Small Form Factor not sure on a board

i want to build my first computer as a portable one that i can take to friends houses and the such. it would be used for email internet messenger 6.1 and some games. i have been looking at the via epia boards because i would like to steath the pc as an xbox like on mini-itx.

i will most likely use:
micro-atx psu with 145w
maxtor full sized 30 gig hd
samgsung 48x16x48x
256mb ram
via epia something mobo
and most likely 3 fans (top back psu)

do you guys think that would work?
my next optoin up is probably a out of the box p4 motherboard from intel

(and how hard is it to desolder the usb ports off the back of the mobo? i would like to make them replace the controller ports

 

to be honest, the Epia's have piss poor gaming ability if any.... you CAN get a pci based video card, but don't expect stellar performance out of it...


depending on your budget, you can get a decent AMD based shuttle or p4 based shuttle that'll have onboard ATI9000 graphics or GF4 MX quality graphics...

 

urm just letting u know i'm only 13 and i've only been looking into the real phisical components of computers for like a month now and i'm not sure what a shuttle board is. do you mind explaining it? is it just a brandname or form facter?

i think i'd settle with like gf2 graphics or ati 9600 or somewhere around that. would it just be the graphics that would be horrible or is it the whole board snd chipset? i was looking at the epias because they have onboard tv out that i could use at friend's houses.

oh and does anyboddy know a good place to get modding supplys in the ontario gta? thats probably a better question for mod the box forums but you guys seem like a bigger community so i joined here first

 

http://spacewalker.com/index7.html


shuttles...


basically you buy a barebone system, get a processor, some memory, a hard drive, a cd drive and it's a complete system...

if you get one with the onboard video, chances are it's got tv out, if you get one without the onboard video, it'll have a AGP slot, so you can put any AGP card in the system (not ANY card, but they do support a ton of cards)

 

hehe ... just for future reference, while M$ stuff often uses an unreasonable amount of resourses, probably quoting the actually games as an indication of requirements would be more useful

Seriously tho, i guess you dont have money to throw around at 13, so spend a good few hours and a lot of patience and look thru all the 'small-form factor' threads here, and do lots of googling. Find out the canadians on the forum and maybe ask them for supply advice - there are a few of them! it's much easier to do stuff if you've worked it all out in your head first. A little time here normally means you're much more satisfied at the end...

Also please please dont take this as patronising - all the guys churning out the excellent mods spend a disturbing amount of time doing homework..

 

Why not chip an Xbox and run Linux or Win-ce on it - You get a decent spec PC, Hdd, DVD-rom with Geforce 4 video out and the ports are just USB so a usb keyboard & mouse can be modded to use with it + u can still play Xbox games too - I payed £40 for a second-hand Xbox with a knackered HDD, £30 for an Xecuter 2.3B, 15 Mins later it was chipped. Stuck a spare 13G HDD I had lying around (took me ages to set-up to work in an Xbox though) And I'm cooking... Nice media player and It plays MAME great.
Now all I need is an Xbox-JAMMA converter so I can stuff it inside an Arcade cabinet.

 

i guess thats another possibility. i kinda want the *he look what i made* part of it to cause its not important and i'm the main user of my parents pc so its not like i need it. it started out as an idea from a friend and its not really something i take 100% seriously. thanks alot for you help

(i'm looking at micro atx boards i can stick a decent processer in )