Spec my SFF conroe rig...!

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Soldato
Joined
28 Jul 2003
Posts
5,801
Location
South Wales
Right chaps....i'm treating myself to a new rig for xmas.

I've decided to base it around a SUGO 01E and an E6600 conroe (worth going higher?)

My only requirements are 1xPCI slot for my sound card (DD live) and the ability to Raid. Things like external sata would be nice also.

I'm more concerned with a stable rig right now, but the ability to overclock would be usefull.

I've got 2 74gb raptors which i may keep and raid or i may sell and get a single 150gb raptor, not decided. Atleast 500mb storage required and i may consider raid 1 for my storage disk too. I've also got a x850xt which clocks quiet well. I'm thinking this will do me for now and i'll get a new GC if and when i decide whether to get an Xbox 360.

I've got a seasonic 600w PSU which could be used?

2 or 4 gb ram?

Budget is not that much of a problem. but i don't want to spend money for spending sake.
 
you will find no good oc matx boards for a conroe setup. but if u don't mind just running at stock there are a number of nice boards out there on the market for you to go for.

i will make you a list up later on for you when ive got a bit more time

as for the sugo yeah its the best sff case on the market to go for. great all round design. great cooling. and just looks sweet. only down side is if you want a small ish case then i wouldn't buy a sugo

size wise there ain't much in it now. with the new shuttle case that aint bin out long. put them together and there isn't much between them
 
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If you can live without the RAID then the Asrock 945G-DVI is by far and away the best mATX Conroe board. It's certainly worth it if you can get around the lack of RAID.
 
There are only 2 HDD slots in that case so 500Gb is going to be hard with 2 Raptors in RAID 0 already. You could put one in one of the 5.25" slots, but you only have 2 of those as well.

What are your optical drive requirements? Do you need a floppy drive or a card reader?

The Seasonic will fit, but I would use the Samsung SATA optical drives to be certain as they are shortest on the market at the moment. I actually used laptop drives in mine to get 3 DVD Writers, a floppy drive and a card reader all in the front panel.

If it was me I would get;

Asus P5L-VM 1394 (you have a firewire port on the front of the case, so why buy a motherboard with no Firewire?)
150Gb Raptor (for speed)
500Gb Samsung SpinPoint (for silence and performance)
2 Samsung SH183A SATA DVD-RW drives

But if you really want the RAID then;

P5LD2-VM DH with your existing Raptors
500Gb Samsung in one of the 5.25" bays
Samsung SATA DVD-RW in the other drive bay.

If you need more than one optical drive then 2 Panasonic or Pioneer slot-loading laptop drives in a carrier would be your best bet.
 
WJA96 said:
There are only 2 HDD slots in that case so 500Gb is going to be hard with 2 Raptors in RAID 0 already. You could put one in one of the 5.25" slots, but you only have 2 of those as well.

What are your optical drive requirements? Do you need a floppy drive or a card reader?

The Seasonic will fit, but I would use the Samsung SATA optical drives to be certain as they are shortest on the market at the moment. I actually used laptop drives in mine to get 3 DVD Writers, a floppy drive and a card reader all in the front panel.

If it was me I would get;

Asus P5L-VM 1394 (you have a firewire port on the front of the case, so why buy a motherboard with no Firewire?)
150Gb Raptor (for speed)
500Gb Samsung SpinPoint (for silence and performance)
2 Samsung SH183A SATA DVD-RW drives

But if you really want the RAID then;

P5LD2-VM DH with your existing Raptors
500Gb Samsung in one of the 5.25" bays
Samsung SATA DVD-RW in the other drive bay.

If you need more than one optical drive then 2 Panasonic or Pioneer slot-loading laptop drives in a carrier would be your best bet.
Click to expand...

thanks for that.....i'm liking the sound of the first option to be honest. I've got an NEC DVD-RW at the moment, but it's no hardship to change it. Would any samsung dvd-rw fit? are they decent drives?

haven't made my mind up on raid yet.....i don't see the massive increase in performance myself so may sell the 2 74's and get a 150 with the proceeds.

a single 500gb would do for now, but i may add another later. i've even looked at the USB/Firewire external boxes to house a storage disk. It would be just for storing rather than lots of use so speed isn't that great an issue with that one. I've got two 160gb IDE spinpoints right now and they are great disks....wouldn't hesitate in getting another.

i only really need one optical drive and a card reader isn't an issue at the moment.
 
The SATA DVDRW's are about 1cm shorter than the PATA ones. They also use SATA power connectors which, on my PSU, seem to be everywhere.

As for multiple slot loading optical drives - there are sometimes some on Member's Market.

I built two or three Sugo Evo's for people with the layout shown below;

Htpc1.jpg


That machine had 2 160Gb Maxtors in it, with an Abit LG-81 and a very hot P4 805. 3 Akasa Amber fans kept it all ticking over nicely.
 
i'm liking the look of the sugo, but i kinda wanna stay at the same dimensions as my current shuttle, any thing else out there for me?

seems all i can get is shuttles....

for conroe that is....

btw did you make the blanking plate or can you buy them? like the idea of having slot loading, although i'll only need one:)
 
I bought the blanking plates. I have spares if you want to contact me on my trust e-mail address.

As for small form factor - OcUK do the AOpen mATX, and AOpen SFF. Biostar IDEQ will have a new S775 unit very soon and everything else I think is pretty much Shuttle shaped.
 
thankyou, i will contact you if and when i upgrade:)

just been on the biostar site and cant see a mention of any c2d systems, but i might just be blind....

it would be nice, it would also force shuttle prices down aswell hopefully...

thanks for your help.... will keep looking...
 
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