Need Advise On New Cheap SFF

HomerJ

HomerJ

HomerJ

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19 Sep 2006
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387
Location
London
Hi

i am thinking of building a new machine to replace my aging Ideq P210 SFF.

This is what I was thinking of spec wise. I will not be overclocking or gaming so am going to go withon board graphics to start with.

I want to use this RAM Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit so need to find board and CPU that will work best with it.

Now I am a bit unsure about what MB to get as I am not upto speed to RAM and CPU matching.

Also motherboard if going C2D was thinking about the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD

But if going AMD was thinking about Asus M2NPV

For the case not sure it is between the Sugo SG1 and the Antec nsk1300 but i am leaning a lot toward the Sugo.

Any advise will be using machine for a media centre and general internet, office and some photoshop and dreamweaver work.
 
HomerJ said:
Hi

i am thinking of building a new machine to replace my aging Ideq P210 SFF.

This is what I was thinking of spec wise. I will not be overclocking or gaming so am going to go withon board graphics to start with.

I want to use this RAM Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit so need to find board and CPU that will work best with it.

Now I am a bit unsure about what MB to get as I am not upto speed to RAM and CPU matching.
Case wise, u cant go wrong with silverstone ,its also worth buying a Modular psu for better airflow and a tidy build.

Also motherboard if going C2D was thinking about the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD

But if going AMD was thinking about Asus M2NPV

For the case not sure it is between the Sugo SG1 and the Antec nsk1300 but i am leaning a lot toward the Sugo.

Any advise will be using machine for a media centre and general internet, office and some photoshop and dreamweaver work.
Click to expand...

If going C2D i wouldnt get that abit board as its a via chipset and not the most reliable.
Youd be better off with 1 of the new gigabyte boards and they also have support for intels new cpu's :)
U cant go wrong with a silverstone case, worth buying a modular psu aswell as rooms tight and it makes for better airflow and a tidy build .
 
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how much are you willing to spend?

if your thinking of using a sugo you will need a psu as well

if your going amds am2 chip make sure to get a dual core 1 as
they do make a lot of difference in a media center based pc

you can now get mother boards with good built on gfx cards now days
with HDMI connections like the: Abit AN-M2HD

as for c2d the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD its a really good choice for a matx c2d board. as im sure some 1 who as 1 will reply soon and tell you more about it :)

also don't for get if your using 4 gig of ram you cant use that much under windows xp 32bit but you can with the
64bit version as well as vista. the max windows xp 32bit sees is 3gig
 
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HI

thanks for the replies, I have looked at the Gigabyte G33 Matx boards but was unsure if they will work with the ddr-4200 memory or not.

I am going to be running Vista Premium 64 bit.

If if go the AMD route then was looking at a x2 5200+ EE chip

The Abit AN-M2HD looks good just not sure if it will take the memory I was looking at?

If the meory restricts my choice then will look at different memory and only get 2 GB of it.
 
I probably should mention that I have a 250GB Sata Drive, keyboard etc already so just needs to decide on case, cpu, ram and cooler.

My budget is Max £450 inc VAT but ideally sub £400
 
both of the Abit boards use ddr2 800/667/533 same for the g33 boards to

Asus P5K-VM goes upto ddr2 1066/800/667/533
 
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My undertsanding us that DDR2-4200 is 533 is this correc if so then I can use on the Gigabyte or Abit boards depending on my choice of CPU. Or does the Memory need to be DDR2-5300 damn they make the memory namings confusing

Just a little confused as on Crucial the memory checker does not show the DDR2-4200 as working on the Gigabyte boards or the Abit AN-M2HD

Have pretty much decided on the Sugo with the silverstone NT06 cooler and a 500W Silverstone ST50EF-Plus-SC PSU
 
c2d boards use ddr2
am2 boards use ddr2

DDR2 - PC2-4200 = 533
DDR2 - PC2-5300 = 667
DDR2 - PC2-6400 = 800
DDR2 - PC2-8500+ = 1066

as for a psu for the sugo i would go with the Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU if you were willing to spend that much money on 1

you choice of psu will cost you around £60.00 or less. but i would go with the Corsair HX. but its up to you
 
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Hi tosk

Thanks for, why the memory makers need to have different name than the actually Mhz speed I do not know other than to confuse people like me.

Would I see any advantage in changing the memory from the planned 4GB DDR2-4200 to say 2GB DDR2-6400
 
im not sure really i guess it all depends on what your going to do
like over clocking or just running the cpu at stock.

maybe some 1 on here could reply and give you more of any idea and under
standing on how it all works.
 
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