The official help soully build a new PC thread

[not just souLLy now]

Hey all, I'm building a new PC and before I buy everything I need, I'd like someone with more experience than me looking over what I'm doing to highlight if I'm making some terrible hardware choices or just plain picking incompatible components. Basically I want to build an attractive SFF PC, which is quiet, powerful enough to use all the time and energy efficient. Generally the PC is used for browsing, listening to music, adobe stuff and watching movies. I don't play games on the machine other than an emulator once in a while so I'm not fussed about a mega graphics card. With that in mind I've picked out the following:



Shuttle SN68PTG5 AM2 Barebone system
AMD Black Edition Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Socket AM2 2.6GHz Energy Efficient L2 1MB (2x512KB)
Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2
Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB SATAII Hard Drive 16MB Cache
A 20x Pioneer IDE DVD writer I already have
Enlight Black 26-in-1 Internal 3.5" Card Reader
Linksys WMP54G 54mbps Wireless PCI Adapter Card

I think the shuttle system looks great and reading this article makes me think it's a good choice. The processor is an energy efficient one so that should keep the fans quiet right? I'm thinking of sticking with onboard video at least for now as I can allocate 256mb to it from the ram and that seems sufficient for what I'll be using it for right? Plus that'll help keep things cool. Would that still be sufficient if later on I stuck in a bluray drive to watch HD movies on?

This is the first SFF PC I've worked on and first PC build from absolute start to finish (although I've swapped and replaced tons of components in the past so I feel fairly comfortable doing it all) so excuse the nervousness. I don't mind pushing the price up if I'll get much better performance, so if you can recommend better components from eBuyer feel free
Cheers guys

[bizzle]

I think what you really what is a Mac.

[aisupikku]

The parts listing from your usage standpoint looks good to me!

The system board features PCIe x16 slot for discrete graphics card accommodation (in the future). Samsung drives are very quiet and low power consumption, from personal experience. I also like Seagate drives for their quiet operation. For additional quiet and lower power at additional cost, a laptop HDD may be used with the proper harness.

A suggestion:

RadioShack.com - Ultra Antistatic Wrist Strap

Unless you already have one. Always good to have! Good luck with the assembly of the PC.

[Ex-Cyber]

Do you have a heatsink/fan for the CPU? Despite being retail boxes, the Black Edition chips are marketed for overclockers and thus don't come with one. If you don't plan to overclock you could just go with a regular X2 5000+; as far as I know the only difference between the two is that the Black Edition has an unlocked multiplier.

[not just souLLy now]

I think what you really what is a Mac.

If they weren't such a rip off you're probably right...

The parts listing from your usage standpoint looks good to me!

The system board features PCIe x16 slot for discrete graphics card accommodation (in the future). Samsung drives are very quiet and low power consumption, from personal experience. I also like Seagate drives for their quiet operation. For additional quiet and lower power at additional cost, a laptop HDD may be used with the proper harness.

A suggestion:

RadioShack.com - Ultra Antistatic Wrist Strap

Unless you already have one. Always good to have! Good luck with the assembly of the PC.

Cheers I already have a strap, the laptop HD is a nice suggestion, I hadn't even thought of that, I think my priorities lean toward size of drive though and I know large laptop ones can get very expensive, I'll investigate though as it's working out way cheaper than I was expecting

Do you have a heatsink/fan for the CPU? Despite being retail boxes, the Black Edition chips are marketed for overclockers and thus don't come with one. If you don't plan to overclock you could just go with a regular X2 5000+; as far as I know the only difference between the two is that the Black Edition has an unlocked multiplier.

I don't want to mess with overclocking this as shuttles run a bit warmer than I'd like anyway, from what I can make out the case has a heatsink/fan all built into the case due to the size constraints. Still a good choice then?

[Christuserloeser]

I think what you really what is a Mac.

I still haven't understood what's so special about a Mac. A theoretical equivalent would be a Windows PC using Microsoft hardware, or did I miss something there ?


aisupikku - I haven't seen you posing in years !

[Stormwatch]

I still haven't understood what's so special about a Mac. A theoretical equivalent would be a Windows PC using Microsoft hardware, or did I miss something there ?

But what's special about a Mac is not running Windows.

Seriously now. What's special is the system. Mac OS X is far more reliable than Windows XP, no worries about viruses or malware; true, Vista is far more solid than XP, but it has those quirks of its own (allow/deny?), and OS X still has the better interface.

Now, if you just don't want Windows, why not Linux? It's rock-solid, works well, the interface is usually good (depending on the distro), and it is free. I'm posting this from a Slax liveCD, by the way. Only problems: its software library is still somewhat limited in certain areas (especially games, even the Mac has it better), and the peripheral support has some spots (for example, some all-in-one printers won't work).

So: if you don't care much about games, I'd not hesitate to suggest Linux. I have two friends who use it full time and love it (note, one of them is a programmer). But it definitely takes a while to get used. If you're going to get a new machine and have some money to burn, a Mac is a nice pick for the best, friendliest system. Me, for budget limitations, am running the hax0red Mac OS X on a regular PC.

Of course, if you're really into PC games, there's no escaping Windows XP.

[sixteen-bit]

Looks good to me.

I've got that exact hard disk in a Shuttle ST20G5, an older version of what you're looking at. It's probably one of the quietest disks on the market but because the shuttle chassis is so light it wont absorb all its vibration so prepare to put the computer on little rubber feet if you're using a wooden desk.

[not just souLLy now]

Awesome, think I'm all set then, I'll chuck some pics up when I build it. Just have to get the cash together now. Cheers all.
I'm gonna ignore the inevitable OS stuff, I'm more than happy with XP ta.