Shuttle SD30G2 Black Barebone System - Intel Core2Duo Ready, PCI-E, Onboard VGA/Sound 129876 4 in stock £161.74 £137.65 £161.74 £137.65
Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 Socket 775 2.4GHz (800MHz) L2 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 135668 158 in stock £74.30 £63.23 £74.30 £63.23
Crucial 1GB DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5 Lifetime Warranty 106114 507 in stock £13.00 £11.06 £26.00
Speccing up a HTPC. Will be connecting up to 1080p TV via VGA / stereo audio.
Components to be added later:
1TB HD
HDMI GFX (if needed)
Blu-ray player
Price from Ebuyer.
Anygoodlike?
Dont buy shuttle. Pretty much everyone seems to say they are the least reliable POS around. Something like a Q-Pack may be suitable if you dont want to spend the obscene amounts a "Proper" HTPC case costs.
Edit :: Also the AMD 780G chipset is still (I think) the choice of HTPC fans. The Blu-Ray hardware decoding built into it is way beyond anything Intel have produced to date.
I wouldn't recommend a shuttle either, AMD 780G chipset really is the dog's bollocks for a HTPC tbh.
I built a HTPC awhile back thread http://www.tekforum.co.uk/posts/list/12898.page I'm really happy with it, its quite, It plays downloaded HD and normal quality stuff perfectly over the mobo's inbuilt HDMI, I will be adding a Bluray drive pretty soon.
Audio is good over the HDMI (but I will upgrade to a 5.1 speaker set up when I get the Bluray drive)
I use a Thermaltake lanbox case, same as http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=606934 but silver. It has the advantage of being able to use any normal sized PSU and mini ATX form factor motherboard so you can keep it quietish.
When you guys say unreliable do you mean instability? Or likely to go bang?
Pretty gutted, i thought that one might work out quite cheap :(
I own a shuttle, and the only issue Ive faced is finding sound drivers for linux (now solved).
When you guys are saying theyre unreliable, is this from recent experience etc. or is it from a few years ago?
Quote from: ShakeyI own a shuttle, and the only issue Ive faced is finding sound drivers for linux (now solved).
When you guys are saying theyre unreliable, is this from recent experience etc. or is it from a few years ago?
I think its Knighty that has had 3, ive had 2 through my hands recently with blown boards, Tek have stopped selling them because they arent reliable enough, and ive noticed a couple of other suppliers have removed them from their stock as well.
I have heard of a few shuttles failing as well, plus I think they are to noisy to use as a HTPC.
Hows about this rather than the shuttle:
Antec NSK 2480 MATX Desktop Case Black & Silver - With 380W EarthWatts PSU £71.75
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Socket AM2+ onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard £54.57
Kingston 2gb Kit (2x1gb) Ddr2 800mhz/pc2-6400 Hyperx Memory Non-ecc Cl4 £29.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Socket AM2 2.6GHz Energy Efficient L2 1MB (2x512KB) Cache Retail Boxed Processor £42.41
£198.72
Cheaper than what you have listed above, add a HDMI cable along with the other bits you need and your good to go!
Quote from: ShaunI have heard of a few shuttles failing as well, plus I think they are to noisy to use as a HTPC.
Hows about this rather than the shuttle:
Antec NSK 2480 MATX Desktop Case Black & Silver - With 380W EarthWatts PSU £71.75
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Socket AM2+ onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard £54.57
Kingston 2gb Kit (2x1gb) Ddr2 800mhz/pc2-6400 Hyperx Memory Non-ecc Cl4 £29.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Socket AM2 2.6GHz Energy Efficient L2 1MB (2x512KB) Cache Retail Boxed Processor £42.41
£198.72
Cheaper than what you have listed above, add a HDMI cable along with the other bits you need and your good to go!
Not bad, though I would be inclined to move to one of the Low-Energy "e" cores if raw grunt isnt needed. Similar price, but they run quieter.
Yep you're right I spotted "Energy Efficient" in the title and though it was an "e" chip, I have a "e" chip so should have noticed really :P
So instead: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 Energy Efficient 1MB L2 Cache Retail £49.60
Quote from: ShaunYep you're right I spotted "Energy Efficient" in the title and though it was an "e" chip, I have a "e" chip so should have noticed really :P
So instead: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 Energy Efficient 1MB L2 Cache Retail £49.60
Where are these prices from mate?
Ebuyer :)
Quote from: ShaunEbuyer :)
nice one, ordering that malarky soon...