Please review my shuttle-SFF build (for gaming)

sharingan

Spec: (from Komplett)

Case/Mobo -Shuttle SD37P2 Barebone, Black, Intel 975X, 775, 2XPCI-E, SATA, LAN, 400W PSU
CPU -Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 4MB, BOXED w/fan
RAM -Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC5300 2048MB CL3 ,Kit w/two matched BallistiX 128Megx64
GFX -HIS Radeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3, IcQ3, PCI-Express, ViVo, 2xDVI/Tv-Out/HDCP
HDD -Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM

I intend to reuse my DVD burner for an optical drive (ATA only) and possibly squeeze in my older SATA drive as well (if power & cooling are not issues).

Anyway this box is a replacement (long overdue) for a 4yo machine that is starting to die a horrible death.

The specs are pretty good for general computer use (including writing code, video encoding, and misc. video playback, including h264 encodes) but I am more interested in the gaming aspects. It has to be practical - I like gaming, my monitor is a big 1650x1080 WS TFT, but I am not interested in throwing stupid amounts of money into €600 gfx cards or SLI, or getting 800W PSUs. DX10 and Vista gaming is not important to me.

There are practical aspects to computer use as well - I don't have the room for big cases any more, I am not an overclocker or a tweaker, and stability is crucial (no BIOS fiddling for me). Summer is coming so thermal issues are a concern (my last box suffered from this over time).

So theres 3 concerns really:
- can this shuttle box take the power? 2 x HDDs is a possibility, the GFX card and the core duo? DO SFF machines make for practical gaming machines?
- what about heat?
- How bout the Radeon? I heard that X1950s are good bang-for-buck cards, but I am wondering if that info is out of date?

8T8

Yes the Shuttle PSU can handle all that.

Heat should not be a problem for the hardware you outline.

The X1950 Pro is a good bang per buck card though you wont always be able to use 1680x1050 if applying AA to games when using that resolution in games as well. I would consider switching to a single slot cooler X1950 Pro {cheaper on Dabs} as eventually down the road you can acquire a second one and pair it for dual GPU usage without having to put a more powerful card in the case, that should keep things moving along quite nicely at the max resolution. Power wont be a problem either as the X1950 Pro isn't that demanding compared to the high end stuff for instance two X1950 Pro's draw the same load as a single X1950XT.

Anti

Personaly i would change to the Aopen EU965. The 965 chipset is prefered over the 975. Although, a 300w psu is a bit small, but upgrading them is no problem.

awhir

i would go for a 8800gts 320mb best bang for buck me thinks

8T8

I would stick with the Shuttle because of it's better quality PSU, the chipset has dual x8 slots for PCI-e graphics card as well & the P965 chipset vs the X975 is really little in terms of difference.

As for the 8800GTS 320MB if you are willing to go over the €300 mark then that is your best option it's a big card though it should just about fit inside the Shuttle as a 7800GTX fits which is roughly the same dimensions.

sharingan

Some good points made. I would have always considered dual-gfx combinations to be extravagantly over-indulgent, but I never considered the idea that you add a second card over time as a cheap way of maintaining your system performance.

Well it looks like items are going out of stock, will need to spread my purchases across Dabs & Komplett.

Anyway, thanks guys for the help.