Thinking of getting a SFF???

[Sangria7]

Hi all
I currently have a full tower setup with the specs below. I am considering the IDEQ Biostar with the 64 Athlon or the Shuttle 64Bit when it comes out. I am not sure if I should change over from my full tower to the SFF. I was hoping people would give me some advice and reasons (besides size) to change over. I think the "cool" factor is one of them LOL

Just help me decide!

Pentium 4 2.8C 800Mhz HT
Aerocool Extreme AMD and Intel P4 CPU 80mm Cooling Fan with Blue LED
Xtreme Cooling – One Blue LED Side 80mm Case Fan
Two Rear multi-colors LED exhaust 80mm exhaust fans
One Blue LED Air Intake 80mm Fan
Mad Dog 7.1 8 Channel 24 Bit Sound Card

ASUS P4S800 Motherboard
-P4S800 (SiS 648FX) Series
SiS®648FX Chipset
Intel 800 MHz FSB
Hyper-Threading technology support
AGP 8X technology
S/PDIF out port on back I/O
DDR 400 Memory
ASUS Instant Music ~ Lite
- 4 Rear USB Ports
- 2 Front USB Ports
4 Port Firewire Card
ASUS V9950 FX950 128MB with DVI output
1024MB RAM Geil PC3200 400DDR with Heat-spreaders
Kingwin Aluminum Thermal Center/Controller with LCD blue backlit
1.44MB Mitsumi DD
Western Digital 80GB HD 7200RPM 8MB Cache
MODEM AOPEN PCI V.92 FM56-SVV RTL
DVD+RW +R Sony DW-U10A-10/B2 BLACK%
DVD|LITE ON 16X XJ-HD166/165H BK%
S/W Corel|WrdPrfct Office 11 BUNDLE
S/W MS|WIN XP HOME SP1a BUNDLE ONLY
Aspire Tower Case w/ Side Panel Window and 420W PS (Silver)

[HowardDrake]

The biggest worry with the Shuttle cube is fitting that 5950 video card inside. Unless it's a single slot slimline, it won't fit in the Shuttle. Just a consideration for the cube.

[Sangria7]

what am i saying...the shuttle 64 athlon sff is out--duh

[HowardDrake]

what am i saying...the shuttle 64 athlon sff is out--duh

Yes it is, but hopefully Shuttle will release a NF3 250 cube soon. That would be a sweet solution

[Sangria7]

I was thinking of selling the V9950 GPU and get a new one that will fit

[Sangria7]

What does everyone think of the Biostar vs Athlon SFF

[mac_h8r1]

I'd second the motion to wait for the 250 cube to come out.

However, I haven't heard much as far as PCI-Express chipsets for the Athlon 64. THAT would be a sweet solution, although you could just as well wait for the R420 to come out and still use the AGP8x.

[mstrmold]

From what I've read, Biostar's SFF typically are a bit more of a pain to work on than Shuttles. A couple of reviewers complained about the difficulty in installing the heatpipe in the Biostar that they are a bit too close to the caps on the motherboard. Also, the BIOS on the Biostar tends to be a bit limited but to be fair, so is the Shuttles. Was there a particular model you were looking at?

I think though that whatever you end up purchasing you will be happy with. I've personally only owned or built Shuttle boxes and am basing my opinions on what I've read. If someone else is running a Biostar, care to comment?

-E

[Sangria7]

When is the 250 cube due out and what is the price range?
ANy links?

[mstrmold]

Not sure as to an ETA, but I'm going to assume "soon" as Soltek announced it's SFF based on Nvidia's Nforce 250 last Thursday:

http://www.nforcershq.com/modules.php?n ... e&sid=1562

So I'll go with a May/June timeframe for Shuttles launch, but it's purely speculation.

-E

[Sangria7]

Thanks for the input - but I think Ill go ahead and get the Shutle 64bit that is out for now. I can always upgrade again

I will let everyone know my new rig looks like

[the_silver_bullet24]

Good man. Cubes are the ****. I'm glad you stopped thinking and started buying!

[Sangria7]

What kind of SFF rigs does everyone have?

I am building the following:
Shuttle SN85G4 nFORCE 3 64 Bit
AMD 3000+ ATHLON 64
Western Digital HD 120GB 8MB Cache SATA
Albatron FX5900XTV 128MB

and adding from my old system
Geil PC3200 400DDR
Benq 19 inch LCD 700:1 Ratio


Just Curious - Also I want to MOD it similiar to the one in this thread but not sure how...

http://www.techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14467

Thanks

[the_silver_bullet24]

Just cut a hole on the side for the window with a dremel or something similar. For the blowhole, take a laser cut grill and draw a line along the outter edge of it and cut.

[Sangria7]

cut the blow hole with a dremel as well??

[JustAnEngineer]

The best tool for cutting a circular hole is a hole saw.
http://www.gfii.com/it/brand/blumol/bmholesaws.pdf

[Sangria7]

I am going to sell my GeIL memory also and get new OCZ ones as well

Hey cool we have hole saws at home depot -I can pick one up there since I work there but I wasnt sure if it was an overkill for a computer shell

thanks

[Sangria7]

WOW I just got my components and put it together last night

Man it flys....I just cut the blow hole and everything is working great!!!

[mstrmold]

The blow hole you are referring to is at the top of the case, correct? You should load up Speedfan and take an average temp reading while the unit is under load. Also, is it a rev2 85G4 box?

-E

[sativa]

i have built both a Biostar iDeq 200n and a shuttle SN41G2 and i can tell you that shuttle is much better quality overall.

The 200n supposedly supports SATA, but lord have mercy on your soul if you try to install a SATA like i did... I eventually got it it in there but you have to move **** around like crazy and route cables close to the HSF fan... The HFS doesn't work as well as the Shuttle's either & its tricky to install.

Using onboard video I get video artifacts when running at 333mhz bus. not so on the shuttle.

I do like biostars drive-door thing though. wish shuttle would get one of those.

[Sangria7]

The only thing is that I am having trouble with overclocking....cant seem to get the correct settings to work....

[PerfectCr]

I'd stay away from BIOSTAR. Shuttle's products are proven and very stable. If you want a Geforce FX card, get a single slot 5900NU and O/C it or a 5900XT.

See my pics in my sig.

[Sangria7]

Hey Perfect:

Did you O/C your shuttle and if so what settings did you change and to what?

THanks

[PerfectCr]

Hey Perfect:

Did you O/C your shuttle and if so what settings did you change and to what?

THanks

No I have not overclocked it. Really it's so fast there is no need to. Plus the Nforce 150 does not have a working PCI/AGP lock. I have my video card slightly overclocked though

My HyperX ram is running at it's tightest timings, 2-5-5-5.

[Sangria7]

Did you manuall set the timings for your RAM or have it on AUTO

[PerfectCr]

Did you manuall set the timings for your RAM or have it on AUTO

No manual, AUTO sets the timings to high.

[DivX]

could the sff's 250 watt psu handle any of the 5900 cards?

[PerfectCr]

could the sff's 250 watt psu handle any of the 5900 cards?

Sure, LOTS of ppl runs them! I do as well. Single slot versions of course.

Visit the Sudhian SFF forums, that is where everyone with a SFF goes.

http://forums.sudhian.com/categories.cfm?catid=43&forumid=1

[Sangria7]

could the sff's 250 watt psu handle any of the 5900 cards?

Look at our signatures. There is a couple here that run 5900 series.