Need CPU seleciton advice for living room shuttle...

[DrMekon]

Need advice on cpus that can handle the heat... like most, my living room gets quite warm with the central heating etc... and I am after a SFF soltuion, probably one of the shuttles.

So I need one that operates at low volts, and can handle the heat.. as there are limited cooling options for the shuttle, and Im not sure how thier ICE cooling system would actually perform, afterall.. its only going to be recirculating the warm air from the living room around the pc...

Ive always had amd cpu's, and always gone for big heatsink/fan combos, but know that Intels generally run cooler.. the pc is for a dedicated media centre...so playing audio/video and vid capture...

 

[Snapshot]

The best choice is Core 2 Duo. They're just so much lower power than any other Intel or current AMD (bar dedicated mobile CPUs, of course).

 

[Cyber-Mav]

if you want a super cheapo shuttle setup, grab a s939 based system and a opteron cpu off the members market.
can get a proper silent setup then. my opteron 146 did 2.7ghz @ 1.275v could run passive on that easily.

 

[DrMekon]

lol... I was thinking that, ive got a 146 myself I had running at 2.8 in my other pc before i got a 165.. would save me a lot of hasstle!!

Cheapest s939 shuttle is £180 (although I didnt like that one) and the one I would have gone for was £280 with SLI which I dont need... I could get an intel one for about £100, and about another £100 for cpu and ram...

Think I will do a bit more searchin for an s939.. would be a shame to waste that chip!!