Spec me a Shuttle

SpiderX · 7 Mar 2007 at 23:32

Hey guys, need to build my sis a shuttle.
will be used for general web usage, and needs to handle photoshop.

quite a tight budget - £500 Full System inc. Monitor, etc. already have speakers.

Tia.

Tute · 7 Mar 2007 at 23:50

Including a monitor it's going to be damn tight! :eek:

SS30G2 £140.39
Intel Core2 Duo E4300 £111.61
2GB Geil Value DDR2 £50.51
nVidia Geforce 6200LE Turbocache £29.36
Seagate 7200.100 250GB SATA £55.21
NEC ND3550 DVDRW £12.91
OcUK Value Hanns-G HC174D 17" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £103.39

£503.38 total.

I'd recommend 2GB RAM for photoshop, however it's going to add £50 onto the price.

FrankJH · 8 Mar 2007 at 00:07

I think the above would be great - but yes 2Gb is a must (especially for Vista)

squiffy · 8 Mar 2007 at 00:26

Shuttle's are expensive, you can get a perfectly good MATX system for well under £500.

I would put less into CPU (first suggestion) and more into larger screen (or a cheaper system)

You don't need dual core for general windows office use. Even single core is fine with SC for the normal user.

She doesn't need Vista, I would stick with XP for now

ASUS M2N-MX , NF430, S AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX £36.16 £42.49

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 3800+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2GHz, 2x 512KB Cache, OEM Energy Edfficient £52.59 £61.79

1Gb Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15 £42.53 £49.97

Aspire X-Qpack Silver/Black uATX Aluminum Case with 420W v2.0PSU with Window £59.99 £70.49

320 Gb Western Digital WD3200JS Caviar SE, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms £47.89 £56.27

Pioneer DVR-112DBK Black 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD Writer (Reduced Length) OEM £17.69 £20.79

20" Viewsonic VG2021WM LCD, 1400x1050, 5 ms, 500:1, 300 cd/m2, Speakers, Black £157.99 £185.64

As long as she's not a really heavy PS user, 1GB will be fine. Larger screen, when you need in...rather than CPU and memory (which she might not just for light work)

FrankJH · 8 Mar 2007 at 00:46

While I agree with you on principle however I believe a conroe system with vista will last a lot longer than any amd system (at present ) with XP and while I cant comment on sugo's - the three shuttle's I have had are worth every penny

Tute · 8 Mar 2007 at 00:51

The biggest problem with the thread is that we don't know if she's a light user or a heavy user.

A heavy user is really going to benefit from a C2D and 2GB RAM, whereas a light user could probably make do with an Athlon64 and 1GB.

I just went for as good a processor as I could, if he wants to double the RAM then it's up to him, although it will take him £50 over.

The monitor is a huge problem, trouble is that going 17" to 20" pretty much doubles the price.

WoZZeR · 8 Mar 2007 at 08:21

Tute's original spec looks good to me.

I've nothing against mATX but I'd plump for the Shuttle, they're cute.

2Gb of RAM will be nice with Photoshop, but as you say it's an extra £50, perhaps 1Gb of RAM with XP and 2Gb with Vista?

Squiffy's suggestion of WD WD3200JS Caviar SE HD makes sense, it's £1.06 more and you get 70 extra Gb.

FrankJH · 8 Mar 2007 at 12:37

Even a light user on XP would benefit greatly from 2GB of ram for photoshop imo - for that kind of money I think its silly to not get the extra even with budget given

SpiderX · 8 Mar 2007 at 15:37

wow, thanks guys, nice specs.
will probably go for Tutes Build, changing the HD for the WD one, still not sure bout the ram, i mean i can always buy another stick, plus im sticking with XP for the time being.

mainly just want a system that is cheap and will last for a few years.
and yea shuttles do look cute, which is mainly why im getting one

ps. this build is for a light user, but as i said needs to handle photoshop.
so any other builds/suggestions would be great.

koolkai · 9 Mar 2007 at 07:50

The SS30G2 doesn't support 'Core2Duo', only Intel® Celeron D/Pentium 4/Pentium D Processor Support, you will need a SD32G2, which is more expensive

SpiderX said:
wow, thanks guys, nice specs.
will probably go for Tutes Build, changing the HD for the WD one, still not sure bout the ram, i mean i can always buy another stick, plus im sticking with XP for the time being.

mainly just want a system that is cheap and will last for a few years.
and yea shuttles do look cute, which is mainly why im getting one

ps. this build is for a light user, but as i said needs to handle photoshop.
so any other builds/suggestions would be great.

WoZZeR · 9 Mar 2007 at 08:04

Hmmm, Shuttle and OCUK are happily stating the SS30G2 will work with the E4300 at 800FSB.

Presumably it won't work with the E6300 and above.

koolkai · 9 Mar 2007 at 08:51

WoZZeR said:
Hmmm, Shuttle and OCUK are happily stating the SS30G2 will work with the E4300 at 800FSB.

Presumably it won't work with the E6300 and above.

Looks like it can support the lower FSB of the E4300

koolkai · 9 Mar 2007 at 08:54

WoZZeR said:
Hmmm, Shuttle and OCUK are happily stating the SS30G2 will work with the E4300 at 800FSB.

Presumably it won't work with the E6300 and above.

After doing some quick research, it looks like it can support the lower FSB of the E4300

Stephen B · 9 Mar 2007 at 10:02

koolkai said:
After doing some quick research, it looks like it can support the lower FSB of the E4300

GO STAND IN CORNER WITH POINTY HAT IMMEDIATELY

thefishydidit · 9 Mar 2007 at 17:33

It may not work out of the box, someone on another forum purchased an old P4 to flash the bios before installing E4300.

SpiderX · 9 Mar 2007 at 18:25

lol, hmm, guess i will just have to try it out :/

WoZZeR · 9 Mar 2007 at 22:24

Yeah, if you need to borrow a 775 celery on someat to flash the Bios someone here may be able to help. Shout if you need it.