My first true plunge into SFF! Pulling the trigger on this shuttle.

[Emission]

Woot! Happy day! Im taking the plunge into SFF and this is the lineup:

- Shuttle SD31-P1-BK-V1 LGA 775 945G Barebone System - $445.00
- Intel Pentium D 920 Presler LGA 775 65nm - $269.00
- pqi TURBO 2GB (1x2) DDR2 667 Dual Channel Kit - $163.44
- ENVISION EN-2028 Black 20" 12ms LCD - $469.99
- Samsung Black IDE CD-RW - $19.99
- Seagate Barracuda 120GB Sata150 - $85.00

Shipping - $44.43 to my location.

$1496.85 Shipped :D

Cant wait to build it! Buying the stuff soon. WoW also comes free with the intel :D . Simply a great CPU too, runs cool! idles in the low 20's and below. The Shuttle comes with Intel GMA 950 Graphics onboard, so I can use this for a while before I decide to upgrade to further GPU's. Ill be waiting for the g71's so, this gives me good headroom. I hear the GMA 950 is a pretty good GPU, cant wait! :D :D . Soon as the stuff comes in, gonna do some benchin' !

[agentzero9]

So pressler is the sucessor to the pathetic prescott, and Shuttle already has a xpc that supports it? Cool.

I'd have to question a few choices.

Why not spend and extra $20 for DVD RW capability?


Is there a reson you chose that monitor over other 20"ers?

[Emission]

Probably Price/Performance ratio. I dont see a reason to spend anymore on it. DVD-RW? I dont need it, thats all.

[aiya]

btw you need a bios update to run the new D's fyi and shuttle doesn't have it up on their site yet.

[GameDad]

- ENVISION EN-2028 Black 20" 12ms LCD - $469.99


you know for that price you could get one of the dell wide screens at 20.1", the 2005fpw

[Emission]

Honestly, im not making a fuss over a monitor. If I cared about that extra ms or w.e id drop more than $1000 but I just dont.

[GameDad]

Honestly, im not making a fuss over a monitor. If I cared about that extra ms or w.e id drop more than $1000 but I just dont.

I didnt say you were making a fuss, but I like to get the most for my money, and thought i would give you a suggestion, thats all

[Treyshadow]

Nice box... Don't expect the world from the GMA 950. I have used it (in that exact same shuttle, and it is not as good as say the Nvidia 6100 or the ATI XPress 200. Its ok, but not the greatest.

Overall not bad. Again, I also think you should look at the Dell monitors over the envision, and opt for the DVD Burner mostly because its not that much of a cost difference however the extra "feature" may be useful in a few months after you have the machine. If nothing else, but just to back up your data.

[dderidex]

Well, if you are looking at cost as a factor, why not save some money and get a faster and cooler system at the same time by going AMD instead of Intel? A Shuttle ST20G5 + AMD X2 '3800+' would be a nice setup, as well, and save quite a bit.

Plus, the XPress200 integrated video on the ST20G5 would be mucho faster than Intel's GMA 950 (like, seriously, twice (http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/945g%20graphics_05230550547/7507.png) as fast (http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/945g%20graphics_05230550547/7506.png)). AND it has a DVI port, while the Intel box has a regular VGA.

TRUST ME ON THAT - on a 20" LCD, the difference between a VGA port and a DVI port is HUGE. VGA on a 20" LCD is hideous - blurring text, odd contrast problems, etc. On a 17" 1280x1024 display, maybe it's not so bad. But on a 20" display, it's REALLY TERRIBLE. If you are dead-set on Intel, you MUST buy an add-on video card, or just get a smaller LCD. Especially if this is your first LCD, you are just going to end up hating it if you try and use a VGA port.

[mrweasel]

$1500 and no GPU *shakes head*

there'll be no gaming for thee...I'd at least have popped for a 6800GS to go with the rest of that power

[soulsaver_8229]

$1500 and no GPU *shakes head*

there'll be no gaming for thee...I'd at least have popped for a 6800GS to go with the rest of that power
what he said

[Emission]

Im rebuilding the parts list to something almost completley different. Ill post soon.

[Emission]

Here we go:

- SONY SDM-P234/B Black (bezel) and Silver (back and stand) 23" 16ms LCD Monitor - $1,119.99
- AMS CF-1089BK Black Steel/Plastic MicroATX Mini Tower - $32.99
- MSI K8NGM2-FID Socket 939 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - $78.00
- ENERMAX EG425P-VE SFMA 2.0 ATX12V 420W Power Supply - $64.99
- AMD Opteron 165 Denmark 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - (Combo, see below)
- eVGA 256-P2-N527-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 GPU - $709.00 Combo with Opteron.
- (2) CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit (Total 4GB) - $462.00

I took a new approach to it and found that it acutally saves me some to get a small case, mobo, and psu. Its also worth it in the end because I can upgrade the mobo when needed and dont have to buy a new shuttle. I found an exceptionally good deal with the CPU and the GPU, I get $100 off the GTX when I buy it with that certain processor, so thats the secondary reason why I chose it. Wondering why Im buying 4GB of RAM? Well, lets just say im (1) Insane, and (2) Ready for the future, and to run like, 4 photoshops at a time :p . The montherboard also has DVI onboard just incase something goes wrong with the GPU and im stuck. To me, it suits me a lot better, and the sony is an awesome monitor, had some experience with it, and it had a major $300 price drop. Newegg, great deals, what can you expect :p

[CRXican]

good man, down with Shuttle

[dderidex]

Definitely a much better setup there, true. Not a huge fan of that case, but for no technical reasons (I just think there are some cases that look (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811190017) a little (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811124109) bit better (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144162)) - everything you've picked out will work great together, and give you a powerful system.

[Emission]

Thanks, Im glad you think so :D . The way the case LOOKS is pretty good imo, thinking about some possible mods ( A handle firstly, something that Shuttle apparently never though of ) . People like it, and it looks pretty even in size. Small enough to be considered SFF yet large enough to work with.

[mrweasel]

Nice changes

if you go with the cases that were proposed a few posts up -- are those PSUs gonna handle an Opteron and that GPU??? I won't chance it with the standard Aspire PSU. Some folks have complained about 'em with higher end stuff...I swapped mine out with a Mad Dog 500 watter. Not exactly sure what others are using.

I think the other non-Qpack cases use mATX PSUs, so your choices might be a bit more limited.

Then again, you do have a few more modding options with that one you have picked out.
/JM2C

[Emission]

Yea I went straight to Enermax for my psu needs. This one was a good price, and is a pretty good wattage for my needs. I dont think ill ever go with more than one gpu, and in any case, I dont have many optical drives. I use like one DVD drive and one SATA HDD, nothing big. The Opty gives me good overclocking headroom, and its one hell of a kick'ass deal. I get the opty and the gtx is half price. Cant miss a deal like that.

[boof]

Looks great. Have fun getting your game on :cool: Definitely couldn't do that w/ the intel.

[Emission]

Hmm, I want to look around for an old Prescott 3.0C or E and try overclocking again. I had lots of fun with my last system.

[agentzero9]

System looks much better.