Shuttle SN41G2 Barebones System

[Clowneh!]

Thanks.

I'm a noob at all this clocking business. If my CPU is running at 333Mhz, should my RAM be running at the same? I was gonna be getting that DDR400 ram. Would stuff run slower like that?

 

[Jonty]

Hi Clowneh!

You're not alone in being a little confused by it all, since these things can often produce slightly bizarre results, so I wouldn't worry too much.

As for your question, some reviewers say it's best to have both the CPU and RAM synchronised, so a 333Mhz CPU would perform best with 333Mhz (PC2700) RAM. Having asked Xavier, he seemed to think it depends on a few factors, but basically if you're RAM is decent stuff, then keeping things in sync. may be best. However, he says, if you're just using normal, cheap RAM, then 400Mhz (PC3200) RAM may well be better.

From what I recall of the reviews I've read, neither type of RAM performs badly, it's merely case of getting the most out of a product. Sometimes running in sync. mode produces the best results, othertimes a-sync. modes proves more effective. If in doubt, try and find some reviews of your RAM before you buy.

Kind Regards

 

[lovedaddy]

I think you'd be better off getting some PC2700 with aggressive memory timing rather than spending the extra on high speed ram. Something with Cas2.5 or lower would be nice in that system.

(but I probably wouldn't spend a fortune getting some geil memory or anything wayyyy to expensive)

TwinMOS is apparently quite good for the money.

 

[Will]

The cost difference between 333MHZ and 400MHz is minimal, so you may as well get the 400MHz. And CAS2 is the daddy, if you can afford to pay for it. Corsair is the brand I went for.

 

[lovedaddy]

What timing can you get out your Corsair (your running an nForce2?).

Also how much memory are people running?

 

[Will]

I'm running a KT400 mobo, and I'm just using the SPD timings. I'm suffering heat problems, I don't want to push anything incase it all melts.

 

[Clowneh!]

I'm just gonna go for some of that Crucial RAM. Cheap and whatnot, I'll save a few pennies by just buying 333mhz RAM if the performance difference is minimal so bleh

Ta

 

[danger]

Originally posted by Wilier
Ive been fiddeling around with the machine I have at the moment, before I have to give it away and I ran a few benchmarks, just for you danger

Hey cheers buddy!

Hmmm that's quite a big diff, I'll deffo stick with the Ti4200 for now then

 

[Quige]

Well I've been following this mammoth thread for a while now and have decided to go for it having got some overtime payed this month;

Gone for this from http://overclockers.co.uk

Shuttle Spacewalker XPC SN45G 1 £151.20
nForce2 Ultra 400 Aluminium
Barebones System (FS-020-SH)

AMD Athlon "Barton" XP2500+ 1 £60.50
333FSB (Socket A) CPU - OEM
(CP-039-AM)

TwinMOS 512MB (2x256MB) DDR 1 £64.95
PC3200 Dual Channel Kit
(MY-006-TM)

I do like the look of the SN41G2 better but futurebility has to be considered so have been harsh with myself and gone for the slightly uglier one for upgrade potential. It'll still look at darn site better than my old beige tower.

Gosh I'm excited .... been holding out with my old PIII 1 GHz for what seems ages. But something had to be done with HL2 coming along I hope it all works when I put it together.

Must remember to remove blue plastic stuff!

Toms hardware review that someone linked to, seemed to say that they brushed alumnium scratchs up easily ... is this what people have found? I expect it will get carted about a bit to m8's houses for LAN. Perhaps I'd better get the carry bag as well.

 

[Embattle]

The SN45 looks fine, its just got a slight blemish, the on and reset buttons.

It does mark fairly easily but most of these marks can be rubbed out.

What GFX card will you be using?

 

[Quige]

I'll be keeping my current 128mb Ti4200 until the next gen come out ... post 5900.

I keep thinking that a Nvidia based card is going to work best with an Nvidia based motherboard chipset, but is this a fallacy?

I read such good things about RADEON's, but have always also heard that the driver 's can be a bit dodgey at times.

(not that I've not had my share of probs with Nvidia's )

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by Quige

I keep thinking that a Nvidia based card is going to work best with an Nvidia based motherboard chipset, but is this a fallacy?

