I'm just about to order some bits to bukild my own PC but I'm not sure what processor to go for with the following barebone system...

Shuttle S939 nForce 6 PCIE ATX A L G Black Aluminium (SN21G5)

Looking at spending no more than around

No one with any advice?! Please!

Ive not long upgraded my CPu in an in the same shuttle PC

went from an Athlon 64 3000+ to a 64 3800+ although you can hardley tell the difference

Id say you can have the 3000+ cheap if you want but i think there only about

Was thinking of the Dual Core 3600+

How do you rate the system itself?

I'm gonna put in a 320GB Seagate Barracuda Drive, 2GB RAM (Make unsure but considering Crucial)

Not sure if I should get 1 drive to run windows the other for storage etc, how does that work in practice?

Anyone else able to advise before I commit?!

Looks a nice system, I run a 939-based Shuttle myself as a main system. I've got a 3200 in that and it runs very nicely.

939 had been superceded now though, by the AM2 socket 940 AMD chip, but Shuttle doesn't have any mass-market models built around this yet.

I'd say a 3700 San Diego Core would properly be your best bet at the moment, £65.

HTH,

Steve

EDIT: to answer your earlier question, you can get your copy of XP Pro OEM from Dabs for a good a price as anywhere else, while you're buying your Shuttle and hard drive...

Crucial are good as long as you are not buy batches of it, otherwise i would say corsair are also good.

Atholon is fine, but you might find an X2 getting very toasty in a shuttle case.

Segate drives are

Crucial are good as long as you are not buy batches of it, otherwise i would say corsair are also good.

Atholon is fine, but you might find an X2 getting very toasty in a shuttle case.

Segate drives are

Is an x2 worth it then? I have a MSI Mega PC with P4 2.4 and 1gb RAM at the moment and am really disappointed in performance, I really want to see a big change.

Main issue I have is when using windows explorer to open folders with around 100 images in them in thumbnail view, takes an age (sometimes 30 mins!) just for the thuimbnails to be viewable!

I know this is taking the p**s a bit, but have a look at the core duo/core 2 duo options if you want dual core in a small case and want it now.

If you can wait a bit then AMD will be bringing out a cooler running Athlon/Turion Dual core soon enough I would be sure.

The X2/Pentium D/Core Duo give you the niceness of having two cores so many fewer context switches for just doing stuff and so a much more interactive PC. For example my Dual PIII 550 is still an excellent server and also fine for a windows XP /Linux Desktop if needed to be.

A context switch is very heavy duty in terms of time wasted by the CPU so more cores can only help.

Problem with the X2 is they run very hot, not as hot as a pentium D by a good way, but still not cool. I think what you are looking to find is a CPU with a thermal envelope of under 65W as IMHO much more than this and you will be hard pushed to get te heat out of the shuttle case.

Obviously these are my opinions, but I've a reasonable amount of experience in this area. If you want i can ask our thermals engineer for an opinion.

I know this is taking the p**s a bit, but have a look at the core duo/core 2 duo options if you want dual core in a small case and want it now.

Problem with the X2 is they run very hot, not as hot as a pentium D by a good way, but still not cool. I think what you are looking to find is a CPU with a thermal envelope of under 65W as IMHO much more than this and you will be hard pushed to get te heat out of the shuttle case.

Obviously these are my opinions, but I've a reasonable amount of experience in this area. If you want i can ask our thermals engineer for an opinion.

Appreciate your comments! Can you make any recommendations!

If you're going Intel, S-775 and Dual Core - what about the Shuttle SD37P2 and an Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz - that processor should creep in around the £150 mark.

HTH,

Steve

If you can stretch to a E6600 CPU I knowthey overclock very well , but the E6400 will be more than enough for everyday tasks.

If that shuttle suits your needs then it looks like it would be just as good as the AMD system Just make sure you confirm that the dual core support in it is for the Core 2 Duo and not just the Pentium D when you come to buy it.

For the RAM the crucial stuff will work fine, just get the value range and get more of it rather than getting the overclockable stuff IMHO. eg 2Gb value is better than 1Gb faster RAM.

GFX Card, I like NVidias, but anythign will work as long as make sure you know how you will get the heat out of the back of the machine without too much noise and the card will fit.

Re the Hard Disks, everyone has opinions, however the Segate SATA2 with native command queuing drives are the ones i would go for every time

No disrespect to the previous poster either, but i avoid Microdirect like the plague after a run in a few years ago where they claimed they sent the board back the the manufacturer, only i know they didn't due to some contacts there.

They lied outright to try and avoid a refund, including saying a duff motherboard couldn't damage a CPU and so they wouldn't do a refund. In the end credit card companies got involved and even after a charge back they tried to take the money again.

