haha 2 intel 1 amd i think enuff eh

Hi all SFF kaki,
I'm building my SFF by this week hopefully, I'm thinking of following items, please helps to suggest if there's anything better.

1. C2Q6600 (what good heatsink to run, I foresee this proc will be highly utilized at most of the time, a good cooler is must)
2. Asus P5QL-EM or Gigabytes G33M-DS2R or if want to go cheap, any G31 mobo
3. 4GB of RAM
4. 320GB min for HDD (Thinking of Seagate Baraccuda 7200.11)
5. Either Mushkin HP-550 or Cooler Master M520 or cheap Thermaltake RX2 450watts (it must be modular)
6. Graphic card will use built-in
7. MATX Case (XQBOX, Lian-Li, Sugo, which case the best in term of ventilation?)

I at least expect to overclock the Q6600 to 3Ghz with a good cooler, please suggest a good cooler that would fit SFF form. I hope I'll make all the choices right by having comments/suggestions from all sifus around here. Initially I thought of getting a Shuttle XPC so that I would not worry too much about which items as it came as a barebone, but thinking of the upgrade path, guess DIY SFF is a better route to take.

Keep the ideas flow here...!!!...

back pain...just finished installing my new HTPC. planning to bring it to the office tomorrow to install winxp and all other necessities...will post pix if i remember to.


wats the SFF gonna be used for??? HTPC?

if HTPC id recommend getting a G45 chipset mobo. something with HDMI built in just in case.

7200.11 only has 500GB and above. and if ur gonna spend money on that, id recommend the WD640GB. same price but 140gb more. performance is on par as well. me using it and it goooooooooodd.

forget the mushkin... piece of shit PSU.i friggin hate it. cables friggin stiff... even on an ATX case damn hard to route the cables coz so stiff...imagine an SFF. it doesnt rate that highly in reviews either. go for corsair if budget permits.

Lian Li V300. 2*120mm intake and 1 puny 80mm exhaust but more choices on heatsinks...
or
XQBOX. 1*120mm exhaust and 1 80mm intake. (me using this and me likey) heatsinks are limited due to the support beam (if unmodded)..taller heatsinks will make the removable mobo tray useless as u have to remove the cooler to remove the mobo tray.

OCing the Q6600 to 3.0 u can even use the stock cooler. u can actually even lower the voltage more if ur only going to 3.0.

depends on budget too..

hi mADmAN,
well, it wouldn't be use a HTPC, it'll be used as a small workstation that run some of my test applications. I'll keep that in mind to get that WD640GB instead. I can't find too many reviews on the Mushkin so I didn't sure how it goes, thanks for sharing the stuffs, how about Cooler Master M520 modular then? Is that good?

do you think its possible to oc the Q6600 (G0 stepping) to 3Ghz just by stock cooler? I'm buying new dunno whether still can find Q6600 G0 stepping or not, see whether I have luck this weekend.

hi kujaboyde/mADmAN
budget wise, I'll try not to spend whenever possible, but if needs to, I'll make sure it's covered.

So the temp list would be as follows:
1. Q6600 (I see that's the best buy among the quad-core, although I'd prefer it to be 45nm)
- at the moment no other candidates yet
2. Asus P5QL-EM (G43 would be good enuf, but just curious, if I slap in a G31 would it be much slower than G43?)
- I'm just wondering if I just want my Q6600 @ 3Ghz, would it be big difference between G31, G33, G43 or even G45?
3. 4GB of RAM (guess I'll just take any branded RAM would do, DDR2 800Mhz)
- Corsair XMS2 6400C4DHX
4. 640GB Western Digital WD6400KS
5. Cooler Master M520 Modular PSU
6. Case still undecide
- still thinking which one is better, heard Sugo01 run hots, Lian-Li from the spec looks quite big, till I see the real case in Lowyat first
7. SATA DVDRW, guess all the drives are same size, so just get one match to the case would do
- A black Pioneer SATA would do

I make a rough estimation, it'll cost me more or less 2.5k and it's still within my limited budget. I'm just wondering whether I should just neglect those expensive mobo, and get 1 Gigabyte/Abit G31 mobo which just came around RM180, but I dunno whether it can achieve a 3Ghz overclock not.

