[recurrent] Help choosing right components ;)

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PsichoDM

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
161
Hey guys,

I'm planning to get a brand new shuttle and initially I thought I should try to order on on Hyper-Sonic PC Systems but costs are pretty much wild on that site and I believe I can save up to a grand by ordering the entire system from newegg.

I'm a part-time game developer and probably soon researcher in openGL, but also hardcore gamer, therefore I need a pretty hardcore system, but because I travel a lot, I want to bring it around with me, and the SFF seems to suit my needs (no laptops please, Sager 8790 was a terrible experience). This means I also need a monitor.

The range of my budget is somewhere between 2k and 2.5k $, which is a bit similar to what the user in the other post had.

I browsed through newegg a little bit and came up with a list of components that seemed to bre pretty decent, so I was wondering if you SFF gurus out there could give me a few pointers on how to maximize the quality of my SFF within the 2-2.5k$ I can afford to spend.

This is my list so far:

Shuttle SN25P
eVGA 256-P2-N516 Geforce 7800GT 256MB
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4800CDBOX
ASUS Black IDE DVD Burner 2X DVD-RAM Read Model DRW-1608P2 BK - Retail
SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series 250GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card
ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED 92mm 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan with Heatsink
ViewSonic VX922 Black/Silver 19" 2ms

On NewEgg all this would add up to around 2.2-2.3k

Now, questions:
1) The video card is pretty damn good for the price (280) but there's better out there. Would switching to an ATI 1900XT be worth it? Would it also require another Shuttle model?
2) I'm aware a 7200 HD for the boot drive is not very exciting nowadays. Is the raptor 150gb worth it?
3) I onestly have no idea how the power situation works on the Shuttle. Newegg reports that it has a 350W(or 320?) power supply, but as far as I know it's a joke if one's planning to run something like an ATI 1900XT on it. Should I upgrade the power supply to a 600+ one and which models are going to fit into the shuttle?
4) Actually, is the Shuttle SN25P good enough for my sort of setup or is there a better chassis?
5) Do I need that Zalman at all, and if yes, is it going to fit in?
6) Is that Viewsonic any good or is there a better performance/price monitor out there? A 19" (coding on small screens makes baby jesus cry) is what I'm looking for but it's supposed to have pretty good ms for gaming too.
7) Is there anything missing from that list?

Thanks a lot, I would really appreciate if you folks could help me out with the questions and come up with suggestions/improvements.

Psicho.
 
Umm..I don't think you can fit that Zalman into a Shuttle.

Shuttle PSU's are very good, it'll have no problem running a X1900XT. (In fact, I think I saw some members here with a X1900XT, just search for it)
 
ok I did some further research and this is what I figured out is a good solution, considering I will probably order it around end of March:

Shuttle SN25P
Corsair XMS 2GB
AMD X2 4800+
Geforce 7900GT (this one comes out in late March and should be available at around 299$)
NEC 3560
SAMSUNG 250GB SATA2
BenQ FP91V



Any comments or critiques?

Edit:
Creative X-fi removed after dderidex's comment. I imagine the onboard sound system is good enough, and saves extra 100$ ;)
Edit 2:
Switched back to SN25P from SN26P. I thought the 26 had 100+ watt.
 
X-Fi requires a PCI slot.

The SN26P does not have a PCI slot. For that matter, neither does the SN25P.

As to the HDD - it's always been my opinion Raptors are over-rated. Yes, they are faster...but not that much faster. And they are LOOOOUD, *whew*! Which kinda runs against the point of SFF PCs - being unobtrusive.

I'd go with a 16mb cache 7200rpm SATA drive and be done with it. Get one with lots of disk space, while you are at it - 400gb drives are pretty cheap anymore.
 
Thoughts #2...FWIW, if *I* were building a 'budget is not a serious limit' Shuttle, it'd look kinda like:

  • Shuttle ST20G5 - $243 AR
    Has a PCI-E 16x slot, and a PCI slot for a good soundcard!
  • AMD X2 '4800+' $631
    1mb cache per core = nice
  • 2gb (1024mb x 2) OCZ Platinum PC4000 DDR - $246
    Tightest timings you'll find on decent 2gb overclocking ram.
  • All-In-Wonder X1900 - $444
    An alternative would be the X1800XL...but I like the 'All-In-Wonder' aspect of it. With only 2 slots, you cannot get a seperate TV tuner down the road, so get it now with the video card! (Note that there is also an X1800XL 'All-In-Wonder')
  • Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music - $128
    Hey, it sounds awesome, what can I say? Oh, yeah, and it takes load off the CPU to improve game performance!
  • WD 400gb 16mb cache SATA150 hdd - $185 AR
    16mb cache, 7200 rpm, dense platters = fast disk!
  • NEC Silver DVD Burner - $39
    Comes with free media, too. AND it matches the case!
  • Mitsumi 7-in-1 media reader/floppy drive - $25
    Doesn't match the case, but at least you won't know since it's stealthed. Still, handy to have a memory reader, and you need the floppy drive to install Windows!

Total is $2141...and, certainly, going for a lesser video card makes plenty of sense, but it's something cool if you have the funds!
 
dderidex, the ST20G5 has only 240W of power, isn't that pretty low if I get a x1900? Also, I guess the X-Fi is not that important, I would not be able to tell the difference between the integrated one (which seems to be pretty good, according to the site) and the creative ones. Also, I'm not a big fan of Creative, and especially of their software.

The HDD you got there is a pretty good deal, I didn't spot it. Any idea about its lifespan?

I also noticed that for some reason both the SN25P and the ST20G5 do not have AMD Athlon 64 X2 in their compatibility list. Is that somehow implied they support X2 and they just don't report it?
 
Well, I ran an AMD X2 in both the ST20G5 and SN25P myself, so I can say with some authority that it DOES work fine in it.

RE: the X-Fi. It's pretty nice. If you have headphones or 2.1 speakers, the CMSS thing it does to create a 'virtual' surround sound is absolutely a REQUIREMENT...but, honestly, the current Realtek chip (ALC880, as used in the ST20G5) ain't bad. Unfortunately, the Envy24 (used in the SN25P and SN26P) *is* pretty bad for 2-speaker surround effects in games. Fine for listening to music, though...although the ALC880 is better.

RE: the power supply. Not a thing to worry about. Shuttle PSUs are RIDICULOUSLY high quality. Very high efficiency, very stable rails, and several rails at that. Never had a problem with the 240w. Heck, people used to run 6800 Ultras on the 230w Shuttle PSU, and those video cards draw more current than the 7800 GTX!

That said, the X1900 XTX *does* draw an obscene amount of power, and...hrm...well, I wouldn't want to try and get one of those in there. The AIW X1900 is based on the as-yet-unreleased X1900XL model, though, and is clocked a LOT lower. Check out this review of it, that concentrates a lot on the 'extra' features it brings to the table.
 
So, is there a way to have 350W and space for a X-Fi?

The reason I keep insisting on 350W is that I'm thinking of a possible upgrade of the system after a certain amount of time, ang considering the serious growth in power consumption of future gfx card, 350W seems like the right investment.
 
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