I am planning on building another comp mainly for internet browsing and mp3 playing. Since I don't need that much processing power or a powerful gpu for 3d apps, can anyone suggest any fairly cheap solutions? Also, can anyone point me in the direction of any micro-atx cases? I prefer the "cube" type but all I can think of at the mo are shuttles and e-cubes. Any pros and cons over a shuttle vs. e-cube? I know the e-cube has AGP but I don't think I will be needing that. One last thing, I have a DI-704 router and was wondering how I could connect the new box online without running wires all over the house as it will be placed far away from my main puter. Is there any product I could use for wireless networking, adding it on to my existing router?.. or should I just buy another cable modem?
I know that the newer Shuttles have an AGP slot but they are for Pentium 4 based computers. About the networking, you can just buy a wireless access point and it will plug into your current router and give you wireless access. Then you just have to get a wireless card or USB adapter for the new PC.
l33t, I think this can help you out in making your current wired router wireless. Then, you just have to pick up the NICs (I recommend USB NICs since you can reposition them for better reception) Note: If you don't use WEP, I hope you like sharing.
How about the Shuttle SV25? A friend of mine just got one of these for a bedroom pc from The Overclocking Store and its a pretty cool little unit. He's running it with a Celeron 1.4ghz, 256mb ram, and an 80gig WD Hard drive, and it quite happily runs XP pro, plays MP3's and DIVX's too. Here's a pic of his bedroom rig: Its also got 1 pci slot so you could fit a Wireless network card if you wanted, although it has a regular NIC integrated into the mobo already.
Ultimately, I would recommend one of the Shuttle systems as they are very well put together. Of the shuttle systems, the SN41G is my favourite. AMD nForce 2 AGP Alternatively, the best option for the P4 is the SB51G with the intel 845 GE chipset. As far as I know, this also supports Hyperthreading.
Cheers for all the responses m8s! I'll take a look into the wireless card/usb adapter for my networking solution. How cheap will this be? I checked the DWL 900AP+ that whypick1 linked to and the cheapest I've seen it for was $94! If over $50 for wireless, I could just get another cable modem for the other room which would be cheaper. For the new box, I was planning on keeping it P4 but may also consider a Celery. I'm quite the Intel fan so I dunno if I'd like the idea of AMD running my new puter, hehe As for the micro ATX form factor, I'm a complete n00b and haven't looked into many boards yet. Do they offer micro boards for P3 as well? I have an old 700mhz chip laying around.
If your P3 chip is a Socket 370 type it will drop right into that Shuttle sv25 They even give you a low-profile cooler Have a look here.
Oooo.. yup, it's a socket 370. I may have found a winner! It'll save me $ insteada buying a new cpu. The tv out function would be icing on the cake since this internet/mp3 computer could double as a multimedia box for the living room. About the networking.. is there any wireless device I could use under $50? If not, I'll pick up a cable modem offa eBay. I'll hafta get another monitor too.. preferably a cheap 15" lcd. I've already got the spare mouse and keyboard dying to be used.
hahahha l33t, you must have mistaken wireless network for cordless phones. The current network a mi casa is two USB NICs and a router (which he had to replace recently when the wireless part died unexpectedly), and that was about $350 USD (Ok, this was retail, and this was when 802.11b was new). If you get another cable modem, you'll have to get another cable jack (nope, all the ones around your house will not work), which probably end up costing quite a bit. If you're cable ISP isn't Docsis compatible, you'll have to find a very specific modem to use, which might end up costing you more. Plus, they'll probably charge you for the use of another modem in the form of another IP number, which will probably be a monthly charge. Add that all up, and you can tell that in the long wrong, going wireless is just cheaper.
All right.. so I must stick with the wireless route even though it'll cost me a lot more than I had expected, thus putting my plans on hold. I wasn't sure what "WEP" was since I'm new to wireless networking so I looked it up and found this. Quite interesting. Guess all those radiowave hackers could intercept and steal all the pr0n I dl, j/k. I also found a bunch of SMC 2632W Wireless NICs on eBay. Also some sort of antenna for it? I will still need some sort of wireless router to go with the cards, right? Finally, is there anything above 802.11b or is that current? Also could you suggest some wireless NICs? whypick1, you seem to be da man when it comes to WNIC, thanks in advance!
First off, if you get the WNIC you listed, you'll need to get a PCI card adapter (those are PCMCIA cards for laptops). Like I said before, get a USB NIC. You can reposition them for better reception and you won't notice any decrease in bandwidth. There's 802.11a, which is 54mbps @ the 5ghz range (compared to 11b's 11mbps @ 2.4ghz), but the problem with that is there's no standardization. For 802.11b (which ironically came first), all products can work with each other, no matter what vendor(s) they came from. So, you could very well have a D-link router, a Linksys PCMCIA card in your laptop, a 3com PCI NIC and a Microsoft USB NIC and have it all be copacetic. If you want to get 11a, make sure to get it from the same vendor so it will all work (like it should). Again, I recommend D-link, especially since they're offering the + feature, which basically doubles the bandwidth, but you need + routers and NICs. You already have a D-link wired router, and I believe the product I showed you in the previous post will allow it to work as a gateway to your router.
I believe my router is also a gateway. Not sure how I would double my bandwidth as the existing router and NICs I have are not +. Do I need to replace all the networking or does that mean if I got the wireless router and NIC both with the + feature, only the new box would have doubled bandwidth? About the extra cable modem not being compatible with the other cable jacks in my house, is this still true if my living room has digital cable? The local cable company here often has RoadRunner and digital cable specials, or do they still need to install 2 separate jacks, 1 for digi cable and 1 for internet access?
All routers have the capability to be gateways. Think of a router as a door, with a gateway as a "gateway" (gee, what a concept) to the door. The + only applies to wireless stuff. Yes, the jacks are seperate. I have AT+T Digital Cable, and there's only one jack in this house that can house the cable modem connection.
Mini-itx can be pretty sweet if you're looking for an integrated solution. Cost is lower than a shuttle board but there is smaller upgrade path. They're also lighter and quieter than the shuttle. Have a look at mini-itx.com for some good infos on Mini-itx. As to wireless networking, the best way to connect up would be by sticking with an access point connected to your router (almost all offer an rj45 connection) and a wireless card. If cost is a factor then just get the cheapest you can. Personally I've got a mix of cards and have no problems at all. Security wise it should be easy to set up, simply enable WEP encryption and tell your access point to only accept connections from the MAC address of your wireless NIC
So basically, to get the new rig up and running on the net, I'd just need the USB wireless NIC, and access point connected to my router?
Correct, if you only have 2 computers or will most likely have very little network traffic then you could set up a wireless network by simply giving all your computers wireless nics and setting up an Ad Hoc network (think of it as a coaxial network minus the wires in terms of performance)
