Barebones Self Build

[The Sloblock]

Hi there.
Been browsing around for a few days with a new pc in mind and have gone from being on the point of buying a Dell to now deciding to build my own barebones system.

Reason for a barebones is I want it in my living room and don't have a lot of space. Also, want it to be as portable as possible but without being a laptop.

Current machine is a Compaq 1234 laptop: 266MHz, 3GB, 160MB, CD ROM, Win98. Bought this 6 years ago and it's now beginning to annoy me. Mostly use it for internet, graphics (Photoshop), print and web publishing. Also do the occasional bit of coding. Want to move into animation and video editing but that's obviously not an option with my Compaq. No gaming.

New machine should be able to do these tasks comfortably, as well as being a DVD RW and maybe replacing the tv too. Need flat screen and cordless keyboard & mouse. Internal modem/broadband if possible. All in a nice looking, quiet barebones box. Don't need speakers.

Any suggestions for components required to put this together? Don't need top performance although would like some upgrade potential (probably just RAM) and future-proofing. Budget: as far under £1000 as possible!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Me__2001]

do you have a specific barebones system in mind?

 

[Reefsmoka]

Take alook here , its not the greatest selection to choose from, but i reckon you will find what you want. Having a choice between Intel and AMD helps. For the purpose you want it for, An Intel Pentium 4 would probably be the way for you.

Once you think you've found the one you think you might want to purchase, just post the link on here and im sure most of us will give our opinions.

 

[The Sloblock]

Top seller on EBuyer is the Shuttle SN45G and this gets great reviews and is a good price so let's say I buy this - some of the other ones with hidden drives look a bit better but this will be going under the coffee table so that's no biggie.

One thing tho - it doesn't have an onboard graphics card. Don't know if you fellas are going to recommend that I buy one anyway so maybe this is not a drawback.

Any advice you can give me on what to put inside it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, guys.

 

[ChristopherP]

Radeon 9800pro is a definate - providing you are allowed one of these in a shuttle.

 

[Reefsmoka]

A Radeon 9800 pro should fit in a barebones system, i've seen one with an FX 5950 ultra in before, and thats alot of card!

The 9800 pro is a nice card, but i would slap an extractor fan on the barebones case, because they do get abit hot.

 

[The Sloblock]

An Intel Pentium 4 would probably be the way for you.

Sorry, Reefsmoka - didn't pick up on the fact that my initial choice of box clashes with your choice of CPU. With a P4 looks like the alternative is an SB61G2. Which do you think is the better system?

 

[ChristopherP]

in your new computer you want the following:

P4 Processor with the 800MHz FSB not the 533MHz one!
DDR 400 (PC3200) RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb AGP8x

you want to make sure that the power supply can hack all of this too - these are hungry parts. Im not sure what restrictions you would have with a say...250w PSU because it could not probably power it all.

 

[Reefsmoka]

Sorry, Reefsmoka - didn't pick up on the fact that my initial choice of box clashes with your choice of CPU. With a P4 looks like the alternative is an SB61G2. Which do you think is the better system?

well you have quite a big variety to choose from, check these out.

Shuttle XPC SB61G2 Barebones Intel P4 478p Aluminium
Mega 865 Barebone PC P4 800MHz 8x AGP WLAN Fm Tuner
Shuttle XPC SS56L Intel Aluminium Barebones System
Shuttle XPC SB62G2 Barebone Socket 478 800MHz FSB
Shuttle SB75G2 Barebone System With Free PN11
Shuttle ST62K Intel Barebone System
Aopen XC Cube EA65AV Edition
AOpen XC Cube EX91

Theres probably about 20 more, but this is getting very boring for me, all this copying and pasting! So at the end of the day its all down to the money you want to spend and the looks of the actual machine.

Once you've got the Case, you will then need a nice P4 processor with HT technology, some memory, a hard drive, a graphics card, and a CD or DVD drive.

So heres some suggestions from the same site:

Processor: P4 2.8Ghz 800Mhz FSB
Memory: 512DDR PC3200
Hard Drive: 120 Gig S-ATA
Graphics Card: Ati Radeon 9800Pro

This will give you a rough idea of price, and what you will need to get your project flying .

 

[The Sloblock]

Leaning towards the SN41G2V2, mostly because of cost but also because of the onboard graphics card - I'll try it out and upgrade if it's a pain. Prefer G2 to G.

With this box, have seen recommendations on Sudhian along the lines of:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton)
(1-2) x Kingmax DDR 512MB
Samsung SpinPoint 160GB SP1614N
NEC ND-2500A DVD/RW


Samsung widely regarded as the quietest HDD so will def go with this if I can find one.
AMD Athlon 2500+ seems to pop up a lot for SN45 & SN41 so this seems fine.
Will 512MB be enough if I go with the onboard RAM or will I need 1GB?
Don't know much about DVD except that I want something that will read and write CDs & DVDs and be silver! Does this one look OK.
Monitor - 17'' TFT. Ideally looking for something under £200. Speakers not critical.

Finally, what do I need to do to be able to watch TV through this box on my monitor? Will this let me record to DVD?

Thanks!

 

[The Sloblock]

OK, this is my spec so far:

• Shuttle SN41G2V2 (Black, if poss) £170
• Crucial 512MB CT389052 DDR PC2700 CL=2.5 Non-parity £60
• AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton OEM £75
• Samsung SpinPoint 160G ATA133 Hard Drive SP1614N OEM £70
• NEC ND-3500A 16x DVD±RW Double Layer ReWriter Black OEM £55
• Logitech Premium Desktop Optical Blk & Silver Cordless OEM (967320-0120) £35
• LG L1715S 17ins TFT 16ms 0.26mm Charcoal & Grey £220
• Windows XP Home £30 (amazon)

Comes to approx £715 incl VAT. How does this look? Anything missing?
Monitor from EBuyer. Memory Crucial. Other components from Overclock. Anyone know where I can get a black SN41G2V2 in the UK?

 

[GONNA-GET-U]

http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xFS?KW=SN41G2V2+&FN=&FD=0&x=13&y=18

http://shopping.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/ss_Shuttle_sn41g2v2.html

think it onlt comes in silver - but check the bottom link - say if it don't work

 

[Reefsmoka]

OK, this is my spec so far:

• Shuttle SN41G2V2 (Black, if poss) £170
• Crucial 512MB CT389052 DDR PC2700 CL=2.5 Non-parity £60
• AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton OEM £75
• Samsung SpinPoint 160G ATA133 Hard Drive SP1614N OEM £70
• NEC ND-3500A 16x DVD±RW Double Layer ReWriter Black OEM £55
• Logitech Premium Desktop Optical Blk & Silver Cordless OEM (967320-0120) £35
• LG L1715S 17ins TFT 16ms 0.26mm Charcoal & Grey £220
• Windows XP Home £30 (amazon)

Comes to approx £715 incl VAT. How does this look? Anything missing?
Monitor from EBuyer. Memory Crucial. Other components from Overclock. Anyone know where I can get a black SN41G2V2 in the UK?

Seeing as your getting your Processor OEM, you will need to get a fan/heatsink seprately. I'm not sure if a Thermal-rite SP will fit, so i would probably go for something cheap and cheerful. Like one of these:

Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2
Speeze 5F273B1L3 Raptorcool
Amd Xp3400+ Air Cool Copper Base
Speeze EEA30B4 Lightowl

 

[ChristopherP]

Which graphics card?