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Looking to build a Vista shoebox rig...

K

KDOG

Diamond Member
I use my pc as my entertainment center pretty much, its in the living room. I use a Compro TV tuner for the TV and it works pretty good actually. But its kinda tired and I pretty sure I'm gonna need more oomph for Vista anyway. I don't game too much, just MS Flight Simulator X. I definetly want to go small form factor. Right now I have the CoolerMaster Centurion case and its nice, but just too big. So that puts me in the market for mATX setup. I'm thinking about also going Core Duo. So are there any good mATX Core Duo boards? Also, do you think the Antec Aria with its 300W PS would be enough for it? I thought about getting the Aspire X-QPack and transplanting the stock 420W PS for my Fortron 400W. My current video card is a PCI express 256MB 6600 - nothing special. I have 1 gig (2x512) of Corsair XMS that will have to be ditched (sold) so I can go with DDR2. Need a recommendation there too. Yes, I've been out of it for a while.

Well, am I hopeless or what?
 
The Ultra Microfly case has about an inch more space between the drive cage and PSU so standard PSUs fit better in it. Build quality is supposed to be slightly better.

The Antec Aria and its NSK (1300?) successor have poor airflow / cooling in the reviews I've seen.
 
from what I have heard about MS Flight Simulator X, a 6600 GPU is going to be overwhelmed
 
Originally posted by: RKS
from what I have heard about MS Flight Simulator X, a 6600 GPU is going to be overwhelmed
Click to expand...

Tell me about it! Part of the reason I'm looking at doing this....

Searching around through newegg, I see only a handful of mobo's that will seem to fit what I'm looking for, any opinions on those? Are there any new ones coming out soon?
 
Arrgh. I'll probably end up changing my mind about the case. It seems like a bigger pain in the butt to go mATX than to just use the case and PS that I have....
 
mATX setups make for good HTPC rigs.

Originally posted by: KDOG
So are there any good mATX Core Duo boards?
Click to expand...

For overclocking, no. With bells and whistles, maybe.

Originally posted by: KDOG
any ideas on X2 AM2 rig setups?
...
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 then overclock it as far as I can reasonably get.
Click to expand...

The AM2 X2 3800+ is $114 shipped at Club IT for another 2 hours.

A good mATX motherboard would be the Abit NF-M2 nView (not the NF-M2S). It has optical SPDIF to hook up to your receiver and firewire (in case you have external HDD or want to hook up a digital camcorder). It is also one of the best overclocking AMD boards on the market. Mine runs stable at 360MHz HTT. That would put your 2GHz X2 3800+ at 3.6GHz, which won't happen. Translation: Your overclock would be limited by your RAM and CPU, not the motherboard. Some other people have reported taking the board all the way to 400MHz HTT stable.

For case, if going "shoebox" style I'd recommend the MicroFly. The X-Qpack is identical except for being an inch or so too short (front-back) for comfort. The Antec cases look great and are tiny, but have issues such as heat, plus the original Aria had PSU failures and those are proprietary.

My HTPC is in a Cooler Master case similar to this one. I actually paid more for it a year ago. This newer design seems a bit better too. Only issue is that it is a bit "deep" from front to back. Besides that, it makes for a really nice and budget HTPC case.

Coming from a large tower, you may be more comfortable with a tower setup such as this Silverstone. It's kinda pricey but it looks great and has great airflow. Best thing about it is that it is probably one of the smallest tower mATX cases in existance that uses a standard ATX PSU. Guaranteed you won't have cooling issues with this case, plus can run stuff quiet (as in low RPM fans).
 
Wait a minute, I am SUCH a tool! I totally forgot about the AM2 CPU Upgrade board that I got for my ASRock 939 Dual SATA mobo! All I need is a AM2 cpu and some DDR2! Good grief, glad I remembered that before I ordered anything! ROFL! I won't be able to go "shoebox" but I'll save myself alot of money.
 
I got another dumb question: When I look at CPUs' at neweggs site, there seems to be 2 different retail X2 3800+ cpus. One simply has "65W" in the description while the other does not. Whats the difference? Also looking at Kingston HyperX 1GB (2x512) 4-4-4-12 memory. Does that sound good? Do I need to go DDR800? Will I be able to get that high OC'ing the 3800?
 
a 6800gt pushed fsx fairly well on vista for me. i would reccommend a 7600gt for comparible or perhaps better performance.

core2 6300 or 6400 would blow away any x2 you throw at it, and 2 gigs of ddr2 would make you set.
 
Hmmm, now I'm considering just upgrading my graphics card and seeing how that goes, and upgrading the rest later if need be...maybe I'll try a 7600GT or 7900GS, maybe even something from ATI...
 
So will you plan on using this system (HTPC) to play HD content? If so those video cards will likely not be truly HDCP compliant and may have degraded video...At least from what I have read...
 
I was poking through Newegg a little while back, and hit the reviews for 8800GTX units...
a couple of people had overall high-end computers, then tossed in a GTX, and maxed out Flight Simulator X and got 30 fps.

If that helps, good. I don't have FSX or a GTX, so I don't have first-hand experience.
 
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