Need suggestions on shuttle system/ overclocking a celeron D

[ncclaw]

well if you want to save money why dont you just get her another mouse and disable the onboard one?

 

[RelaxTheMind]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Of course, I highly recommend you shop around for the parts. Check Pricewatch and Pricegrabber for the lowest shipped prices, and cross reference those vendors with Resellerratings.com

you umm did NOT just reference pricewatch. i am still trying to find a way to rid the world of that evil entity.

 

[gsaldivar]

Good "girlfriend rig" = No rig at all.

Tell her to come over to your place and use yours when she needs to. She can pay you in "favors". :beer:

 

[FreshFish]

Haha, thanks for the good ideas from some and the good jokes from others

I'm not from the SoCal area, I am a Seattleite..

 

[EXman]

Check this it is cheap and fast and very small! and a great trader!

 

[NiKeFiDO]

i looked through this real quick and didnt see anyone else mention this:

find her a good Dell deal, whether you are looking for a desktop or laptop, they have deals all the time.

For her needs Dell is a perfect brand, get her like a Dimension 3000 (smaller tower) - you can get the comp + LCD for about $400-500 if you find a decent deal hanging around. If you dont like all the Dell software, format and install from the Windows Cd they give. The Dell stuff doesn't come with all that (thats all found on the other 4857948 cd's they give you).

EDIT: right now you can get a $500 Dim 3000 with "free" flat panel (not LCD )- $50 to upgrade to 512mb RAM (must do this) and another $40 to go from p4 2.6 ghz 533fsb to p4 3ghz w/ HT 800fsb.
Total: $590

However, right now you cant get free shipping unless spend 599 plus (so wait a week for a better deal)

 

[Zepper]

Enermax Venus case blue/silver model (look at the +12V rail on that PSU!). Antec Aria PSU is proprietary form factor - Enermax is standard SFX form factor.
DFI KM400-MV mobo - has SATA and the P4-12V connector that the ASUS lacks (will run MUCH better on the lower powered PSUs in microATX cases) and is one of the best examples of a KM400 based mobo while costing much less (newegg has some 'refurbs' at around $34. shipped - while new are only $45.). The MSI KM4AM-V would make a good alternate.
Sempron processor as mentioned above.
. I see you got the WD 80G SATA listed, except that the Asus doesn't have SATA - gotta get the DFI.
. Though you probably won't need to OC, get some memory with a bit of headroom (the ones you listed are fine), 'just in case', as FSB is about the only OCing most microATX mobos allow. Good luck.

.bh.

 

[imthebadguy]

Originally posted by: kini62
Mac Mini

 

[RelaxTheMind]

is your girlfriend hot?

 

[FreshFish]

Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
is your girlfriend hot?

very!

 

[FreshFish]

Hey, jpeyton ( or anyone else who knows a lot about the answer to this question ),
I am now thinking about taking your advice and going with the shuttle you suggested and a celeron D (I read up and have heard some fairly good things about them...better than the old celeron). So is the overclocking process as easy as you made it sound? No extra cooling is necessary and no other system settings have to be changed? If it really is that simple that would be great! Thanks for any help

 

[Zepper]

Shuttles are full of proprietary parts... PSU, MOBO, sometimes the HSF. Not upgradable except thru Shuttle.

.bh.

 

[ribbon13]

Ah, someone from my area.

Have you considering going to Kent? The Boeing Surplus Store is there. You can get a Dell Optiplex G150 mini /PIII 1Ghz 256mb ram and 20gb HDD for $200. 17" monitors are $15. keyboards are $5.

The make great lil linux boxes. I have 4 of them as terminals so people can get on the net with em.

 

[MisterChief]

Originally posted by: FreshFish
Haha, thanks for the good ideas from some and the good jokes from others

I'm not from the SoCal area, I am a Seattleite..

Damn, you sound just like my friend who's having the same problem... He annoys me everyday with the constant "what should I get" questions.

 

[FreshFish]

Originally posted by: MisterChief

Originally posted by: FreshFish
Haha, thanks for the good ideas from some and the good jokes from others

I'm not from the SoCal area, I am a Seattleite..

Damn, you sound just like my friend who's having the same problem... He annoys me everyday with the constant "what should I get" questions.

Sooooo....what should I get!?!?!?!