EDIT: Shuttle SD37P2 Review (review here)

HTH

The SD37 will support Core 2 Duo's. I know because I was speccing up an MCE based machine for someone, based on that box.

On the MD issue, it's weird, have been using them for 10 years now as they're local to me - no problems what so ever and must use them at least twice a year

Steve

Regarding supplier everyone has people they do and don't like so

As for the board i did a little look at it and indeed it does support the Core 2 Duo.

If I was building myself a system and I wanted it in a shuttle style chassis, I would probably go for that one.

So what did you go for in the end then?

So what did you go for in the end then?

I've been away and haven't orded yet although this week is the week! This is what is saved in my wish list, what do you think?

Shuttle S775 Intel 975X PCIE A L Black (SD37P2)

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Socket 775 2.4GHz (BX80557E6600)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB S300 (ST3400620AS)

Crucial 2x1GB 184Pin DIMM PC3200 Non-ECC Unbuffered (CT2KIT12864Z40B)

Need Windows XP Pro, should I get 32 or 64 bit (Know idea what the difference is!)

Should I have a second HDD, one to run windows and programs the other for storage? I presume the HDD I have spec'd is the tyoe you suggest?

As I don't run games etc the onboard graphics should be fine....

Last qustion, how do you get the processor to overclock!

Depends if you H/ware is supported by it then XP 64bit, but then other things (Mainly games) can have all the fun with running on XP64bit.

The core 2 has 64bit extensions so it's up to you really.

The HDD is sound and I would stay withthe onboard graphics until you know what vista required (eg is out) then you can pick up a cheap vista proof card when you decide you want to run Vista.

Look pretty neat to me

That should help you re overclocking but make sure it's all happy first and if you overclock research a nice quiet but high quality cooler that can get rid of any extra heat you generate. Don't think you will need to overclock it at the moment though

AnandTech: Overclocking Guide

EDIT: Actually thats well out of date, i'll try and find a better one, but basically you just up the FSB speed a little bit at a time being careful and see how far you can go. Personally run it at stock until you need more speed

Thanks for the feedback...

Probably go for the XP64 Bit then, a few extra quid for it is probably worth it!

Is it worth me running 2 HDD's?

Thanks

Steve

Depends, If you go the 2HDD route then the 320/360GB drives are much cheaper than the 400's last i looked.

What sort of work are you going to be doing on it?

Main use is general word/excel/web browsing/extremely large outlook files! and the big problem with our current machine is when opening explorer with lots of photos in it, around 100 images per folder of around 3-4MB each, the thumbnails can take 20 mins to load!

It's up to you really.

Two HDDs would speed up the thumbnails, but then again so would twice as much RAM as it wouldn't be paging to disk. The problem is the first time you generate the thumbnail you have to save it the disk the image is on in the thumbs_db file.

Guess you could go with 1HDD then always add a second and move your pics onto it should you find there is still an issue with speed.

The problem with the images is evrytime you open the folder, not just the 1st time. Is it likely I have a setting problem somewhere!

Sorry for all the questions!

In My computer go to:

- Tools/Folder Options

Click the 'View' Tab

Make sure that 'Do not cache thumbnails' is *NOT* ticked.

This should mean you only suffer the pain the first time and occasioanlly afterwards. This will speed things up at the expense of disk space however.

Excellent, that has made a massive differece! Won't tell the Mrs though as I still want a new PC!

Is there anything you can think of I will need in addition to the above 4 items to build the PC? I have the DVD/RW drive and a card reader. Do I need a processor fan or does that come with the processor!

Never built my own machine before so it's all new to me!!!

Thanks for all the help!

Excellent, that has made a massive differece! Won't tell the Mrs though as I still want a new PC!

Is there anything you can think of I will need in addition to the above 4 items to build the PC? I have the DVD/RW drive and a card reader. Do I need a processor fan or does that come with the processor!

Never built my own machine before so it's all new to me!!!

Thanks for all the help!

The BX at the start of the code usually suggests retail package which usually includes a cooler. Do check with the supplier, and i would leave some money over for a possible upgrade to an aftermarket one if you find the free one isn't as quiet as you hoped. Don't bother with artic silver etc it's a waste of money, and our thermal engineer backed this up, the gains were negligable and the stuff can become conductive if the layer is too thick. Eg not worth the risk.

You need these parts:

- Mobo

- CPU

- Cooler

- RAM

- GFX

- Sound Card

- KBD & Mouse

- Monitor

- Optical Drives

- Borrow floppy drive for XP install

- Possibly worth changing the case fans and cooler for quieter ones, but do this after you have purchased the machine and had it a while.

- I find that quietPC do some hard drive damping brackets (not the ones that enclose the drive though) which can reduce HDD noise quite a lot.

Oh and no i wouldn't mention it to the misses either, the core 2 Duo is a very nice chip[ and will make a very nice PC

Hope that helps