What Hardware Would Best Suit This Sff Pc?

[GoodHeart]

Hello ThaiVisa Techies,

I was impressed by the amount of good information given to George when he elicited the advice of forum members concerning updating his computer. So I would like to solicit similar advise for selecting the hardware for a Small Form Factor [sFF] PC.

After a lot of snooping I've found a few vendors that sell SFF PC's here, in Bangkok. But the only retail vendor I've found that sells the SFF I want is Comp-ware Computer Agency Co. Ltd., located on the third floor of Panthip Plaza. After considerable prior research, I have decided to go with the Shuttle XPC SN25P they stock. Based on several favorable reviews, the Shuttle XPC SN25P seems to be a very well designed and supported SFF. If you're interested, you can find two of the reviews here: The Tech Report and AMDZone

One of the few things faulted in the reviews initially was the Shuttle's BIOS, but this was subsequently updated [as were the reviews, later] by the manufacturer to garner even greater acclaim. You can read of that update here: BIOS update

Next up: What's it going to be used for?

1- A platform to learn Linux-on both the Desktop and Server.

2- Web Hosting: nothing too large scale or commercial, however.

3- Gaming

4- Internet surfing

5- Accessing the Net over an Apple Airport Base station

Concerns: I am aware that driver support can be major headache for Linux users, and this is one reason why I've choosen the Shuttle SFF. Shuttle uses the nVIDIA chipset and this seems to have very good support for Linux drivers, both from nVIDIA and from the Open Source Driver community. I have also found at least one Gentoo Linux resource for this SFF.

So, with all this in mind, what hardware components would you recommend to complete this system? I'm particularly concerned that I select the right AMD Precessor, the RAM, 3.5inch HHD's, DVD Burner, and Bluetooth dongle to intereact with the Airport. From my reading of the RAM discussion on the George's New Desktop thread I can assure you I know way too little about which RAM to select. I do know that I was cautioned by an experienced Linux Server Admin. that 2GB of RAM is a good option for Web hosting. And as far as which would be the best 3.5" HDD I haven't a clue- other than to know these are notebook drives.

I welcome your thoughts and suggestions.

[francois]

hi'

you choose a nice one, the next is the SN26P with SLI ... for gamers

in yours, you may add, a n'vidia gforce 7800gt PCI express, a 6600gt would be enough, but games are getting hungry ... no less than 128mb memory for video, a 256 is nothing really extra by now for gamers

some card even run with 512mb of ram on ... a bit expensive!

Asus put on the market a new one dual gpu, the EN7800GT, faster than a dual 7800gt in sli mode ... still a bit expensive, but the benchmarks are amazing

for ram, no secret, Corsair xms ddr2 4400, dual channel, buy them by sets,

two sets of 2x512 or 1 set of 2x1gb

for hdd, you mentionned 3.5", which is the standard for PC hdd, go for a WD Raptor sata 36gb or 74 gb, 10.000tr/mn, set the system up on this one and leave it alone.

add to all this an external hd of good capacity some 200gb, and go on

a maxtor would do a great job for backup and storage.

you talk also about Linux, try Suse, the latest release 10.0 is ready for you.

if you want more security, you can still add some soft to secure the server,

or use Slackware ... but then you'll need some drivers first

btw, the standard size for laptop or notebook is 2.5" hdd

francois