Hey all - I've stumbled across SFFs after realising that lugging a midi tower down the street to my mate's for a good old game of Battlefield is (a) impractical and (b) probably asking for a mugging. So with a small, punchy PC in mind, I logged onto my favourite rolleyes site and took a look around. I've only been on it ten minutes or so, but I've seen a few things..and this being the Bit-tech community, whom I love.. (*interval for weepy moment*) ..I came here. Mkay, the Biostar IDEQ 200P was the first thing to catch my eye, and I've read a couple of reviews, which proclaim it's excellence, and the Shuttle SN41G2 also caught my eye. I'm not so sure about the shuttle though - I know they're acclaimed and all, but the site I shop from gave a barebones (HA!..*cough.* ) description. Basically, I'm looking for a system capable of handling relatively new games without combusting, but that's also small and sleek. I'd kinda prefer a quiet system too, but that's not essential as it won't be on 24/7 or anything. Has anyone ever used the aforementioned two, and can you give me a second opinion? Advice/suggestions, etc. is truly welcomed. Cheers!
I've bought and used 8-9 shuttles now and had no problems apart from one dead psu which was caused by a power surge. The sn41g2 is very picky on ram though so make sure you use the crucial memory selector to make sure it will work There is a v3 of the sn41g2 out at the moment which has the better psu and some improvements
Do you mean v2? Done a quick google search and can't find anything, but the v2 was the one I was looking at. Thanks for your replies guys, I'm kinda leaning toward the shuttle (though lack of SATA support, if I'm correct, is kinda disappointing). It's beautiful though, and will probably turn out to be cheaper than the 64-bit Biostar. Anyone care to change my mind?
I'm pretty sure he means V2. The V2 version comes with a 250watt "SilentX" PSU. It's supposed to be pretty quiet compared to the Achme 200w PSU in the original SN41G2 (which I just happen to own). I have nothing but praise for the SN41G2 system. I've had no RAM problems at all. It's got 1GB of Kingston in it right now, at 2-2-2-11. It runs fairly cool, however, I cut out the rear grill (like most Shuttle owners) to drop temperatures. It's an easy mod that takes about 20 minutes to do, tops. The nice thing is that you can RMA just the motherboard. Shuttle is cool like that. A friend of mine has an IDEQ box, and he absolutely hates it. It's not especially stable, and runs fairly hot, even with a Celeron in it. He'd probably throw it out a window if he hadn't put all the money into it. I'm not sure if it's just his system, but I wouldn't take the chance.
Get the 45 over 41, its got a passive heatsink so you dont get an extremely annoying whiney 40mm fan on the northbridge and its less fussy with ram. Also, i doubt you need IGP in the 41 do you?
Sorry I meant v2 , its the sb61 thats on v3 If you are wanting sata there is the Sk43g shuttle, also a bindi says if you arent going to use the onboard gfx you may as well get the sn45 over the sn41 as its cheaper/quieter
Wow, more replies? Thank you all, you've been really helpful. I think I'm going to go for the 41, as the inbuilt gfx will probably come in handy. Thanks again!
From google: "Returned Material Authorization; required if a customer desires to return products. Also refers to parts that have been returned from a customer. " Basically the process you go through to send a faulty thing back to wherever you got it from. PS .the 45g rocks!
im using a ideq 200v at the moment and im more than surprised at silent death saying it runs too hot as virtually every review places the ideq as better at handling the thermals produced with prescotts cpu's and the likes. Since i dont know the full story i wont argue but just say that mine runs great and i havent had any stability problems at all ( running an XP 3000+). saying that i havent tried to o/c or anything so that might be where silentdeaths friend had the problem. I have also heard of problems with earlier batches of ideq systems that have been sorted out. My system is on most of the time and runs anything i've thrown at it no problems (ut2k4, farcry to mention a few). saying that if i had the cash i'd have gone for a shuttle, but they cost huge prices for the same performance. hey im a sucker for branding.
I'm pretty sure he has one of the earliest models, which is probably why he's having problems. Next time I see him, I'll find out.
