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[Diablos]

Here's what I want:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16856101462
Shuttle XPC SN85G4V3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103491
Athlon 64 2800+ (Newcastle core)

Yeah I know it's the soon to be extinct socket 754, and yeah I know the 2800+ is the worst Athlon 64 you can buy, but I'm cheap. It has to be better than my 2400+ (or 2450+ as I like to call it since it's set at 1.83GHz/333FSB but with a 256k cache ).

This is all I need to buy, really. I already have an extra SATA drive, a Radeon 9800 Pro, Radeon 9550, and an extra 512MB DIMM.

Some questions:

-How quiet is that Shuttle XPC going to be using a fanless VGA card? Anyone else here use Shuttle XPC's? My comp right now uses a Thermaltake Silent Boost and an Antec TruePower 380W PSU. Rated noise for the Silent Boost is ~21dba, same goes for the TruePower. If XPC's run louder than this, please let me know because I won't be interested in buying it if that's the case. Unless you're a hardcore gamer, no PC should ever run louder than ~40dba IMO.

-I'm confused... does this thing use a CPU fan or is it just a heatsink with one big fan behind it blowing out of the case?

-How do you install an Athlon 64? How do you apply thermal paste to an Athlon 64? I'm used to my 2400+ - I run a thin line of Ceramique down the middle of the core. But the Athlon 64 core is covered up... so how do you properly apply thermal compound?

-Minimum power specifications for the only two standalone video cards I have, a 9800 Pro and 9550, are 300-350W. The 9800 Pro actually requires an additional power connector, but the 9550 does not. This XPC has a 240W PSU. Is it gonna go up in flames or fail indefinitely if I use these cards? If I can't, I'm either going to have to find a decent card that isn't power hungry or give up on the XPC for now.

-Am I throwing my money away buying an Athlon 64 system knowing that I will be using a low-end 2800+? Would I be better off buying a Socket A based XPC and save some money?

All help and suggestions are welcome... thanks.

 

[element]

Am I throwing my money away buying an Athlon 64 system knowing that I will be using a low-end 2800+? Would I be better off buying a Socket A based XPC and save some money?

get 939!! or at least a P4 on 775. It will cost you another $50 or something, and well worth it. Get the Shuttle SN95G5, or Shuttle SB83G5.

you will have enough power in the PSU, as long as you dont have like an 850XT or something.

 

[Diablos]

What's the diff. between socket 939 and 754? I mean the processors can be EXACTLY the same... it's just that the socket is different. And since 939 is ideal for the high end 64's, I might as well save myself $50... I dunno...

 

[Shogmaster]

What's the diff. between socket 939 and 754? I mean the processors can be EXACTLY the same... it's just that the socket is different. And since 939 is ideal for the high end 64's, I might as well save myself $50... I dunno...

754 = single channel RAM, 512KB or 1MB L2 cache, dead end upgrade path.
939 = dual channel RAM, 512KB or 1MB L2 cache, future processor support.

 

[GONZO]

funny i just built my friends shuttle last weekend. It's very quiet and the quality is off the scale the inside of the case is very very well designed. granted everything is tight but there is a spot for everything and the cables are run nicely. I was also surprised at how quiet the system is. All that I needed to do was drop in the cpu, the case came with it's own cooling solution. Shuttle XPC SB95P V2 is the one i built so i used a pentium chip with an pci express card. And the benchmarks were awesome. i might actually build up another for myself. very sweet systems.

 

[cs060mk2]

I think it has the new generation PSU that is said to be more silent than the old one but keep in mind no 40 mm fan is truly silent. On my old Shuttle I had to use an external normal ATX PSU with 80 mm fan (that cant be heard because it never spins up to much because its outside the hot case) because the internal PSU with its fuckin 40 mm fan drove me nuts!

 

[Jill Sandwich]

I built a SFF pc using an XC Cube (the one on the left here) http://solution.aopen.com/products/XC/
it uses a fan, but it's very quiet.

 

[Diablos]

754 = single channel RAM, 512KB or 1MB L2 cache, dead end upgrade path.
939 = dual channel RAM, 512KB or 1MB L2 cache, future processor support.

Even the cheapest socket 939's are 128-bit? Like this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103501

Thanks for the advice so far, keep it comin'.