A quick look if you please

reasons

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 29, 2009
Messages
158
Making a new build. The only real requirements I have is that is be as small and quite as possible and it has to work with freebsd. For the latter, the only real requirement is an Intel GPU and nvidia doesn't work with 64 bit and ATI doesn't work at all. Used for music, web, and programming. Basically, everything as good as it gets minus the gpu (as long as it can play 1080p and run dual monitors).

EDIT - Wish lists aren't working even with public.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163149
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146726
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500047
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185129
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227393
 
Key problem: FreeBSD doesn't support hardware acceleration of HD or 1080P content. In addition, socket 775 is pretty dead end at this point in time. As such, that Q9550 is ridiculously overpriced considering that the Core i5 750 is just as fast but costs $80 less. If you live near a Microcenter, try to find the Q9550 there for $170. Ifany higher, you're getting ripped off and/or you're making a bad buy.

Also, you can get the larger and faster Intel 40GB for $5 less:
$125 - Intel SSDSA2MP040G2R5 2.5" 40GB SSD

Pick up the SG05-B from Amazon.com to save $15 off shipping.

Are you absolutely sure that ATI video cards do not work with 64bit FreeBSD?
 
None of the 5xxx series will. There is no fglrx driver for freebsd and both the open sources ones are horrible with dual monitors.

I wouldn't mind an i5 but with mitx, I only get 1 slot which I use for a sound card. So unless you can point me in the direction of a decent DAC for not too much that could be an issue. (Otherwise I would just get the DFI i5 board).

EDIT - Looks like the nvidia driver works with amd64 again, which is great if I didn't hate nvidia right now.
 
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Get an intel 530 with H57 miniITX mobo. You get integrated graphics and quite fast CPU. Then you can use the PCIE slot for your sound card.
 
Get an intel 530 with H57 miniITX mobo. You get integrated graphics and quite fast CPU. Then you can use the PCIE slot for your sound card.
Looks like the best solution right now. Which just leaves the case. Seeing as the total size could be condensed to ~ 170x170x110mms (using a pico psu and clever HDD positioning) I don't really want much more than that. If I had the tools (and didn't live an an apartment) I would build something like this.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1342325
 
Nope. As long as it can fit the mobo, some pico psu, and a xonar stx I'm good.

EDIT - How would you go about mounting the dc part of the pico psu? Like dimensions for the hole cut, etc.
 
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Nope. As long as it can fit the mobo, some pico psu, and a xonar stx I'm good.

EDIT - How would you go about mounting the dc part of the pico psu? Like dimensions for the hole cut, etc.

Many of those cases I linked should have something already worked out.. if not then I imagine I would find the diamater needed & drill it into the io shield for the Mobo since I have not had one that diddnt have extra space since they stopped putting a parallel port & 2 serial ports on every one..
 
socket 775 is pretty dead end at this point in time. As such, that Q9550 is ridiculously overpriced considering that the Core i5 750 is just as fast but costs $80 less.

I do agree that the higher end s775 quads are overpriced, but socket 775 is far from dead.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17560/35/

Cliffs:
Currently 775 has 77% marketshare, 1156 has 18% and 1366 has all of 1%.
Expectations for the end of the year is 775 will drop to 50%, 1156 will grow to 44% and 1366 will still have... 1%.

For the OP, I'd go with cheaper RAM, lower end HDD and lower end CPU (maybe Core 2 Duo E7400). If you had to have a quad core, may as well pay more for a socket 1156 motherboard and less for a socket 1156 CPU. It'll be a wash at the end for cost but you'll end up with a newer/faster platform.
 
I do agree that the higher end s775 quads are overpriced, but socket 775 is far from dead.
.

I said "dead end" meaning that there are no new worthwhile S775 CPUs coming out. So in other words: limited CPU upgrade capability.
 
Nope. As long as it can fit the mobo, some pico psu, and a xonar stx I'm good.

EDIT - How would you go about mounting the dc part of the pico psu? Like dimensions for the hole cut, etc.

Is the Xonar low profile? I think not, if it was low profile i'd recommend antec ISK-300. As it's not you can use:

- Silverstone SG05/6
- Apex MI-100/Thermaltake Element Q
- Travla C138 with a PCIe riser

The last being the smallest you can fit a full size PCI card
 
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