not really the difference between 2.13GHz and 2.4GHz will be practically un-noticable but if you do want a few more fps then i can suggest this

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £204.99
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) £54.99
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £35.99
NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.99
Shuttle XPC SD39P2 Aluminium Barebones System - Intel Core 2 Duo (LGA775) £276.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £104.99
Sub Total : £693.94
Shipping : £9.95
VAT : £123.18
Total : £827.07

obviously it is a lot more over budget but not many ways to dramatically increase fps, still i would say you'd be better off with my 1st spec

Thanks very much for your help mate will go with what you suggested. Now I have to wait for student loan time \0/

 

[Johnz0r]

have a quick refresh and see the 3rd spec

Yeah just seen it there, looks even better now and makes the wait harder. Thanks a lot for your help mate!