SFF able to use 300w or greater power supply and other SFF questions.

R

RanceJustice

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 9, 2003
Messages
6,624
Hello everyone, I'm planning on building a SFF as a secondary "staging platform", Linux box, or server depending on what I need at the time. Its not going to be really high end, but I'd like it to have good airflow and be able to be upgraded in the future. here are some of the items I have for it - most are extra pieces or pieces used in my old system before an upgrade -

1 gig PC3500 DDR RAM
160gb Seagate SATA 7200.7
AGP ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Sony DRU-510A DVD-Burner
floppy drive



Up until recently I had thought about getting a shuttle, but considering they only have 250w power supplies, upgrading the video card to anything beyond a 9800pro (what I will initially be putting in there...) is not likely. I am aware of the shuttle with a 350w PS, and it would be fine except I don't see much merit in the 915 chipset. Also, how easy is it to get a mobo upgrade for a shuttle? For instance, if I buy an Nforce3 -based shuttle can I simply buy an Nforce 4 board later?

Here are the items I need to buy for it:

Processor - Either a 939 AMD 64, or a 478 P4c Northwood, preferable. I will go LGA775 prescott if I have to....sigh
Sound Card - SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS. No problems here.
Power supply - if not a shuttle, I guess I'll have to find one.
Mobo- if not a shuttle, I'll need one of these too
Cooling- Shuttle or not I'll need a good Video cooler, if not a shuttle I'll need some sort proc fan or heatpipe as well.

Any suggestions?

Edit: If anyone is fairly familiar with Linux compatability, please post any major issues that this setup would have.
 
The PSU is quite powerful for its wattage. 12V and 3.3V: 16A, 5V: 19A
My system is working fine off the included 240W PSU.
 
Xaeos said:
Hello everyone, I'm planning on building a SFF as a secondary "staging platform", Linux box, or server depending on what I need at the time. Its not going to be really high end, but I'd like it to have good airflow and be able to be upgraded in the future. here are some of the items I have for it - most are extra pieces or pieces used in my old system before an upgrade -

1 gig PC3500 DDR RAM
160gb Seagate SATA 7200.7
AGP ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Sony DRU-510A DVD-Burner
floppy drive


Up until recently I had thought about getting a shuttle, but considering they only have 250w power supplies, upgrading the video card to anything beyond a 9800pro (what I will initially be putting in there...) is not likely. I am aware of the shuttle with a 350w PS, and it would be fine except I don't see much merit in the 915 chipset. Also, how easy is it to get a mobo upgrade for a shuttle? For instance, if I buy an Nforce3 -based shuttle can I simply buy an Nforce 4 board later?

Here are the items I need to buy for it:

Processor - Either a 939 AMD 64, or a 478 P4c Northwood, preferable. I will go LGA775 prescott if I have to....sigh
Sound Card - SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS. No problems here.
Power supply - if not a shuttle, I guess I'll have to find one.
Mobo- if not a shuttle, I'll need one of these too
Cooling- Shuttle or not I'll need a good Video cooler, if not a shuttle I'll need some sort proc fan or heatpipe as well.

Any suggestions?

Edit: If anyone is fairly familiar with Linux compatability, please post any major issues that this setup would have.
Click to expand...

Shuttles PSU's are very high quality and many people are running dual HDD"s and 6800GT or X800XT in there shuttles with the SilentX 250 and it runs it just fine. Wattage is not the only determining factor in a PSU's ability to run hardawre. A POS 500watt psu will not only have much lower "realistic" wattage numbers under load, but it also will not provide stable current on the rails on loads. where as a higher quality 350watt PSU will do just the opposite.

The only shuttle with a larger PSU is the "P" chassis SB81P with a 350watt PSU. This model is ONLY the socket 775 for intel, there will not be a nForce 4 AMD model until Jan/February.

You cannot purchase motherboards seperatly from Shuttle, you have to purchase the entire new unit if you want upgrade. There also no 3rd party PSU manufactures for Shuttle systems, you have to take what you get from Shuttle.

I do not use Linux, so I cannot speak on how Shuttles behave wtih Linux.
 
Up until recently I had thought about getting a shuttle, but considering they only have 250w power supplies, upgrading the video card to anything beyond a 9800pro (what I will initially be putting in there...) is not likely.
Click to expand...

This simply is not true friend. I use a shuttle SS51 that I am now running a p4 3.06, 10K SCSI HDD, Geforce 6900XT on. Thats a 200 watt PS fyi.

The quality of the Shuttle power supply's are awesome. They can power a very high end system with ease.
 
lanolar said:
This simply is not true friend. I use a shuttle SS51 that I am now running a p4 3.06, 10K SCSI HDD, Geforce 6900XT on. Thats a 200 watt PS fyi.

The quality of the Shuttle power supply's are awesome. They can power a very high end system with ease.
Click to expand...
6900xt he he he your ahead of the curve my friend ;)
 
It is good to hear that Shuttle power supplies are strong! I'm considering retiring my 6800GT to the Shuttle when I'm done with it in the tower and don't want to be SOL.

Okay, can anyone give me a suggestion for a shuttle? I've been looking at...

SB75S - Intel 478 based, white, shiny, SATA.

SB77G5 - http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=523

SN95G5 - AMD64 939 solution.
 
Gonna have to go with the SN95G as AMD Athlon 64's spank Intel in almost every single benchmark, plus they cost less. Its a win win situation.

Go here for more information before purchasing as the SN95G's have been having SATA, Cold boot and incorrect tempature readings for awhile. Best to be informed before you buy.

SFF Forums
 
Yes, the shuttle PSU's are strong given thier power output. I had an SN85G4 running a 6800GT without issue for some time. You could go with your own solution with regards to getting an SFF case and an m-ATX motherboard, but if you are looking for an all in one solution, you cannot go wrong with the Shuttle.

Now, as for linux, you might have issue if you try to install to the SATA RAID controller on the motherboard depending on which Distro and kernel you plan on running. Not all SATA RAID implimentations work. It wasn't until recently that VIA's 8237 SATA controller was recognized in Fedora Core. Previous builds of RH9 or AS3 did not have support.

-E
 
Hmm.. .yes I'd definately be using SATA, but not in a RAID config. I'll just be using 1 SATA hard drive (Seagate 160). Will this be a problem if I don't try to RAID? Also I was leaning towards Slackware 10 or Gentoo 2005(4?), but would be willing to use another distro. I'm just learning after all..


Hmm...is there anything great on the horizon? For instance, is the Nforce 4 P chassis going to have an AGP or PCI-E slot? I'm assuming PCI-E so I'm kinda SOL.
 
Xaeos said:
Hmm.. .yes I'd definately be using SATA, but not in a RAID config. I'll just be using 1 SATA hard drive (Seagate 160). Will this be a problem if I don't try to RAID? Also I was leaning towards Slackware 10 or Gentoo 2005(4?), but would be willing to use another distro. I'm just learning after all..


Hmm...is there anything great on the horizon? For instance, is the Nforce 4 P chassis going to have an AGP or PCI-E slot? I'm assuming PCI-E so I'm kinda SOL.
Click to expand...

The nForce 4 "P" chassis model will have PCI-E. You won't be loosing anything not using RAID as it doesn't benefit gamers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top