Small Form Factor Barebones PCs

Shuttle SB61G2 (reviewed here)
http://www.ajump.com/ajump/assets/pr...00-7340122.jpg

For the uninformed, Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs are much smaller than typical desktop or tower units, yet sacrifice little power. Barebones PCs come without a CPU, memory, drives, or an OS.

I'm curious whether anyone has gone this route. I'm wondering how difficult these units are to assemble, whether they're worth the trouble, how well they keep cool, and what kind of specs I need for a fast, efficient machine that won't see a lot of time gaming.

while i have never used one myself, i have heard nothing but great things about them. I am going to consider one for my next system.

I've seen these up-close at Fry's. One of my future computers will be in this form factor for hooking up to my TV.

They typically have a good cooling system. There are vents that force the heated air away from the processor and out of the box. Some of them even have a radiator-like water cooling system.

As far as expansion goes, you will only have room for 1 5.25" drive (CD/DVD), two 3.5" drives (hard drive and floppy/zip/whatever), a moderate-size AGP (graphics) card and/or a normal-size PCI card. The PCI card could be shut out due to the AGP port's position on some models (i.e. only one slot, it's either PCI or AGP). Most of these cases have boards that come with AGP video on-board, but quality may vary.

The Shuttles are acknowledged to be the best of the bunch because they've been out longer and are built better. Most of the other brands should be good though.

They're pretty nice and great space-savers. I'm the kind of guy who wants mutiple hard drives/optical drives/etc etc. but if you just need the basics, and are hurting for the free space - go for it.

How much do these things run?

I use my PC primarily for Internet access, documents, and making clever pics to own you guys, occasionally to play movies and play and burn music and vary rarely to play games. Think one of these is a good fit? I can't imagine needing more than a hard drive, a DVD drive and a floppy drive.

I don't even think I need a top of the line barebones, but that Shuttle is so pretty.

What should I be looking for in terms of CPU, memory and drives?

Quote:

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Originally posted by burgundy
I use my PC primarily...making clever pics to own you guys...

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Heh, I used to have that dream too.

These are great units, if you dont do allot of gaming they only make sense...

They dont take up much room and run much less loudly then a full tower..

Here's what I'm thinking:

Shuttle XPC SK41G with on-board video and sound - $200
AMB Athlon XP 2400+ CPU - $70
2 * Kingston 256MB DDR PC2100 RAM - $50
Western Digital 80GB HD with 8MB Cache - $60
Mad Dog CD-RW 52x24x52 - $20
Random floppy drive - $10
Wireless keyboard - $50
Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman - $50

that things ot a 200w power supply.....you need at least a 300 these days.