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Best office/multitasking SFF for under $800

D

DReborn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
364
Hi there, I am interested in building the best office/home pc for under $800 (just hardware, not including windows, keyboard/mouse, etc).

It will never play games just internet, email, Office, iTunes, etc.

I'd like to throw in a LOW end intel or amd dual core but I don't know if it falls in my budget.

I'd like a recommendation for a shuttle case (or another manufacturer + mobo) and CPU. I can do the rest. =)

lastly, i'd love to throw in an internal wireless adapter...does the shuttle one work well?

note: I'd rather stay away from the intergrated radeon video boxes (had some issues with those).

Thanks!
 
I'd say with that budget probably a QPack with a Socket 939 Biostar motherboard. For the processor probably a single core maybe a AMD Athlon 64 3500+? Depending upon the video card you want. Since you say office I'd say go for like a 6600GT and spend more on the Processor. Dual core would probably run almost half of your budget. A wirless card would probably be around $50 depending on rebates.
 
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562

Shuttle: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16856101470(249 after rebate)

6600LE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130252

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144232

Wireless: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124115

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144113

I think that covers everything, and should come to a grand total of $813.48. I figured that if you werent gaming you wouldnt need much of a GPU, and would want more power for the CPU. I know you said you only needed recommendation for shuttle+cpu, but im bored, so I came up with all that. I dont know about the shuttle though, im not much on SFF, but it sounded good enough.
 
aznpxdd, That Shuttle wouldn't work because he said he didn't want a Radeon with Integrated Video.
 
Key components of a good office/multitasking machine:


1. Dual Core CPU
2. at least 1GB ram
3, Videocard with DVI output (if videocard is more than 2 genrations old make sure it's ATI)
4. 20" or larger LCD with DVI input
 
thanks for all the advice!

i'd like this to be upgradable in the future so i am shooting more towards the silverstone route...what's the best mini-itx board out there? AMD and Intel.

didn't think this would be that tough... =\
 
If you want to be able to upgrade it, you want an mATX case. If you are on a budget, that excludes the Silverstone.

That SHOULD do it. The X-QPACK PSU is generally held to be 'pretty crappy', but using just a single hard drive and no video card or soundcard at all, no overclocking, low power Manchester CPU....I think it should handle it alright.

If not, you could always spring for:


And if you wanted to complete the 'quiet PC' thing, pick up these:

  • Zalman CNPS-7000 AlCu CPU HSF: $36 shipped (much quieter than the stock)
  • Aspire 4-pin molex fan regulator: $12 shipped (tame that 120mm fan down some!)
 
DReborn said:
that's actually a pretty good system...hmm...i didn't really like the aspire because it didn't look as clean as the shuttles but wow, you can't argue with that price/performance. I actually bit the bullet and went with the integrated radeon shuttle:
Click to expand...

True, not as sleek at the Shuttles, but I still like how it looks on my desk! :D
 
that's actually a pretty good system...hmm...i didn't really like the aspire because it didn't look as clean as the shuttles but wow, you can't argue with that price/performance. I actually bit the bullet and went with the integrated radeon shuttle:

1 CPU AMD 64 |3200+ ATHLON 64 939P RT - Retail
Item #: N82E16819103535 $160.00 $160.00
1 MEM 512Mx2|MUSHKIN 184P D400 991145 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820146299 $79.75 $79.75
1 HD 160G|ST 7K 8M ATA100 ST3160812A - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148103 $84.00 $84.00
1 DVD+/-RW NEC ND-3550A BK % - OEM
Item #: N82E16827152058 $39.75 $39.75
1 WRLSS PCI ADPTR D-LINK|DWL-G510 RTL - Retail
Item #: N82E16833127145 $35.99 $35.99
1 BRBN PC SHT|ST20G5 ATI XPC RT - Retail
Item #: N82E16856101470

shipped for $750 - $100 rebate = $650 total

your build kicks ass for the dual core and the 2gb of ram. I figured that I could always throw a dual core in down the road in a year or so and more ram if needed though for my very light multitasking needs 1gb should be fine till Vista
 
