MSI Mega 865

Diddy Kong

was just wonderin has any one got one of these, are they any good, thinking of buying one, also does anyone know where to get one, overclockers and komplett dont seem to have this one...also any other barebone suggestions welcome

gobby

would probably get a better response in technology.

just google it

davidclayton

fair enough, you get the sound-systemy function and look, and a remote...
but you pay extra for it.
last week i just bought a shuttle sb75g2 from overclockers.co.uk and i would have to recommend that model, it's great!
the sb75g2 is one of the only sff pcs that has the 875 northbridge for that extra bit of ooomph. i think the msi has the 865?

check sudhian for a review:
[got a sh*t load of forums there too for sff recommendations]

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=447



dave

Gmodified

I was thinking about msi mega but I am not convinced that I am going to listen to the radio that often and I prefer to play mp3 from my harddrive, so PC will be "on" anyway.
Additionally, mega pc has full printer port which is a plus


875 is not that quicker over 865 and I think I would prefer to have build in wireless module instead of 5-7% extra performance claimed by Intel's PAT technology which is also available on 865PE chipsets.
Also 875 has additional fan which makes system even louder.


I think i am going go for this 865 version http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=387

RicardoSmith

I've yet to hear a quiet shuttle system. The're all a bit noisy IMO. They need to put a decent sound chipset in them.

Gmodified

they are like little blow dryers

gobby

a friend of mine has a shuttle. it has the extra fan. he installed speedfan and when the system is booting it is quite loud. when speedfan kicks in its very, very quiet.

edit: he also replaced the fans in the psu with nice little papst fans. very quiet.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by gobby
a friend of mine has a shuttle. it has the extra fan. he installed speedfan and when the system is booting it is quite loud. when speedfan kicks in its very, very quiet.

edit: he also replaced the fans in the psu with nice little papst fans. very quiet.

Can you find out the part numbers of those fans?

gobby

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Can you find out the part numbers of those fans?

sure, ill post when i find out...

Gmodified

.

a friend of mine has a shuttle. it has the extra fan. he installed speedfan and when the system is booting it is quite loud. when speedfan kicks in its very, very quiet.

?
Did he replaced CPU fan?

as per dual speed, CPU fan is controlled by BIOS where you can set temperature at which fan will spin with full speed. It's quite normal that fan is noisy at boot up and goes quite for some time after until reaches this configured temperature, which happens very quick if you have decent graphic card in the system.

Diddy Kong

thanks for the advice, might just leave till the summer and get a shuttle

gobby

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Can you find out the part numbers of those fans?

link

RicardoSmith

ta

quarryman

875 is not that quicker over 865 and I think I would prefer to have build in wireless module instead of 5-7% extra performance claimed by Intel's PAT technology which is also available on 865PE chipsets.

true. 865 and 875 are virtually identical. 875s however are speed binned higher so are shipped as 875s, if you know what i mean. there's even a version of the 865 with PAT, not worth it.

Also 875 has additional fan which makes system even louder.

are you talking about the shuttle or the MSI because.....

a friend of mine has a shuttle. it has the extra fan.

... there's no extra fan in the 875 compared to the 865 in the shuttle (if they both have the same power supply), not sure about the MSI.

The best advice with the Shuttles is to replace the stock fans (including the PSU) with quieter ones (Sharkoon, noiseblocker) and then either set the Shuttle to control them, via its SmartFan feature or to get it even quieter use Speedfan. If you don't play a lot of games you can get most Shuttles to run very quiet.

here's a noise comparison of 3 of the different shuttles with stock parts

Gmodified

there's no extra fan in the 875 compared to the 865 in the shuttle (if they both have the same power supply), not sure about the MSI

you should added this to the chart

As you can see, the legacy Shuttle SS51 with its total of 2 internal fans is significantly quieter than the SB65, which is also quieter than the SB75. And remember that since "dB" is measured on a logarithmic scale, an increase in "dB" levels isn’t a 1-to-1 comparison. Meaning that even though a measurement of 61 for the SB75 is only 2dB higher than the SB65 at 59dB, the difference is significant on a logarithmic scale.

These results are expected. The SS51 has two internal fans, the SB65 has three, and the SB75 has four including the Northbridge, ICE fan, and 2 PSU fans.

taken from here:

http://www.sfftech.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=447&pid=1606

quarryman

yup that's where i got the chart from. I also read the section you have there and was fairly confused about the part saying there was three internal fans in the 865. well when i look into mine there is four internal fans.

Also, I know the 875 has four so i was a bit confused i thought they were making a mistake or reviewing a 65 with the 200w power supply (1 fan instead of 2)

So i did a quick search on internal pics of shuttles with the 865 chip. Turns out some of them have passively cooled northbridges. Not too sure why this is since they are both virtually identical systems.

Mine is an SB61G2R and the one mentioned here is the SB65G2. They are almost the same however, and both use the i865 chip. All is explained by these 2 pics.

Mine is the one above. the 865 is below.





seems to me that the SB61G2R should run just fine without the 4th fan so, i'll give it a go when i get home.

Gmodified

well spotted,

Anyway, I am have to choose between 865 and 875 , not really care if 875 is bit louder but kind of like the wireless module which is $50 alone and comes with 865.

going to order one of them this Friday

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Gmodified
well spotted,

Anyway, I am have to choose between 865 and 875 , not really care if 875 is bit louder but kind of like the wireless module which is $50 alone and comes with 865.

going to order one of them this Friday

Where are you getting the best deal from?

Gmodified

I couldn't find any cheaper then


http://www.emvi-htpc.com/store/index.php?cPath=21_22

davidclayton

i DARE you to stick a prescott into your new shuttle...
go on...
[nobody else is brave enough to]

dave

quarryman

Originally posted by Gmodified
well spotted,

Anyway, I am have to choose between 865 and 875 , not really care if 875 is bit louder but kind of like the wireless module which is $50 alone and comes with 865.

going to order one of them this Friday

how much is the shipping at that site you're buying from because thet're slightly cheaper at overclockers.

Think about whether you will really need the wireless option. If not go for the 875 and buy the wireless later. I got it with mine and have no use for it, yet.

just noticed, the 865 has no mesh sides. defo go for the 875. throw in a couple of mini cathodes and it'll look grrrreat

Gmodified

I am just checking shipping costs with Emwi which should be around £20 at least this is what overclockers charge for delivery.

Emwi has 875 for 300 yoyo's which is not bad at all (komplett wants 375 +p&p -joke)

Gmodified

just got mail from Emwi and shipping will be 25yoyo's so sb75g2 will come to 326E's

quarryman

go for it. its a great little system. I'd really recommend the bag aswell. I got it with mine and its very handy when you're on the move.

what cpu and ram are you putting into it etc? post some pics when you have it all going.

good luck!

Gmodified

i have P4 3.06 waiting for it and 1gb of twinmos from my old system.

davidclayton

is your p4 533fsb?
what speed your ram?

my sb75g2 has a non-overclocked 2.8p4 in it, and was running at 12 degrees C this morning.
goddam it's cold these days!
plus my heating sucks.

dave