Building replacement computer for father

[Yuriman]

My father's Shuttle SG31G2 is on the fritz and if I can't fix it (ie turns out to be motherboard) I will probably recommend he do a fresh build. He has a few accessories that he would like to keep if possible, and I would like some advice on ways to approach this.

His parts that might carry over:
Samsung 840 240GB
500GB 3.5" HDD with movies and music - I could move this to an external enclosure
Creative X-Fi - he listens to a lot of music and likes to fiddle with the equalizer and surround settings
Netgear USB WiFi dongle - seems to do a fine job so internal WiFi would be redundant and add to cost

He likes his current Shuttle SFF machine, aside from its recent instability. It's a good looking box, it's small, quiet, and has served him pretty well for the past 6 or 7 years.

I looked at the price of replacement boards and the going rate is about $120 which seems unreasonable considering the PC's age. So, I'm trying to decide what to recommend to him.

Some options that come to mind:

Since he likes SFF PCs, so I could build him another Shuttle rig based on this barebones. Throw in a Haswell Pentium or i3 and some RAM and it's good to go.

I remembered seeing Anand cover the Intel NUCs a while back and decided to look into them a bit. Interestingly, it seems an Intel NUC would actually be cheaper overall, but with one problem: All of the NUCs seem to have a SATA port but no room for a SATA drive, which is slightly confusing to me. I think he would need to get a mPCIe SSD. I read some rumors that Intel will be releasing a NUC with room for a single 2.5" drive some time in December so I could advise him to wait a few weeks and see what is released, though he uses his PC for work (mostly emailing pictures and looking and building plans) and I'm reluctant to have him use a machine that BSODs regularly. Does anyone know anything about the NUC-with-a-HDD-bay?

A zero-cost option with no hardware/accessory compromises is to give him a full-tower Dell PowerEdge (socket 775) I have been toying with, but he would probably opt for a new SFF due to his limited living space.

I could also assemble a mATX PC from scratch with a SFF case, though I don't know anything at all about these. I would be limited to full-height chassis if he's to keep his sound and video card, though these can be potentially left out.

Thoughts?

 

[mfenn]

First things first: figure out what part is actually broken in his Shuttle. If it turns out to be a Shuttle-specific part, then I'd build a Haswell mini-ITX system. Even something super cheap like a G3220 would be equivalent to his Core 2 in terms of performance.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Go to newegg, and search for "AT-5570". They are currently $60 off ($119.99).

I just got one, and love it. I use it for web browsing, listening to internet radio, and Skype.

It has an AMD C-70 CPU in it. It is barebones, so you have to add a DDR3 SO-DIMM, a 2.5" 9.5mm HDD or SSD, and.or an mSATA SSD (haven't tried both installed at once), and an OS (Linux Mint is free!).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Go to newegg, and search for "AT-5570". They are currently $60 off ($119.99).

I just got one, and love it. I use it for web browsing, listening to internet radio, and Skype. (Edit: And it runs my MJ.)

It has an AMD C-70 CPU in it. It is barebones, so you have to add a DDR3 SO-DIMM, a 2.5" 9.5mm HDD or SSD, and/or an mSATA SSD (haven't tried both installed at once), and an OS (Linux Mint is free!).

Here's a 5400RPM 1TB laptop HDD for $49.99 with three-year warranty.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822149394

 

[Yuriman]

I'm intrigued, but I would worry that a C-70 might not have enough grunt for playing some. Would it be ok for Netflix and 1080P movie rips?

Certainly the price is attractive.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, Netflix HD is out, but it should handle SD Netflix. I know that the E-350 (1.6Ghz) can handle 1080P video HW acceleration. I don't know about the C-70.

 

[Yuriman]

I appreciate the feedback Larry, I'll definitely run that SFF box past him.

First things first: figure out what part is actually broken in his Shuttle. If it turns out to be a Shuttle-specific part, then I'd build a Haswell mini-ITX system. Even something super cheap like a G3220 would be equivalent to his Core 2 in terms of performance.

What would you suggest? I have no experience with picking out parts for SFF PCs, other than using Shuttle barebones.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I'm intrigued, but I would worry that a C-70 might not have enough grunt for playing some. Would it be ok for Netflix and 1080P movie rips?

Certainly the price is attractive.

Stay away from Brazos. Your father will be much better served by a low-end Pentium/Celeron/AMD A-series. Brazos simply does not cut it anymore, especially the C60/C70 (exact same chip with a re-badge).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Stay away from Brazos. Your father will be much better served by a low-end Pentium/Celeron/AMD A-series. Brazos simply does not cut it anymore, especially the C60/C70 (exact same chip with a re-badge).

An Ivy Bridge Celeron 1007U (1.5Ghz) is around twice as fast as a C-60. That doesn't mean Brazos is useless. Far from it.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

An Ivy Bridge Celeron 1007U (1.5Ghz) is around twice as fast as a C-60. That doesn't mean Brazos is useless. Far from it.

Oh, I don't mean its useless. I have an XPbox running on an ASUS C60M1-I. My NAS runs on the same board. So long as you don't do anything CPU intensive its quite decent when paired with an SSD and enough RAM. I wouldn't want to use it for my main desktop though...

The Celeron 1007/1037 is very good value for a low power basic system. The regular G1610 is also an option paired with an inexpensive ITX board. What to recommend really depends on pricing. Both only sip power (I have a G1610+Asrock B75M-ITX, it uses around 12-15W max for the CPU).

 

[Yuriman]

Flexible budget but cheaper is better. Let's say a soft cap of $400 for board + RAM + CPU + PSU + case, closer to (or under) $300 being preferable. Everything else I can supply.

I probably wouldn't want to put anything more than an i3 in, and a Pentium or Celeron would probably suit his needs. Ability to accept full height add-in cards is a plus but not 100% necessary. Reliability is a big plus.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811108417

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...90&ignorebbr=1

 

[mfenn]

Flexible budget but cheaper is better. Let's say a soft cap of $400 for board + RAM + CPU + PSU + case, closer to (or under) $300 being preferable. Everything else I can supply.

I probably wouldn't want to put anything more than an i3 in, and a Pentium or Celeron would probably suit his needs. Ability to accept full height add-in cards is a plus but not 100% necessary. Reliability is a big plus.

I would go with something like this:

Pentium G3220 $70
ASRock B85M-ITX $75
Team DDR3 1600 8GB $50
Silverstone SFX 300W $55
Silverstone Sugo SG05B $40
Total: $290

Should be a nice performance upgrade from a Core2 and run very cool and quiet.

 

[Yuriman]

I would go with something like this:

Pentium G3220 $70
ASRock B85M-ITX $75
Team DDR3 1600 8GB $50
Silverstone SFX 300W $55
Silverstone Sugo SG05B $40
Total: $290

Should be a nice performance upgrade from a Core2 and run very cool and quiet.

I like this build a lot, thanks!