New Shuttle PC shopping list

[marcus]

Ive fallen in love with the shuttle systems, and in particular this one -

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=7802

I have a Geforce6800GT card which I beleive will fit in this model shuttle, and am after the best possible performance components without buying the ultra high-end CPU which costs hundreds.

The CPU I had in mind is this (seeing as the shuttle requires an Athlon) -

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/productinfo.aspx?ProductID=6599

Ive always bought Intel CPUs, am I right in thinking that a 3500 rated Athlon equates to approximately a 3ghz P4?

Finally as Ill be storing my files on a server, I wont be needing a large HD, but found this beauty which is 10000RPM Sata -

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/productinfo.aspx?ProductID=2881

I note the power supply included in the Shuttle is 240W, is this ok based on what I have in mind?

I already have 1GHZ DDR SDRam at 333 speed, would it be adviseable to purchase newer, faster Ram?

Basically Im after a little powerhouse of a box, with that in mind any advice is appreciated.

[Tom Salter]

Ive always bought Intel CPUs, am I right in thinking that a 3500 rated Athlon equates to approximately a 3ghz P4?

Without nit-picking, that's roughly equivalent to a 3.5Ghz P4.

I note the power supply included in the Shuttle is 240W, is this ok based on what I have in mind?

It only runs 2 IDE devices afaik, so that should be OK. Well, it's kinda borderline, considering you've got a powerhouse gfx card. But it should be A-OK.

I already have 1GHZ DDR SDRam at 333 speed, would it be adviseable to purchase newer, faster Ram?

You should buy two sticks of DDR-400.

[kona]

The Raptor is ace. A mate has 2 of them in RAID 0 and they are blindingly fast. The build time on Visual Studio was about half that of a single 7k rpm disk. It's quite pricey though for the capacity, so unless you use applications that do a lot of disk access it might not be the best for you.

[Ian(not Ian)]

I too love my Shuttles.
I have two SB61G2s Marcus P4 3.0 with SATA HDD, 9800 Video card and a wirless network card (no floppy drive) the PSU is at its' limit. I plugged in a USB 2.5" HDD the other day and it refused to spin up (draws its' power from the USB)

Also notice that shuttle you linked to doesn't boast 'quiet' running, which is the main reason I got them in the first place.

[marcus]

Memory in that case -

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=6691&GroupID=465

[Dache]

You should buy two sticks of DDR-400.

To add to that, buy a pair sold together, rather than seperately. That should make sure they work properly together.

[marcus]

Ian I take it thats a rather big problem then?

I was going to buy the one 1GHZ stick as the price difference in getting two is minimal, plus I can always add another stick later on to make it 2GHZ.

[Ian(not Ian)]

Marcus. Buy the Shuttle from Microdirect and the rest from Overclockers. Better quality and prices from Overclockers, but they no longer sell the Shuttles.
I got 80GB SATA drives for less than ?70 from them.

[Ian(not Ian)]

Ian I take it thats a rather big problem then?

I was going to buy the one 1GHZ stick as the price difference in getting two is minimal, plus I can always add another stick later on to make it 2GHZ.

Not a massive problem Marcus, since the Shuttles have everthing they need already fitted. The USB HDD was a pain at first, but I also have a 256MB stick which does work OK. Also since most the larger files I get from chums is on CDRs or DVDrs then I can live with it.
Biggest draw on the PSU is the video card IMO.

[kona]

Ian I take it thats a rather big problem then?

I was going to buy the one 1GHZ stick as the price difference in getting two is minimal, plus I can always add another stick later on to make it 2GHZ.

If you plan to upgrade to 2GB later, then you might as well stick with your existing RAM right now. How many modules is your 1GB? If it's 2 then it might be as fast as a single 400MHz module anyway. The differences are not very large anyway.

[Inertia_]

http://mypc.duncanharris.com

Get one, get one, get one, get one.

To address a few issues:

- the SN96G5 does have a SilentX PSU, and silent it very nearly is
- so long as you have a single-slot AGP card you'll be fine. Don't worry about the heat of the card as the GPU fan is right bang next to the ventilation holes on the side of the case
- Shuttle PSUs (that's specifically Shuttle, not SFF PCs in general) are stupidly efficient compared to tower ones. You'll have no problem running a high-spec gaming rig whatsoever. You may notice a few initially worrying 'shifting' noises from the PSU when using high-drain USB devices, but it's par for the course.

I should add that it was the setup at the end of that link that gave me a practically flawless play-through of Half Life 2 with every setting maxed out. So recommended, then.

[marcus]

Just reread the description, it seems the processor I picked is only 2.2ghz - which is a lot slower than the 2.6 P4 I have already, despite costing more.

[kona]

In clock speed yes, but this is just a meaningless number nowdays. As Tom said above an Athlon 3500 has the roughly the same performance as a P4 3.5GHz even though it runs at a much lower speed. It depends on what you're running, in same cases it might be somewhat faster and in others slower. For gaming the fastest CPU that you can buy right now is the Athlox FX55 which runs at "only" 2.6GHz, while P4s run at speeds of up to 3.6GHz.

This is actually an area where Intel has admitted defeat, and said that in the future it won't be focusing so much on clock speeds, but instead find other ways to increase performance.

[NeilMcRae]

Stick with Intel.

[Ian(not Ian)]

Inertia_
That looks like the mutts to me matey. 3rd Shuttle coming up I fear. Does your have onboard wireless LAN as well?