Micro ATX

Shiminay

How do all,

I'm thinking about putting together a SFF machine mostly for lanning/convenience and I'm interested in your thoughts as to what a good set-up might entail. I've looked at the Shuttle solutions on Komplett, and have also looked at buying seperates and sticking it all together. I have an older Shuttle that I got on Adverts for a Meeja Sent Her machine beside the telly and I'm happy enough with it, so wouldn't necessarily have a problem buying another.

So my current thinking:

If not a Shuttle, get a SFF case, mo-bo, cpu, probably a hard drive and whatever fans/accessories I might need and when the time comes to LAN, swap out my 8800GTX, RAM until such a time as I can afford to get newer parts for it.

Cases: the Nzxt Rogue looks pretty sexy, but there are a few other options like the Dab's Value which I posted about before and the Antec NSK. The main thing is it needs to be able to take (un-lubed) the full length of my GTX

Motherboards: I'd love to get something that'd take 4 8500 DDR2 dimms as I still have 4 GB of Dominator sitting here doing nothing that I haven't been able to sell (bit of a big ask I realise), but that's not essential. I have 2X2GB 6400 DIMMs anyway that'll swap over and back until I have more funding available to get things up-to-date.

Video - as I said, I'll be looking to swap my 8800GTX over and back until, like the RAM, I have more money for "stuff" (9600's in SLi would be sweet of course ).

All thoughts and comments appreciated lads and ladies.

Virgil°

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=335088
Always wanted to build a sff system.Im fairly sure you can get another version of this case which comes with a handle built in to the top of the chassis, ill have a look about for you.
As for graphics cards and ram, i would say you dont really need to go overboard, ie sli 9600's. Afaik alot of the games played at lans are standard ones which aren't particularly demanding. Just my experience of lanning thus far.

Shiminay

Saw that Thermaltake alright (with the handle) and it does appeal alright. Anyone have any experience with them? Will an 8800 fit in it I wonder?

Virgil°

A few sites mention that 88 series will fit.
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/cases/Tt_Lanbox_Lite_7.html

Except it might limit the amount of hard drives you can put in there.

Shiminay

See attached for potential shopping list - thoughts on the mobo anyone?

RuggieBear

Are there p35 based matx boards? I couldn't see any contenders.

Main reason i bought a sp35p2 pro Shuttle....in order to over clock a Q6600.
Unfortunately i have had to RMA the thing so can't tell you if it is any good.

Shiminay

bummer Could you keep us posted on it when it returns? I'd be very interested to know.

RuggieBear

without going into a rant i've been told it could be 6 weeks before i get a replacement. :mad:

I had considered this set up:

CASE:thermaltake LanBox Lite Black 76
PSU:OCZ StealthXStream Powersupply ATX/EPS, 600W 85
MB:ABIT Fatal1ty F-I90HD 85
CPU:Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 232
COOLER: Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU Cooler 28
RAM: Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 2048MB CL5 55

And perhaps a LG Blu-Ray DVD-burner, GGW-H20 275

But i got lazy and liked the reviews of the shuttle so i plumped for it instead. (D'oh!) But not sure if that motherboard is particularly good for gaming

RoyalMarine

im buying that rogue as soon as i finish my current build!!

its awesome looking.

Anti

I use a SFF for a home server, but its more then capable at playing the latest games. Check out the asus T3. ITs the best looking one ive seen so far.