SFF chassis for future Vista box

[Chester]

Hello to all you custom PC builders out there, here's another! :)

I'm currently pondering over the chassis for my next project. It's going to be a Windows XP Pro box for the time being, but later in the year will become a Windows Vista PC. It's just that I've got a spare Windows XP Pro license for now, but I'll upgrade to Vista when it comes out.

In a recent PC Format magazine, they hinted that Vista will contain Win MCE features and then some. Can't wait to have a play with a near final release, as and when the candidate comes out.

Anyways, back to matters in hand... My requirements are pretty basic considering what configs lots of people have these days. I'd like to base the system around either a Pentium mobile CPU, or an AMD Athlon64, a gig of RAM upgradable in the future (I'm sure Vista will beg for more!). I've already got a 250GB PATA HDD to go in, but will upgrade to a larger SATA 300Mb/sec drive towards the end of the year. The Pioneer DVR-110 is my chosen DVD writer, unless anyone can top this for keeping quiet/features. Ah yes, the pinnacle of the requirements really is keeping this new box hushed up, as much as audibly possible.

It must have a PCI socket ready to accept my wonderful Yam SW1000XG (love it to bits!). Not really bothered about video performance at all since it will serve media, not really for games, so on-board is fine. I'd love to be able to have a free PCI-X socket for installing a DVB tuner card at a later stage, but not absolutely necessary. A gigabit NIC is not essential but at least 10/100 Ethernet is.

Cosmetically it's got to be small and it's going to be put on the floor, practically out of sight. It's going to be the storage hub of the network so it's gotta be reliable. Colour schemes, well black and/or silver is fine, but nothing shouting, I prefer a little modesty there being honest! :)

Has anyone seen a small form factor chassis/bare-bones system that would fit my needs?

Many thanks in advance...

[meansizzler]

The New Pentium M Shuttle is up to the Job, Soundblaster 24 bit audio and PCI X 1 and X16 slots

http://eu.shuttle.com/en/desktopdefault.aspx/searchcall-12/searchcategory-933/noblendout-1/tabid-72/170_read-11520/

[deksawyer]

I've just put together a SFF media server using an Aspire X-Qpack case.

It might be a bit bling for you as it has windows on 3 sides and as standard has blue 120mm rear fan and a blue fan in the PSU.

I ditched the rear fan for a silent & plain Thermaltake one and swapped the PSU for a Fortron I had laying about, mainly because it was just that little bit quieter - I could faintly hear the std PSU from where I had the server placed and where I sat in the livingroom. I'm quite anal when it comes to noise reduction though.....

All in all the case is fine, it runs cool (although the board I have in at the moment is known to run the CPU very hot) and is very well made; all alluminium. It is slightly bigger than the average SFF case though....some less than average pics here (http://www.pbase.com/deksawyer/nikon_d50_kit_lens)

Another alternative is the Antec Aria - slightly less bling.

D.

[Chester]

Thanks for the suggestion on the Shuttle case, but the fanless PSU is going to get hot. I know mine will get up to silly temperatures on my desktop PC if I don't run two fans below it. Not far and away from what I was looking for mind.

deksawyer: That Aspire looks just the ticket! You can indeed get one without Windows, allows me the flexibility to upgrade mainboards too. Excellent! I've seen the Aria from Antec, in fact I built one and was quite please with it, but it's not quite what I was looking for cosmetically for this project.

Keep them suggestions coming, anyone top the Aspire? Any more bare-bones suggestions? I'm not quite so bothered about building a PC from scratch these days!

Cheers :)

[meansizzler]

If you wat a Top SFF case then get the one I got, it's a silverstone SG01, takes a full size ATX PSU and MATX Motherboard, and has 4 expansion slots, holds two hard drives and two dvd writers, also has good cooling and you can fit one of them Zalman 7000B coolers in there for the CPU, but check there site first, should run quiet for an AMD based system with that Zalman Cooler, but for a Pentium D it's going to be loud..as the Zalman cooler just won't cut it...but the case is nice and light, to light if you ask me...

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/sg01/34%20view/sg01.jpg

Link (http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-sg01.htm)

Around £140, expensive but a great case...thoguh you may want to get a modular PSU if you don't wat to spend 30 minutes sorting out where to put the extra PSU cables...

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

I would go A64 over the pentium M. The pentium M uses an old chipset so the memory bandwith is limited and the A64's are cool running before you even factor in the cool and quiet technology.

If you can find one i would get a S939 opteron, they are server processors but are identical to the A64s and can be used in any S939 motherboard and run even cooler then a standard A64.

[Chester]

£140 for a mATX case! :eek: That's a lot of cash for not much tin. I know how good the quality of Silverstone cases are (not quite as good as people make out) but I don't think it justifies that price tag at all. Especially when you consider you need a PSU on top of that. They're not Lian-Li!

Thanks for the arguement about Pentium-M Vs AMD Athlon64. I've seen some really interesting reports on the A64 of late and considering the cost difference, there's plenty to support going that route. Some claim the A64 consumes only 3 watts whilst idling! I'm told that Intel are working on the next generation of Centrino and Pentium-M chips, due for launch Q3/4 this year. Too long to wait!

Anyone have a good experience with any mATX mainboard? The criteria is nForce4, super quiet (so no screaming northbridge fan!) PCI, PCI-e X1 & X16 slots if possible. SATA RAID would be a good option but not necessary at this stage.

Many thanks for your comments so far :)

[lisag]

I have the Antec Aria case - not much of a looker, but solidly built and very quiet, supplied with psu. Also the Asus A8N VM CSM is a popular m-atx board.

lisa

[meansizzler]

Also the Asus A8N VM CSM is a popular m-atx board.

lisa

Popular but full of Problems, I have used this board, AVOID, problems with USB ports, crappy BIOS, cannot use ATI cards, glitchy audio playback, DDR400 runs at DDR333 Speeds, no wonder so many of you have problems with your Terratec 2400IDT, that board is a nightmare, do not buy that board, go for an Nforce 4...or to what I did get an Intel Based machine..and you weill be problem free..

[Chester]

Perhaps that board was a one off. I also had problems with a VIA chipset board using an A64 3500+, that was an Abit AV8. Abit are very respectable amongst the overclocking fraternity, and I have also used other VIA chipset boards that have been very reliable. This AV8 was going to be a nightmare for some reason, perhaps it was a one off, perhaps it's just one particular model to stay away from.

As long as they do the specification I'm looking for, I intend to go MSI and nForce4. DFI are also on the shortlist. I'm hoping to find a board without a Northbridge fan but a Gigabyte ATX board I've used recently didn't have one and the heatsink on the northbridge got extremely hot. Enough to burn my fingers if I let it! So, I learnt the hard way that it's probably best to use low-speed fans than no fans at all. That Gigabyte board past away within a week!