Hey, I have just bought a shuttle sh55j2 and installed an i3-540 and 16gb Kingston ram. It has on board graphics but I was thinking about buying something that will give it a bit more gpu power. I am limited however as the system has a 300watt psu and a wireless pci card (which only gives room for a single slot card). I do most of my gaming on a ps3, the pc is mainly used for office tasks, photoshop, programming etc. My final requirement is that the card could potentially be used in macosx as I may consider hackintoshing the shuttle someday. Any ideas which card I should look for which is currently on the Market or is coming out in the foreseeable future? Thank you for any advice
There are many single slot GPU's available but the performance and price varies. What kind of performance are you after? Gaming? If you are only using it for office tasks, photoshop, programming etc, the on-chip GPU of the i3 540 will be more than enough. I know because I use one in a mini-ITX PC (see sig).
I would love to be able to run Deus Ex 3 (much prefer it on a PC to the PS3) but I guess that is not going to be possible with a single slot graphics card? Besides that just standard office tasks.. I am looking to spend about £80, at a push max £120.
In that budget a single slot AMD 5770 would work but I cannot vouch for how well it runs Deus Ex 3. You can get single slot AMD 6850's but I haven't seen them in the UK yet (Powercolor make them). According to the Hexus review of the Shuttle SH55J2, you can fit a dual slot GPU as long as the power supply is up to it. If the PSU you have in your shuttle can take it, you can get a "normal" AMD 6850 with a copy of Deus Ex 3 for around the £120 mark: http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/gpu-amd/radeon-hd6850-pci-e-(960-cores). If you only have the standard 300w PSU in your Shuttle, a replacement 500w model isn't cheap: http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=179867&source=froogle.
My problem is I have a PCI Wireless card built into the shuttle that takes up the secondary slot so I need a single slot one. I will have a look into hunting down that Powercolor one you mentioned. Might be able to order it from eBay US. Thanks for the excellent reply.
Do some homework and find out if a 5770 will play that game. You can get single slot versions for around £90.
I reckon a 5770 would play it, dependant on resolution. Won't be able max out all the settings to super duper awesome smashing great though.
