JFF (budget general-purpose) build

[VirtualLarry]

Had a few parts, buying a few more, a set of twin just for fun builds.

Case + PSU: Xion Solaris + 450W PSU ($42 shipped)
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=XON-403-GRN

mobo: Biostar H61MH ($35 shipped)
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=H61MH-BO

That's all I've got purchased so far.

Trying to decide on what CPUs to get, and what drives. DVD-RW can be whatever is cheapest, under $20, with free ship at the time. (Actually, I have a pair of DVD drives I just found.)

I've also got an 8GB (2x4GB) kit of GSkill DDR3-1333 value RAM, and two kits of 8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LP DDR3-1600 RAM.

Need to decide if these boxes need 8GB each, or if they can manage with 4GB.

Will be looking to sell these rigs eventually.

Edit: Should I go with 500GB, 1TB, 2TB HDDs, or some small/medium-sized SSDs, or should I buy some refurb 80GB VelociRaptor drives from Geeks.com for $20 + ship?

Edit: How are these SSDs?
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Super-Tale...Drive/20565393

Edit: Broke down and ordered one of these.
Apex DM micro-ATX slim HTPC case from TD. ~$30 shipped, with $10 rebate.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7625143

 

[mfenn]

Those Super Talent drives are your standard SFF-2281 based drive. They've disabled RAISE to hit the 64GB capacity point. I'm sure their totally fine bearing in mind the usual Sandforce caveats.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, I figured that they were probably just 2nd-gen SF drives. I found a listing at TigerDirect for 80GB Intel X25-M G2 drives, OEM, for $80. So if I'm going to pay a buck a gig, might as well get an Intel drive. Don't really have the budget for SSDs for another month or two though.

Newegg also had a 240GB Barefoot 2 (Vertex Plus R2) drive new for ~$180 or so. I've used three Vertex Plus R2 120GB drives, they work pretty well. Not as high-performance as the Intel, but fairly close, and cheaper. Reliability seems good so far for the ones I own.

Edit: Sad, seems Newegg no longer carries Vertex Plus R2 drives. In fact, from their semi-random OCZ stock, seems like they're only carrying "leftovers", and their new Vector and Vector 450 drives.

Edit: Here is a curious newegg review for that Apex case.

Pros: Good price, decent look, good construction.

Cons: Well it is spitting out black soot into my computer from the power supply that came with it.

Other Thoughts: Ok, so I bought this item in April of 2011 and it has served me well (and still is). I bought it as a case for its intended purpose, a media center. The power supply is rated for 275 watts and I am running a system that is pulling about 300-315, hence the black soot, never the less it has never given out on me despite my abusing its limits, the front panel works flawlessly and the only thing I might gripe about is the fact that their is no space to put wires, but thats nothing a few zip ties and some wire management velcro can't fix. The only other thing I have to mention is that my case came with a rusty screwdriver and a broken piece of glass, and no... it was not an open box purchase. :/ I just laughed and threw those away. Good purchase and would recommend for anybody just trying to run a small, low power consumption system.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just noticed, I have a pair of NV GeForce 9600GSO cards sitting there. Now I'm having conflicting thoughts, between setting up those H61 boards as HTPCs, using that Apex slimline case (Newegg still carries them, so I can buy another one if TD sells out before I get more money), or setting them up as budget gaming rigs to sell on CL, with those 9600GSO cards. I might have to get better PSUs, though, that have one PCI-E 6-pin power connector. I don't know if those crappy PSUs included with the case would handle those GPUs (one per case) with molex-to-PCI-E power adapters.