Quiet-ish build with a Shuttle XPC SH67H3
Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:20 pm
*** See update in post below
Long time reader, first time poster!
A little back ground first to better explain what I am looking for in my new pc. We had in the office a desktop (circa 2004, xp, p4, very loud, very hungry) and an HP laptop (circa 2007, Vista ) Couple of months ago I decided to re-os the desktop because I was getting very slow, long story short, because MB decided not to support SATA2, XP does not detect drive. End results, big tower got disconnected and put in a corner. Main computer has now become the aging HP laptop and a replacement is needed before it decides to bite the dust.
Replacement PC has the following requirements:
-Fit on the desk, (dept and with 300 mm max with height 200 mm max
-Real USB 3.0 pm on front panel
-One visible external bay (I hated the empty bays on Big Noisy)
-Quiet enough at idle/low cpu usage
Usage will be web browsing, video chat, dumping photos from digi cam and some gaming. On the gaming front, I don't game a lot on the computer (PS3) but I want to be able to run upcoming games (Skyrim) and some olders ones. Bottom line it is not a gaming machine but it needs to be able to game.
After searching this place for while and looking at a couple of Lian Li, I stumbled on the Shuttle XPC SH67H3.
Notice the case accept double wide graphic cards
Reduced Specs as follow:
PROCESSOR Intel next grneration Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3 processor LGA1155 socket
95w max. Support CHIPSET Intel H67 MEMORY DDR3 1333 MHz support RAM Socket * 4, Dual channels support up to 32 GB total (8GB*4)
STORAGE INTERFACE (2) SATA 3G (2) SATA 6G
DIMENSIONS 323(L) x 208(W) x 196(H) mm (w/ foot rubber)
POWER 80 Plus 300W power supply Input:100 - 240V AC Support 80 PLUS Bronze There is an optional 500w one
EXPANSION SLOT (1) PCI-E X16 slot (1) PCI-E X1 slot (mechanically compatible with PCI-E x4 card) (1) Mini-PCIE socket
Full specs here
NCIX is actually nice enough to build it for me. I am not against building it myself but if I don't have to, I'll spare me the hassle.
I am planning on running an i5 2500K with 8GB DDR3, Blue Ray reader w/ DVD writer. Drive wise I am hesitating between a Caviar Green 1TB or an SSD, I don't plan on storing a lot on the drive (I have usb drive that I use to store my media that I want to playback on the PS3) but the price of the SSD would really increase the final price. Graphic card wise I would like something quiet, low on power and performing. I know I can only get 2 of the three so I can take a hit on power hungryness.
Now here is my question(s), if you were building a medium gaming machine starting with a barebone SH67H3 what would you fill it with? Which ram, GFX, drive etc?
If I don't plan on OCing is it worth to get the low power 65w i5 2500?
Here is the list of supported CPU, Memory, Graphic Card and a nifty Power Supply Calculator Power Supply Calculator.
Thanks for listening.
Long time reader, first time poster!
A little back ground first to better explain what I am looking for in my new pc. We had in the office a desktop (circa 2004, xp, p4, very loud, very hungry) and an HP laptop (circa 2007, Vista ) Couple of months ago I decided to re-os the desktop because I was getting very slow, long story short, because MB decided not to support SATA2, XP does not detect drive. End results, big tower got disconnected and put in a corner. Main computer has now become the aging HP laptop and a replacement is needed before it decides to bite the dust.
Replacement PC has the following requirements:
-Fit on the desk, (dept and with 300 mm max with height 200 mm max
-Real USB 3.0 pm on front panel
-One visible external bay (I hated the empty bays on Big Noisy)
-Quiet enough at idle/low cpu usage
Usage will be web browsing, video chat, dumping photos from digi cam and some gaming. On the gaming front, I don't game a lot on the computer (PS3) but I want to be able to run upcoming games (Skyrim) and some olders ones. Bottom line it is not a gaming machine but it needs to be able to game.
After searching this place for while and looking at a couple of Lian Li, I stumbled on the Shuttle XPC SH67H3.
Notice the case accept double wide graphic cards
Reduced Specs as follow:
PROCESSOR Intel next grneration Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3 processor LGA1155 socket
95w max. Support CHIPSET Intel H67 MEMORY DDR3 1333 MHz support RAM Socket * 4, Dual channels support up to 32 GB total (8GB*4)
STORAGE INTERFACE (2) SATA 3G (2) SATA 6G
DIMENSIONS 323(L) x 208(W) x 196(H) mm (w/ foot rubber)
POWER 80 Plus 300W power supply Input:100 - 240V AC Support 80 PLUS Bronze There is an optional 500w one
EXPANSION SLOT (1) PCI-E X16 slot (1) PCI-E X1 slot (mechanically compatible with PCI-E x4 card) (1) Mini-PCIE socket
Full specs here
NCIX is actually nice enough to build it for me. I am not against building it myself but if I don't have to, I'll spare me the hassle.
I am planning on running an i5 2500K with 8GB DDR3, Blue Ray reader w/ DVD writer. Drive wise I am hesitating between a Caviar Green 1TB or an SSD, I don't plan on storing a lot on the drive (I have usb drive that I use to store my media that I want to playback on the PS3) but the price of the SSD would really increase the final price. Graphic card wise I would like something quiet, low on power and performing. I know I can only get 2 of the three so I can take a hit on power hungryness.
Now here is my question(s), if you were building a medium gaming machine starting with a barebone SH67H3 what would you fill it with? Which ram, GFX, drive etc?
If I don't plan on OCing is it worth to get the low power 65w i5 2500?
Here is the list of supported CPU, Memory, Graphic Card and a nifty Power Supply Calculator Power Supply Calculator.
Thanks for listening.