Naa, not really.

TBH this Radeon 9800 Pro was my first ATI card, before that Nvidia chips and before that 3Dfx chips, but I can honestly say I haven't had a single problem with this card so far and ATI drivers have matured very well in the last year.

 

[Quige]

Originally posted by Embattle

TBH this Radeon 9800 Pro was my first ATI card, before that Nvidia chips and before that 3Dfx chips, but I can honestly say I haven't had a single problem with this card so far and ATI drivers have matured very well in the last year.

That's good to hear ... when I said I was going to wait for the next gen, I wouldn't actually be buying one of course, but when they do, the price of the current lot will come down and I'll get one. Me can't afford £300+ on graphics card

 

[lovedaddy]

Personally, I prefere the ATI drives over the nVidia ones. The nVidia ones have become a little bloated these days for my liking.

 

[Xavier]

Originally posted by Quige
I keep thinking that a Nvidia based card is going to work best with an Nvidia based motherboard chipset, but is this a fallacy?

The quickest chipset even now for the athlonxp is the nForce2

AMD send out their performance platforms with one of these boards, generally the A7N8X Deluxe


they generally also bundle a top end graphics solution with the kit, which has been 9700/9800 pros for the last few launches, make of that what you will but I'd say that meant they were confident they had the best combo and there was no worries mixing rivals like that, heh

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by Quige
That's good to hear ... when I said I was going to wait for the next gen, I wouldn't actually be buying one of course, but when they do, the price of the current lot will come down and I'll get one. Me can't afford £300+ on graphics card

Mine was an extended impulse buy

 

[Embattle]

BTW those looking for something slightly cheaper than a 9800 Pro wouldn't do too bad with a 9800:

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9800_review/default.asp

Should be able to pick it up for about £225.

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Great thread! I have been toying with the idea of getting a shuttle system for quite awhile - and tomorrow I'll go and finally get myself one.

Now someone please tell me if I am completely overdoing it with the components..

Shuttle XPC SB61G2 (yes, I am going for the Intel based one)
- Pentium 4/2.8 gigs (or should I get the 2.6 one? 70.- Euros cheaper. Not that it really matters).
- 2x Kingston HyperX DIMM 512 MB DDR
- graphics card... no idea really. Any recommendations?
I heard the Radeon 9800 was good but had severe driver problems with some games.

And one more question - can I change hard drives between two computers without any problems? I am asking because I want to take the missus' HD out of her old comp, put it in my current one - and take the HD out of my current one and... put it in the shuttle, of course.

If that won't work - how do I uninstall Win XP? I guess /format c: won't work.

Thanks in advance!


Edit: I was just looking at graphic cards - the Radeon 9800 is AGPx8 - shuttle description says: 1 AGPx4 slot... hrm... will the Radeon work or not?
Embattle states in one of the previous posts that he uses a 97oo pro and that is a x8 grfx card iirc.

Help?

 

[Quige]

Originally posted by Embattle
BTW those looking for something slightly cheaper than a 9800 Pro wouldn't do too bad with a 9800:

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9800_review/default.asp

Should be able to pick it up for about £225.

Thanks for the tip ... I'll bear it in mind once I come to upgrade my GPU, though I note an update from the end of the Firingsquad article ....

UPDATE: It has come to our attention that street prices for the GeForce FX 5900 128MB have been slashed this week, MSRP is now $299, the same price as RADEON 9800 128MB. This puts the two cards in direct competition with each other and makes the statement above outdated.

... and it did do better in their benchmarks, though whether that price drop will be reflected in a drop over here....

 

[Wilier]

Originally posted by Uncle Sick(tm)
And one more question - can I change hard drives between two computers without any problems? I am asking because I want to take the missus' HD out of her old comp, put it in my current one - and take the HD out of my current one and... put it in the shuttle, of course.

If that won't work - how do I uninstall Win XP? I guess /format c: won't work.

Depends on what OS your running on each machine really. If its XP, then you can do it really quite easily, since when you install the drive in its new home, XP will use the default drivers for each of the "new" components. Its not ideal and it makes for a bit of a messy OS, but saves a lot of time. Just make sure that you install the proper drivers when youve got the machine running.