Tough time for me, used to be very active in DIY and Overclocking back in University time, but these days choices are aplenty, dunno which one to go after.

Thanks bro

Greetings, SFFians!

Just found the time to post my SFF here! With updates, too!!!


[URL=http://g.imageshack.us/img357/img3

Specs:

Intel C2D E4600 2.4 GHz
Intel DG31PR mobo
Gigabyte GeForce 9800GTX+
PNY 2 x 2GB RAM = 4GB
320GB WD Caviar HDD
19" X193W Acer LCD
Silverstone Strider 560W
Razer Copperhead
Razer Mantis Speed
Microsoft Wireless Keyboard

It's not much compared to some specs i've seen among other SFFians here; but it's great for a gamer-on-a-budget like me!

This post has been edited by FidelisGVR: Jan 31 2009, 12:21 PM

dont know about the CM PSU.. best to read reviews online to find out more about it.. if its just a test workstation, any mobo will do.

yes u can OC to 3.0 with stock cooler...like i said earlier, at 3.0 u can even lower the voltage (which is what i did with mine), which will reduce temps. so stock cooler should be fine...

any mobo would would do fine...but of course the newer the better. if OC-ing to 3.0, any oc-capable mobo would be enough.

ram, if ur not gonna OC the ram, id recommend to get value rams, cheap and suits the purpose.

okie...here comes some really bad pix of my brand spanking new HTPC (everything is new except for the PSU and casing)...


sigh...my camera sux in low light and my photoshop skills is lesser than that of a n00b...so live with the bad pix









added a 60mm fan @ 5v to help move the hot air out of the system.


this pic shows where i hid my cables, under the support beam and and in the unused HDD cage.
the HDD is in the DVD Drive bay right under the DVD.

pic also shows the fan filter on the front intake fan

also shows the 80mm CM fan i added to help cool the HDD. its blowing directly to the HDD...and mounted using cable ties. ive also changed the rear fan to vizo UV LED fan...but i cut out the LED coz i wanna sleep at night.



cant really hide the cables as the external drive bays are all used up. so hentam whereever i can la...as long as it doesnt block airflow....



anyway...specs of the new HTPC

Microfly SFF Case
FSP Saga 400W PSU
Intel E5200 with stock Q6600 cooler
Gigabyte EG45M-DS2H
1* PNY 2GB DDR2-800
Asus SATA DVDRW
WD Green Power 1TB HDD
LG 42" Plasma via HDMI

nicely done there madman

wahh .. nice nice .

Ur style of cable management so much like SFF style ..

cable management FTW!! wait i get my microfly this weekend. got time to play2 again

some pikturs aka Doom's poison wannabe

antec skeleton

shuttle D10


This post has been edited by kujaboyde: Sep 25 2008, 06:28 AM

damn, that antec skeleton sure looks damn good

antec skeleton can use ATX mobo..i guess the price around 5-600++.
no review about it yet but i like the frame design, for now..

haha, wait till u c the price.

Another SFF to be considered is the Antec P180 Mini. But the price is just RM 100 difference from the super mid tower version, makes it too expensive for a sff that uses full SECC.

ATX! i'll pass

sure gonna eat a lot of my table space

u gonna bring it here ar bro

wah the skeleton is an open case concept somemore....

uish... cannot cannot.... my cat will get electrocuted

if only they cover it using smoke acrylic

damn cun

& avoid flies, cats get electrocuted

@kujaboyde: Antec Skeleton is a casing?

no its a car yes it is

edit: CLICK for LINK

This post has been edited by kujaboyde: Sep 25 2008, 03:16 PM

sigh.....damn sien....

last night i discovered that my HTPC's Linksys USB WIFI dongle dieded on me....

need to buy a replacement....considering which to go for now... PCI card or USB?

PCI card i have to remove the fan i put on the PCI slots....but convenient la..plus i shouldnt have any power issues... USB Might have power issues...