Small system, heavy workload

w00tles · 18 Jul 2009 at 20:03

Hi, I'm looking to build a SFF PC (it must be small since I need to take it with me travelling).

It will mainly be used for performance-intensive but non-graphical tasks. For example, performing calculations, running VMs, compiling code, etc. It's very important that it does these well, I don't intend for much casual use.

I'm leaning towards Core 2 Quad, the tasks will be able to utilise 4 cores, and I've had difficulty finding much in the way of SFF i7 systems. But I'd be interested to hear thoughts on this.

I already have HDDs, but I'd consider a SSD for this computer, I dont know how benefiical they are , what do you think?

Budget around £700. Don't need monitor, HDD, keyboard, mouse, etc.

jaybee · 18 Jul 2009 at 20:05

For travelling? Any particular reason you haven't looked at a laptop?

AbsenceJam · 18 Jul 2009 at 20:26

Choice of C2Q and ITX (Zotac board) or i7 and mATX (Asus and MSI boards but you'd also need a GPU). So ITX is probably the better choice as the cases are smaller and lighter and you'll still get a lot of power.

w00tles · 18 Jul 2009 at 22:07

jaybee said:
For travelling? Any particular reason you haven't looked at a laptop?

I've just always found that laptops tend to do poorly for this purpose, it seems they often don't live up to their specs because of heat problems or battery issues.

I already have a laptop but my colleagues and I will be sharing this new PC for our work. It's likely to be running almost 24/7, eg left on in office/apartment while it crunches data. So portability isn't a massive problem, but it has to fit in a suitcase etc.

Black Hat · 18 Jul 2009 at 22:19

If you wanted to go down the i7 route id probably suggest this shuttle but the build is probably going to be more than £700.

http://uk.shuttle.com/product_detail_spec.jsp?PI=1219

Edit: if u wanted a Core 2

http://uk.shuttle.com/product_detail_spec.jsp?PI=971

AbsenceJam · 18 Jul 2009 at 22:45

w00tles said:
I've just always found that laptops tend to do poorly for this purpose, it seems they often don't live up to their specs because of heat problems or battery issues.

I already have a laptop but my colleagues and I will be sharing this new PC for our work. It's likely to be running almost 24/7, eg left on in office/apartment while it crunches data. So portability isn't a massive problem, but it has to fit in a suitcase etc.

Well a laptop would be fine but you'd pay an absolute fortune for a high end one and wouldn't need any of its functionality.

w00tles · 19 Jul 2009 at 14:46

AbsenceJam - thanks for the suggestion, the Zotac board looks great. I think getting the high-end board is a good idea for a small PC like this. I wonder about the 9300 integrated graphics on this one, I don't expect much of them, but would it be able to handle a cheeky TF2 session? Compared to say the 7600 I have in my desktop now.

So here's what I'm considering so far:

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Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi Mini-ITX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£113.99 inc VAT

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Silverstone Sugo SG05B Mini-ITX Case - Black (300w PSU)
£89.99 inc VAT

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Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 4MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail

£136.99 inc VAT

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Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel (KHX8500D2K2/4G)
£37.98

I don't really know much about RAM these days, is this choice OK?

---------

I have an old SATA-II 7200.10 Seagate barracuda, planning on chucking that in for the HDD. Considering getting a SSD as an later upgrade.

This would be £380 total, seems kinda cheap but I'm not sure its worth spending more unless I make the jump to i7, which would mean larger form factor + much larger cost. Also, I wonder if the stock CPU cooler fits in this case, or if there's a good custom one to buy.

AbsenceJam · 20 Jul 2009 at 01:09

Yes it'll be up to some TF2.

I reckon you could find a smaller and sturdier case if you look a bit more, although a 120mm fan is a nice feature. One with a 120w PSU will be plenty as well.

daniel_bourton · 21 Jul 2009 at 13:12

also with that case you could always add a grphics card anyways like a 4850 as it can take them which is a nice bonus and yu overclock your cpu a little bit with a decent cooler just to push it as bit futher

DIABLO · 23 Jul 2009 at 10:10

AbsenceJam said:
Yes it'll be up to some TF2.

I reckon you could find a smaller and sturdier case if you look a bit more, although a 120mm fan is a nice feature. One with a 120w PSU will be plenty as well.

120w psu running a quad at full chat is asking for trouble to be honest if it will even work at all.

Black Hat · 23 Jul 2009 at 10:51

DIABLO said:
120w psu running a quad at full chat is asking for trouble to be honest if it will even work at all.

This ^^

DIABLO · 23 Jul 2009 at 12:22

w00tles your selection looks great btw all quality parts, should be a speedy little machine.

AbsenceJam · 23 Jul 2009 at 15:37

DIABLO said:
120w psu running a quad at full chat is asking for trouble to be honest if it will even work at all.

My OC'd Q6600 running on 120w disagrees.

Black Hat · 23 Jul 2009 at 15:40

AbsenceJam said:
My OC'd Q6600 running on 120w disagrees.

It wont be for long then because the TDP is 95w + the rest of the system and with yout "OC" it will be well above the PSU rating.

AbsenceJam · 23 Jul 2009 at 15:58

Black Hat said:
It wont be for long then because the TDP is 95w + the rest of the system and with yout "OC" it will be well above the PSU rating.

You have no idea what you're talking about, please don't go about talking nonsense to someone with first-hand experience. I've been running this system for well over a year, and TDP is NOT power use.

Black Hat · 23 Jul 2009 at 16:36

AbsenceJam said:
You have no idea what you're talking about, please don't go about talking nonsense to someone with first-hand experience. I've been running this system for well over a year, and TDP is NOT power use.

Ok well im not going to start an argument just curious as to what your specs are?