Small Form Factor Info on these little "cubes of delight"

Ok so i want to build one but i have no clue with these small form factor pcs.
i know my **** with normal pcs etc but ive allways been confused when it comes to these mofo's. i see there prices ranging from £50 to £200 - what do you actually get? cause the websites im looking at are not thatr clear.

Bassically im looking for what do you get with these cubes?
i wanna get one for lans, i need the mobo to have PCI-E for my x800 and ddr 400 Ram complatible mobo.

 

Cubes? Shuttle XPCs? There's a few reviews we've done on here.

Shuttles are what you should be looking at imo, especially if you want something powerful.

 

sorry ment shuttle type ones.

 

Check out shuttles site and go through their range. Depends what you want in it and what your budget is, they have everything to suit every taste.

You want DDR400 and x800? Is the x800 single slot or dual slot cooler. If the latter you are restricted to something like the SN25P. The last letter denotes case style, P is the biggest. G5 is the sexiest but the G range is the "standard" size and only accepts single slot cooled graphics cards.

If your x800 does single slot, then i'd look at the ST20G5, very nice. Review of both are on here.

 

it is dual slot, ok il check out their site. Thanks

 

ive been looking around and i like this one Aopen X-Cube EA65-11A Instant On, the problem is it isnt AMD 939 or PCI-E . can i simply buy a micro atx mobo and install that? or are they specially designed for each case?

 

Nope, they are flex atx smaller than micro. And they are propriatory solutions unfortunately.

 

ah phooooey, just i wanted a media one with the remote and Display Etc - cause i want it as my secondary/media/lanparty pc. so i want to be able to when i go to lans put in my x800 PCI-E card that is in my main pc so i still have a kick ass pc at the lans.

 

The displays rarely offer any value tbh, and if you buy a TV card you get a remote with it.

 

yes i could do that. but i liked the idea of being able to use it as a normal stereo for my music aswell, within 8 seconds i tihnk it said and you dont need to have the pc fully on.

 

Just never turn it off, or when you do set it to sleep.

 

I have an xqpack that rocks absolutely, i have done the big tower thing with many many fans and just not been happy. I went with the micro atx and is has plenty of space and with the right mobo you can do whatever you want.

 

I would say shuttles are the safest bet, cost wise anyway - or you could build a nice mATX system in one of the many SFF cases out there (would be bigger than a shuttle, but would probably still be quite diddy at least compared to a tower)

 

there are alot of options out there for building a cube type mATX system.. so many case designs now, and more being release all the time. see how small those Mini-ITX and Nano-ITX boards are! that opens up some possibilities, not that much power on those boards but the custom case possibilities are endless!

 

not long 'til intel viiv stuff is due to come to light, i hope it lives up to all its promises as i'm soon to be in the market for a little box to go under/by the tv!

 

i dont know if im aloud to do this, but check out sfftech.com. They are all about SFF pc's.

 

http://www.htpcnews.com is another site, its not SFF persay but it has a wealth of info on the 3 S's of a media PC - software, size and silence.

 

hey guys just to say i got one - shuttle brand new 939socket and pci-x for £190 brand new ebay2win