A few couple questions for a subtle budget upgrade

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ptech

Limp Gawd
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May 4, 2005
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I'm new to the SFF scene and decided, after getting a job this summer, to upgrade some of my components and go with an SFF system. I blame it entirely on that Steeeeve guy for single-handedly convincing me to buy the Ultra Micro Fly with his great review (it didn't hurt that he's a Hokie, since I'll be graduating from VT in December). My old system looked like this:

AMD Athlon64 S754 3000+
EVGA GeForce 6800GT w/ NV5 Silencer
Abit KV8 Pro (K8T800) mobo
1GB pqi Turbo RAM
160gb Seagate SATA
(2) Samsung 16x DL DVD+-RW
Xclio 450W PSU
...and other small things...

First thing I did was sell my 6800GT to get me enough money to buy the Micro Fly as well as the Biostar Tforce (S754). I feel like the CPU, RAM, HD, and optical drives would be fine. I get both the MB and case this week! Can't wait!

I did a bunch of research before I took the jump from tower to sff, but I still have a few questions:

1) I want silence like most of us. I used to own a 9800Pro with a Cooler Master CoolViva, but I heard from some thread on hardforums that it doesn't fit the 7600gt, which is what I plan on getting. I plan on getting the evga one, and I chose this because I heard it performs just as well, if not better, than the 6800GT and I was fine with the performance. The only game I play is Oblivion anyways. Can anyone confirm that the Cool Viva doesn't fit on a pcie 7600gt? And I know Steeeeve said there was something like 8mm clearance for the top of the vid card; does that cancel out being able to use that gigabyte silent pipe version? That would be pretty cool if it fit, but I doubt it. Either way, my backup would be the NV5 which is quiet enough and I've had experience with it.

2) What do you guys do with your 3.5" bay? Coming from a versatile tower, I had digital media readers and fan controllers and all kinds of cool stuff. With there being only 2 external 5.25" and a singloe 3.5", I have to choose between all that. I plan to forego sticking a floppy drive in there and just get a USB one. But I want to be able to control a few fans from the front as well. I'm interested to hear/see what others with sff cases have done. I've been taking a look at this product from svc.com; I do like the presence of the fan controllers as well as the media readers, but what I don't like the audio connectors since there are some already present on tne micro fly and I won't be using em anyways. That may be my best bet. I was even thinking of bringing a dremel to it and making space for some fan controllers. So give me some ideas!!!

3) PCI slot: what to do with it? There's 2 on the board, but one will most likely be covered by the gpu cooler. I was about to buy the MSI 6100 board because the PCIEx1 slot was inbetween the pcie16 and the other 2 pci slots, but I didn't. I wish I could stick a tv tuner, sound card, and wireless card in there, bu that won't happen. When will they start coming out with some good PCIEx1 cards? Maybe there are a bunch out there that I don't know about.

Feel free to give me some good ideas to get the most out of my sff! Or flame me for being a noob... j/k.
 
IMO, you should ditch the S754 and go with a S939 motherboard instead. It's a little pointless to still go with S754 if you're consider upgrading, since there's no option to upgrade further after, such as going dual core.

As for your graphic card, I'd recommend getting a X1800XT 256mb, since their going for pretty cheap right now (around 230). The 7600GT isn't THAT big of an upgrade from a 6800GT, since the 7600GT is only a little faster than a 6800 Ultra.

I think a fan controller in the 3.5" bay would be good for you since you said you like your computer to be quiet. A fan controller would centainly help control the 2 fans that comes with the Micro Fly.

For the PCI slot, why is it impossible to get a sound card? You can find some decent ones for pretty cheap, such as the Chaintech 7.1 one. Getting that would be a decent upgrade from your current one, which I assme is onboard audio.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Well I thank you for the kind words regarding the review and be sure to check out the NSK 3300 review coming out tomorrow as well as the SG01 review coming out next week.

A lot of the stuff requested depends on what you want out of the computer. You will find that gaming won't be a strong point with your new system but basic everyday things should be just fine. I will answer your listed questions now :)

1) the heat pipe things that go over the video card really won't work. Stick with the NV5 as it is probably the best out there.

2) The product you linked to is great. Keep in mind that you probably want to stuff cables in one of the 5.25 drive bay slots unless you plan to upgrade to a modular PSU such as the X2 or Liberty. I currently don't have anything in mind but I used to have a water-cooling reservoir

3) As for the PCI slots. I don't think you need a wireless card but if you must, you can get an external or USB one. The sound card depends on what you do with your comptuer. If you have a lot of music you might want to invest in the Xfi or something. The TV Tuner...do you ever really use that? I suggest just buying a TV :p

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks for the input guys!

aznpxdd said:
IMO, you should ditch the S754 and go with a S939 motherboard instead. It's a little pointless to still go with S754 if you're consider upgrading, since there's no option to upgrade further after, such as going dual core.

As for your graphic card, I'd recommend getting a X1800XT 256mb, since their going for pretty cheap right now (around 230). The 7600GT isn't THAT big of an upgrade from a 6800GT, since the 7600GT is only a little faster than a 6800 Ultra.
Click to expand...

As for the 939 upgrade, I chose to stick with my 754, since everytime I seem to switch processors, I end up switching to a new motherboard, too, because I want the latest chipset that would compliment my new mobo upgrade. I figure in half a year I'll get tired of my old 754, and get a new mobo & processor at that time.

Per the graphics card, I was happy with my 6800GT and would have kept it had it not been for it being AGP and the small selection of 754/AGP matx boards out there. The 7600GT is around the same price range as I sold my 6800gt for. I'll look further into reviews and see if the performance increase is worth the additional $50.

Also, thank you for the Chaintech recommendation. I took a look at some reviews and user comments and they all seem pretty good and it's a nice cheap card that will go with my nice cheap speakers (Logitech X530's) with some good features. The Xfi is way out of my price range; I'd probably get better speakers before I jump into that one.

Steeeve, I guess I'll take your advicve and go with the NV5. I was hoping I wouldn't have to take out one of the dvd drives for wires, since I do like burning 2 things at the same time (I do a lot of data backup). My power supply does have a lot of wires, but I feel I'm pretty good at wire management. We'll see just how cramped up it is in there. If not, I may have to look into some modular solution.
 
I see, well if you were happy with your 6800gt, then I say go for the 7600gt.

But if you're not planning on upgrading the V-card for a while, I'd still recommend the X1800XT.
 
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