If its '98, then you may want to read this . May be of help, may not *shrug*

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by Uncle Sick(tm)
Great thread! I have been toying with the idea of getting a shuttle system for quite awhile - and tomorrow I'll go and finally get myself one.

Now someone please tell me if I am completely overdoing it with the components..

Shuttle XPC SB61G2 (yes, I am going for the Intel based one)
- Pentium 4/2.8 gigs (or should I get the 2.6 one? 70.- Euros cheaper. Not that it really matters).
- 2x Kingston HyperX DIMM 512 MB DDR
- graphics card... no idea really. Any recommendations?
I heard the Radeon 9800 was good but had severe driver problems with some games.

And one more question - can I change hard drives between two computers without any problems? I am asking because I want to take the missus' HD out of her old comp, put it in my current one - and take the HD out of my current one and... put it in the shuttle, of course.

If that won't work - how do I uninstall Win XP? I guess /format c: won't work.

Thanks in advance!


Edit: I was just looking at graphic cards - the Radeon 9800 is AGPx8 - shuttle description says: 1 AGPx4 slot... hrm... will the Radeon work or not?
Embattle states in one of the previous posts that he uses a 97oo pro and that is a x8 grfx card iirc.

Help?

Thats a fine setup.

You might encounter some conflicts if you change a HD between two different systems.

I have a 9800 Pro You can use the Radeon with an AGP 4x slot, all that happens is the Radeon will match the AGP 4x setting, it doesn't make a great deal of difference in terms of real life performance. Any way the spec of the Shuttle SB61G2 supports both x4 and x8 speeds.

 

[Testin da Cable]

hmm, I'm thinking of getting one for my gf
something like a 2500 barton, 512megs ram, a small quick hdd and cdrom and a 15" lcd screen or so.

*tdc goes off to look at pricing*


hmm...905 euros total. maybe another time

 

[Quige]

Does anybody know the link to the order tracking page at www.overclockers.co.uk

There was a link on the order confirmation, which I didn't click on at the time, but subsequently I can't find a link off their site.

If anyone can help ... thanks in advance.

 

[Wilier]

Originally posted by Testin da Cable
hmm, I'm thinking of getting one for my gf
something like a 2500 barton, 512megs ram, a small quick hdd and cdrom and a 15" lcd screen or so.

*tdc goes off to look at pricing*


hmm...905 euros total. maybe another time

But, you said you love her........

 

[Jonty]

Hi Quige

The OcUK order tracking page always suffered from problems (i.e. most people found that it didn't work) and so I believe they took it offline a while back. If you know the name of your carrier, then you could try visiting their website and using their order tracking facility.

Kind Regards

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by Wilier
But, you said you love her........

I do, I do! I'm also a tight bastage

 

[Quige]

Thanks for that info Jonty.

I did try going to the Amtrak page, (chose next day Amtrak) and popped my order number in, but it just comes back with " Not a valid Consignment Number! Please try again" ... which is kind of what I would expect since the order number is the OCUK order number. Do they email you again when the order is sent out? Maybe that would have an Amtrak consignment order on it?

Guess I'll just have to wait on tenterhooks for it all to arrive.

heh! I've just noticed I've become a Phnaargos Resident instead of Brentford ... what's with that then?

 

[Zarjazz]

Nice thread BTW

Quige once your order does arrive I'd be very interested in know how it performs as I'm looking to get two shuttles myself. Probably one Shuttle XPC SB61G2 for a new PC and one lower spec for a Linux box (SB51G probably).

One question I do have is that I need the systems to use P4 HT cpu's so whats the cheapest Intel cpu these days that supports HyperThreading?

 

[Embattle]

Zarjazz, the lowest one in the HT range is 2.40 GHz and costs about £150 (Inc VAT).

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Thanks for the info, Willier and Embattle.

And it's XP - unfortunately the wife is using ME (don't have an English version of XP with the wife being a yankee - English OS' are hard to come by here).

Lets see how it goes... just got home with all the components.