I'm gradually aquiring some components to build myself a new PC.

I know I'm going to be basing it on a Shuttle but not sure what HDD to go for.

Looking for fast access to lots of photos and a decent amount of storage, probably min of 250GB

Can anyone make any recommendations?

Segate make very reliable disk drives

Suggest the following:

- Core 2 Duo CPU as they give a lot of bang for low poer (altho an AMD A64 will be ok too)

- 10k RPM Hard disk to hold you OS etc (WD Raptor or similar)

- Large discs (last i checked 360GB was cheapest per MB) in a RAID 1 config for some sort of data integrety.

If you are cramming it into a shuttle then a 360GB segate 7200 RPM drive with a large cach (8/16MB) will be the way to go. Although regular backups too

If you're after a small chassis, I recently put together a system for SWMBO using a Silverstone shoe-box sized case which takes micro-atx boards. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/productinfo.asp?WebProductID=463054

It gives you a lot of choices on exactly what you want, is more upgradable and invariably cheaer than a Shuttle. But it is a bit bigger.

I wouldn't personally bother with RAID1 nowadays. I make weekly backups and my home PC isn't "mission critical" and can withstand 1 hr downtime whilst I re-image. Having a single hard drive is also worthwhile if you're using a small chassis, for both space and heat reasons. Raptors are very quick, but very expensive for the storage you get, and unless you're after the best in performance, I wouldn't pay the massive price increase for the little gains you get.

250 to 400GB are very cheap nowadays. As CM mentioned, you can get a 320GB drive for about £65-70 inc deliv and vat.