I have the following bits lying about 1 Core 2 Duo (Old one, LGA665) 1 BFG 8800GT 512MB 2GB Generic Ram I have my eye on some b-grade shuttles SD39P2 @ €269 SD37P2 @ € 249.00 SP35P2 @ € 169 This will be used behind my TV for movies and a spot of very mild gaming (read Sims3 for the better half) What should i buy? There are no alternatives, it will be one on the above. Obviously i'd prefer the cheapest option, but if there are issues, please, let me know
SP35P2 is what I had, it's pretty loud stock but definitely very good. The PSU is amazingly awesome.. No experience with the others, try asking the Sudhian forums, they know a lot more about Shuttle PCs than Bit on average.
Personally if I went for a shuttle one of my major concerns would be whether a dual slot GPU could fit. Even something like the 4770 is dual slot and that type of cooler is getting more popular (and you have an 8800 spare). That is the biggest problem with the latest shuttle cases.
You can easily get something the size of a 4870 1GB into the SP35P2, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. IIRC someone on Sudhian actually got a GTX 295 to fit snugly in the same case.
Ok, loudness is an issue. It is going to be sitting behind my TV so i dont want it to be very loud! Is it merely the fans that are a bit pants (would replace with some tasty Sharkoon's if that is the case, or what? Im not worried about dual slot GPU, even though i'm almost certain that this case takes them. The BFG 8800 GT is single slot, the way a GFX card should be!! Anyone got any thoughts on a good, quiet, shuttle model?
All of the fans are pretty bad, I replaced them all besides the PSU fan on mine and it was still pretty loud. PSU fan would take soldering, which I'm too squeamish to do inside of a power supply.. I would direct you toward a Micro-ATX case in the same form factor of the Shuttle ones, like the Lian Li (even though they're bigger).
Hmmm, thats all well and good, but i dont want to have to buy a MoBo, HSF, etc. I have the couple of parts lying around, and i just needed a shuttle to slot them into! Will have to think about it some more
