Quite a specific build required: Portable & powerful

[MiL0]

Hi there, first time post; long time reader

I'm a electronic music producer and it's time to upgrade my studio pc. I usually use a laptop (Dell Inspiron 9300, tricked out) as I work abroad a lot (Asia, Europe and Australia). This time however, I want to build a normal desktop pc and buy (and keep) an LCD screen, keyboard and mouse in each of the countries I stay in. So that said, these are my requirements:

- Decent CPU (fast C2D or better)
- Potential to upgrade/overclock CPU (upgrade to Quadcore or better)
- At least one PCI slot (I use an expensive PCI 32bit soundcard)
- As light, small and portable as possible
- Integrated graphics with potential to upgrade to a decent'ish gaming graphics card sometime in the future
- Cheap!

Having looked at the Mac Mini (no PCI, no quadcore upgrade path) and various u-itx variants (expensive mobile processors; no quadcore) I've decided on a mini-atx desktop or a Shuttle PC. I've not been able to find a mini-atx case small enough so this is the Shuttle PC I've spec'd so far:

Few questions:

- Is the RAM and CPU suitable for this particular Shuttle PC motherboard? (cooling, spec and compatibility-wise)
- Ignoring the display, graphics card and hard disk for a moment, should I be looking at a different cpu, case, motherboard or ram for any reason? (better value, faster, easier to overclock, etc)
- If I were to buy a C2D processor instead of the 6600; what's the best bang for buck?
- Am I going about this all wrong and should be looking at a mini-atx case/system instead? If so, can you link me to some small cases that'd be similar to my required spec. (the case should be no bigger than the Shuttle PC case).

Thanks in advance for any help or advice

 

[MiL0]

1. How hot is hot in your estimation? My laptop cpu gets up to 75C sometimes :O
2. "Much more" might be okay depending on what it is you have in mind... I literally can't find any other cases that are smaller than the Shuttle PC case and that also take Quadcore processors.
3. "Most boards needs an update" - do you mean most Shuttle PC motherboards need a bios update?

 

[MiL0]

If you want portable, by laptop.

I dont understand how is 20 inch widescreen a portable thing....
What will be the exact purpose of it anyways ?

Do you need much hdd space etc ?

I travel a lot but stay in one location for up to 6 months at a time. So what I'm going to do is travel with the Shuttle PC but leave the screen behind. Then, when I settle at my new office, I'll pick up a screen locally.

Laptops are portable but I want something powerful that can also take PCI cards. Laptops are currently limited to mobile processors with 2 cores. I want something really fast

 

[MiL0]

still looking for something that will do the job...