IGP vs AGP?

[Woofer00]

Thinking of splitting my tower into a tower and a shuttle...

Shuttle SN41G2V2
120GB 8MB WD HDD
NuTech DDW-082 8x +/- Burner
AMD XP-M 2500+
Floppy

Planning to use onboard sound, PC 3200 ram. Question is - do I get a gig of matched RAM and use IGP, or do I use 512 MB with GeForce4 Ti4400 128mb and replace the tower's with a cheapo fx or something(it's basically an web-browsing-only computer now)
maybe even 768 MB with the Ge4, except if the sn41g2v2 is capable of dual-channel, i'd be sad and slow. I've heard that dual-channel helps the igp perform better? I primarily plays CS, War3, and weaker games. thinking about HL2 eventually, but pretty much everyone is gonna need to get a new vid card for that. Overclocking isn't a concern quite yet, so I don't really care about the IGP's freq limitations.

Can anyone vouch for the merits of the onboard vid? sound definitely seems like the alc650 is enough to not waste a pci slot on my audigy

~~

Also, what kind of cables does it come with? Do you need to buy a new set to improve airflow in the already tight space?

 

[agentzero9]

Onboard video is fine as long as you don't need 400mhz and DVI support. You said it's going to be a web browsing machine, so I'd imageine a DVI out would be pretty important for text quality.

 

[Woofer00]

mm.... to clarify - the shuttle is main, noisy loud heavy tower is web browser

 

[scottatwittenberg]

i use igp with a single stick of ram... the only game i tried to put on there was nfs high stakes... and it will only run in software render mode... it came out in 1999 though... it will run 3dmark01 but not all of the tests, and it won't run 3dmark03... i guess i don't knwo what the hell i am doing...

the onboard sound is good.. it has that soundstorm chip that everyone wants... but i am using a 3.5 mini jack... if i am working with a large picture in photoshop and dragging a huge selection or something it will make the sound skip... i don't know why... this is with winamp 2.81...

i am going to get an agp card just so i can run the fsb higher... i had it at 200, but i backed it down because i didn't want to damage anything, even though i had no problems as 200 fsb, but i also don't have anything to stress the gpu..

oh, also, i got the screen to do some wierd crap when playing videos,, i think they were divx... it was late and i didn't feel like investigating... i have no idea if the processor being oc'ed could do that or not....

the cables are flat, but the optical is cut down and stacked, if you know what i mean. and already routed through the side of the case... the hdd cable clips to the bottom of the hdd/floppy cage and doesn't really restrict airflow at all...

i have stock everything cooling wise and can run my cpu 600 mhz over spec and stay under 45 cel. load temps.... so it seems well designed to me...

 

[Kuo]

I would get a gig of matched ram. For those games, the onboard video is more than enough. Also, if you're thinking about HL2 and stuff, those games down the road will need a gig of ram (and a better video card). It'll probably run w/ 512 ram, but u'll really want more.

Down the road, when you find yourself wanting to play better games, THEN i would buy another video card. At that point you'll have higher end cards to choose from, and the current high ones will be a bit cheaper. I just don't see it worth getting a vid card for your tower just cause you stripped it for your shuttle.

Hell, if after a few days you can't stand the onboard, then you can always order a card then.

I've never really noticed a difference between DVI and SVGA out btw.. but I guess others do.

And from what I hear, the AMD XP-M 2400 is perferred over the 2500.. but don't quote me on that. I could be wrong.

[edit] Just read the last question. no, you don't really need different cables. The way the shuttle board is set up is that the cable they give you is snacked along the edges of the case (they actually have grooves and stuff for the table to go) so that it minimizes how much it gets in the way of general hardware. Although if you're really picky, rounded cables are always perferable.