I'm currently looking to replace my gaming PC. At the moment I'm using a Philips LX1000. It's a proprietary SFF and comes with a 1.6(?)GHz Turion and NVIDIA 6600GTS. The only game I've ever played on it is Counter-Strike:Source, which I like quite a bit such that I don't see myself playing any other game for quite a while. Other than that, the LX1000 is rarely used for anything else. T My conundrum is this: I like the form factor but the 6600 stutters occasionally when gameplay is intense. I'm committed to upgrading for this reason and I'd be interested to know how far I should upgrade. Bearing in mind the stutter is only occasional on the 6600 and it's more of a minor inconvenience than a PITA, would a 6800 eliminate the stutter or would I have to go further up? I'm only interested in NVIDIA cards btw. Given the proprietary form factor of the LX1000, upgrading my graphics card will mean building a new PC from scratch. To complicate things, I have a s939 Opteron 144 still in its original packaging sitting in a cupboard. I've had it for years and I'd like to make use of it rather than buy a new CPU. This limits my choice of mobo, I know, but unless someone can convince me otherwise, I'd like to make use of something I've already bought. I've been looking for a while now and so far I've found 0 mini-ITX, 3 Shuttles and a handful of mATX boards that come with the s939 + PCIe x16 combination. Are there any other SFFs I should consider? I'd also like multiple Gb ethernet ports and on board graphics, if possible, to extend machine life into a home server (for when I upgrade this upgrade, so to speak). These are not 'must haves' they are just preferences. So there you have it: what graphics card and what mobo? Finally, what size of PSU would I need to run the rig? It will have no optical drive as I'll use a USB one I already have which is separately powered and I might stick XP on an 8GB compact flash card and run it from there rather than use a 2.5"/3.5" HDD (although I've never tried this method with a windoze OS). All advice is appreciated.
You would probably end up wasting money trying to upgrade such an old system. Unless you can find some cheap ram/graphics cards on ebay/the for sale bit of the forums your best bet would probably be to save up for something new. You may also be better off buying a gigabit adapter for the motherboard that trying to find a board that has 2, especially at the low end. Mister Tad is selling one for £3! If you would like to upgrade your current system he is also selling an AGP 7600. It would be helpful to know whether you need an AGP or PCIe graphics card (though I presume the former). If you do decide to upgrade, you can get a pretty good system for £3-400. The system below would be a start, though I would choose to upgrade the motherboard to one of Abit's P35 motherboard. That wouldn't have onboard video though. edit: if you are only going to play CS:S then an older DX9 graphics card like an ATI x1950 pro/nVidia 7900GT would be a bit cheaper (you could even buy my 7950GT!)
Also, with the S939, you're limited to DDR memory as well. I'm not sure what your budget is, but to be honest, you could build a really nice SFF gaming rig for under $500 USD / ~320-330 Euro. I'd have to agree that you have well below anything I'd consider upgrading. You'd probably go through a process of having to several other components along with the processor (For example, your PSU; can it meet the new damands?). I'd recommend something along these lines, if you want to remain on a tight budget: Intel E2160 Gigabyte GA-G31-S2L G.Skill 2 x 1GB DDR2-800 EVGA 9600GT Corsair HX520 PSU That's just the basic list. Really all you need on top of that is the case, and to carry over your optical drives/hard drives from the old system. These are just examples that I picked brand-wise, but depending on who you're loyal to and who is available/preferred in the UK the price should remain in the same ballpark.
Right, so all you need to upgrade for is that stutter? Sounds pretty reasonable to not wanna spend more then a few hundred quid on that. For all other uses you'd have to replace instead of upgrade, but for this, i can understand an upgrade. The good news is that upgrading will be cheap, as nobody else will be doing anything other then replacing to rigs like this I think the best route to take would be the second-hand market. I can't think of a way to get a SFF PC with a sub-8 series GFX card and a s939 processor above 350W, other then crazy stuff. Get a 350 or 400w PSU, and keep the rest of the money. A 7600 GT costs next-to-nothing secondhand nowadays, i'd be gunning for that. Good luck!