Couple comments on yours (generally pretty good, and I've certainly looked at that model Shuttle myself from time to time!):

- 1gb of ram is really not enough any more. Even for gaming - BF2 and EQ2 both REALLY like 2gb of ram over 1gb, and this trend only looks to continue. And, of course, don't forget actual work on the system. Photoshop LOVES ram. Lots and lots and LOTS of ram. Eats it up like candy to get anything approaching decent performance. And running Photoshop with MS Office with a bittorrent client, etc...it gets kinda chunky swapping to disk a lot

Which brings up:

- ATA/100 with an 11ms seek time?!?! Holy bottleneck, Batman! You are buying an SATA system, go with an SATA drive!!

- *White* case with...*black* DVD drive? Might want to double-check those model numbers. Granted, the bay is stealthed, but...still...
 
good points:

1. it's the seagate 7200.9 which is fine for my uses. Near silent and runs pretty snappy despite the high access time (though I don't think those are correct since they list the same access times for sata version). i didn't want to go sata because this mobo needs a floppy to install winodws (the whole F6 on install thing) and i just didn't want to deal with it.

2. this is purely an MS office/internet NO gaming/photoshop whatsoever pc so i feel 1gb is plenty.

3. the beige looks just as off so instead of being "close" with a silver/beige drive i like to go opposite on purpose with a black drive. =)
 
DReborn said:
1. it's the seagate 7200.9 which is fine for my uses. Near silent and runs pretty snappy despite the high access time (though I don't think those are correct since they list the same access times for sata version). i didn't want to go sata because this mobo needs a floppy to install winodws (the whole F6 on install thing) and i just didn't want to deal with it.
Click to expand...
Well, you'll notice, I had recommended a Seagate drive, myself. They ARE very quiet, and reliable - I'd definitely not use any other brand. Was just commenting on the specs.

Your point on the floppy drive is valid, of course - I guess I never really considered that a fault, as I always slap in a media reader/floppy drive *anyway* for the camera (it's available in white, too, but Newegg does not carry that model).

DReborn said:
2. this is purely an MS office/internet NO gaming/photoshop whatsoever pc so i feel 1gb is plenty.
Click to expand...
I actually had a 2gb system, but downgraded to 1gb that I'm on, now. It's honestly MS Office that bugs me the most with it. Working on a document in Word, and switching over to Excel to update the search list, and it sits there swapping like mad. It's probably the torrent client the fault of that, but it IS annoying given that I'm doing nothing even remotely taxing to the CPU.

DReborn said:
3. the beige looks just as off so instead of being "close" with a silver/beige drive i like to go opposite on purpose with a black drive. =)
Click to expand...

LOL - Shuttle does make a silver DVD burner, ya know... ;)

Anyway - good luck with the build! Those XPCs are a blast to work with, if not for the inability to upgrade mobos, I'd *still* be using one of those. So sleek, easy to use, and *quiet*. Great overclocking options in their BIOS, too.
 
well just so you know i changed the hard drive to the diamond max 10 (ata 133). =) almost as quiet as the seagate and it has been running in my system flawlessly for the past year.

also, i have an older p4 2.4 with 1gb of ram and MS office/dreamweaver/photoshop are instant. i barely wait. Check what progs you are runnin in the background..

AND i got a silver burner...happy now? =)

yep shuttles are fun. the upgrade route sucks but it should be good enough. i'm seeing more ram, dual core cpu, and vid card as the respective upgrades. all in time...
 
DReborn said:
i'm seeing more ram, dual core cpu, and vid card as the respective upgrades. all in time...
Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan! (And yeah, I think in retrospect it was the torrent client that really pushed it over the edge - those things can eat up ram)

Cool thing about that model Shuttle, too, is that it has onboard DVI *and* VGA. And either can be used with a video card, too. So if you have a dual-DVI video card, the system can drive 3 LCD panels in Windows, just as if you had multiple video cards in the box. Which makes the Radeon X1300s a fun, cheap upgrade. Dual-DVI for less than $100. *poof* - three monitor output! :D
 
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