• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Why should i go with sff?

0

0tolerance

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
99
I am seriously considering my next build to be a sff. The reasons i have came up with are as follows.

1. Im sick of my huge desk and huge tower i want a smaller desk and want it all on the top.
2. I go to lans sometimes and i see that they are very popular amongst lan guys.
3. I like the look and want to join the sff club (lol)

Ive thoguht alot about the shuttles but the flavor here seems to be the custom qpacks. Inyour best opinion what do you think i should go with. Qpack or shuttle type box. I do want to overclock and this box would be an x-2 system with a 7800 gt in it. Please help a noob hardfourms guy out. Thanks

zerotolerance
 
Welcome!
Having just moved to SFFs myself, I'm wondering why I didn't do it sooner. The capabilities to the humungous towers are there. You want SLI? It's there. You want SATA raid? Its there. You want PCI-e and PCI? It's in there. You can pack all this gaming goodness around a whole lot easier than the huge towers,and not just to the LAN, you put a decent TV card with any of the softPVR's out there - I'm partial to Windows MCE but I've heard that Sage TV and BeyondTV are good to - and you have a Lannable box that is also a Home Theater PC.

And SFFs run folding@home for Team 33 very well indeed
 
well it sounds like your realy happy with yours , but should i go qpack for overclocking or is there a good shuttle to be recomended?
 
shuttle

-smaller
-better looking
-quality power supply

qpack

-quieter (in most cases)
-more PCI slots
-use any ATX power supply (although, I think this is overrated as Shuttle PSUs are very good)



COST.


Lets take the SHUTTLE SN25P for example:

$400

vs.

Qpack $90
Tforce MB $90
Quality PSU $70

= $250


So the Shuttle caries a $150 premium just for size and looks, and it is also less expandable.
 
well when you break iut down liek that the qpack seems to bethe way to go but man the fronts of those things are so UGLEY lol. PLus is it true that shuttles arent overclockable
 
NO its not true.

The Shuttle SSN25P is very overclockable. I had a Winnie 3200+ in mine for a while doing 270x10.

Now I have an X2 4400+ in there doing 2.6, so it can overclock, and stays quiet while doing it. My shuttle is currently quieter than my x-qpack.
 
that si the one i was looking at but let me ask you, did you have a hard time getting it to take an x-2. Ive heard alot of people had a hard time and i read the solution was a simple bios flash.
 
Yeah the SN25P is one of the quietest shuttles and is more quiet than a stock qpack.
 
Shuttle probably makes the best barebones SFF. It can overclock well and they even have an SLI-capable model. The worst part about Shuttle and all the other barebones SFF units is that they are all proprietary. Your motherboard or power supply goes out and you're screwed

The beauty of the Q-Pack is that you can use all conventional components. You can put any standard ATX power supply and any micro-ATX motherboard you want in there. The only drawback to the Q-Pack is that it's slightly larger and maybe fit/finish isn't as good.
 
If you can live with just (2) 5.25" drives, and (1) 3.5" drive, SFF is for you.

I remember the days of using full server tower cases, never filling them up with drives, and then using the argument of better cooling in a bigger case.
 
RagingSamster said:
Welcome!
Having just moved to SFFs myself, I'm wondering why I didn't do it sooner. The capabilities to the humungous towers are there. You want SLI? It's there. You want SATA raid? Its there. You want PCI-e and PCI? It's in there. You can pack all this gaming goodness around a whole lot easier than the huge towers,and not just to the LAN, you put a decent TV card with any of the softPVR's out there - I'm partial to Windows MCE but I've heard that Sage TV and BeyondTV are good to - and you have a Lannable box that is also a Home Theater PC.

And SFFs run folding@home for Team 33 very well indeed
Click to expand...

I could never consolidate my existing PC into a SFF PC. Just couldn't happen. Plus, I've done some work for alot of SFF PC owners and I've had numerous cooling issues.

I also haven't seen to many SLi capable M-ATX mobos. I know they do exist. I just don't generally see them.
 
I'd look at my thread just a few spaces down... Page 2 has a final list that tops out at $1400~ and is very nice!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top