 

[FreshFish]

eek!! I just realized that the shuttle Zen only has a 180watt PSU in it!! Will that be enough if I want to overclock the Celeron D??

 

[MisterChief]

Originally posted by: FreshFish
eek!! I just realized that the shuttle Zen only has a 180watt PSU in it!! Will that be enough if I want to overclock the Celeron D??

Absolutley not!

 

[OSUBeaver]

get her an iBook, i got my gf one and she loves it. It does come with a productivity suite, just not office. You could alwys "find" it online anyways But i did add an extra 256mb of ram its a must.

The mac mini looks intersting to me too, and everyone keeps hyping it, but for 900 bucks you can get the same thing in a laptop package, its a better buy IMO, especially if she's a college student.

And unless your gf is a windows pro, she won't even care about the different is OS X, heck I've been using macs a lot lately and the interface is really intuitive if you look at it from teh perspective of a non-hardcore user.

 

[FreshFish]

I think I am pretty much set on a desktop PC. It really seems like what she wants at this point. The main thing i am worried about is finding a good case with a big enough PSU, which is why the ARIA looked nice for the price to begin with.

 

[FreshFish]

Ok one last specific question: if i went with the shuttle that jpeyton suggested and got the celeron...is there anything not so good about this one:
Intel Celeron D "320" 2.40 GHz, 533MHz FSB, 256K L2 Cache Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=19-112-190&DEPA=0

because it only costs $1 more than the 315 after shipping....I just want to make sure there isnt a detail I am missing....THANKS!

 

[Zepper]

Out of warranty repairs/replacements/upgrades will cost much less on a system that uses all standard components...

.bh.

Here, have a :beer: !

 

[FreshFish]

Alright.....here's where I am at this point:

I want to get the Celeron D and overclock it
I want a shuttle system

Since I want to overclock the celeron, I am very, very worried that the 180 watt PSU would not be enough juice. I have gotten one reply on this...any more opinions? All I will have is a HD, a DVD burner and the overclocked CPU...will 180 be way too little?

I assume 180 watts is not going to be enough so I looked for some other nice shuttle systems...here are a couple I found...but it's sad because I can't take advantage of the $50 rebate =(

Shuttle Silver XPC Barebone System for Socket 478 at 533/800MHz FSB Intel CPU, Model SB61G2V3
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=56-101-451&DEPA=0
$235
this one has Intel Extreme Graphics onboard. Anybody have any thoughts on Intels graphics?

and this one:
Shuttle XPC Black Barebone System for Socket 478 at 533/800MHz FSB Intel CPU, Model ST61G4B
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=56-101-423&DEPA=0
$235


I am looking to buy fairly soon....if the 180 watts is enough, I should buy very soon so i can get the rebate!! Remember, this system shouldn't be a power hog with it's onboard graphics, one optical drive, one HDD and a mouse/keyboard except for the overclocked CPU. I do NOT plan on overclocking it to 3.6 GHz though, probably only around 3.0 or so, if it makes a difference.

THanks for any helpful comments =)

 

[FreshFish]

Ok, I just read this Anandtech review:
http://anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=1861&p=5
where they loaded a Shuttle system with only a 200 watt power supply with a Radeon 9800 pro and a P4 3.0 GHz overclocked to 3.4GHz with a gig of RAM and it ran stable.

The shuttle I was considering has a 180 watt supply, integrated graphics (Radeon 9100) and i want to overclock the celeron D to only ~3.0GHz most likely. It seems like, according to anandtech's results, it should be fine. Comments? Concerns? Anyone?

 

[wisdomtooth]

You might want to check out the travails of one Shuttle owner in this thread HERE.

Then again, your GF doesn't care if that Shuttle fries like a mozzarella stick as long as it runs, right?

 

[FreshFish]

Thanks for the link wisdomtooth, I guess I didn't really take the potential heat problems into account. Do you think it will be as big of a problem for me since I am only using integrated graphics? Also, the celeron I want to purchase is 2.4 GHz, prescott. Do ALL prescotts have the heating problem? Any other similar cases you can recommend that will accomplish the same thing for me (integrated graphics, inexpensive, possibly overclocked celeron, and nice looking)? I think this case would suit my girlfriend well, but I don't want to burn down her house

Thanks for the replies everyone. I really appreciate it.