SFF as HTPC

[Alistair]

Having just put together a SN45Gv3 for my father's birthday its made me realise how much I still like SFF PCs.

I was thinking of moving to SFF for my HTPC which is currently in a Silver Thermaltake Tenor.

Current Components I would llike to transfer:
3000+ Venice CPU
2x512MB Patriot RAM
HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 Gold PCI Dolby Soundcard
Gigabyte Silent Heatpipe 6600GT PCI Express VGA
Technotrend 2100 Premium DVB-C Card
NEC 3540 DVDR/RW
200GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA2

Idealy I would like to keep the above components but move them into a smaller case, oh & preferably silver too :)

I would welcome any suggestions or comments

[Big Adam]

If you want to keep all those expansion slot components then you'll need a mATX motherboard inside a compact case as no current 'true' barebone SFF has a PCI-E graphics slot AND 2x PCI slots.

There are lots of decent cases (and motherboards ;) )to choose from although there are a lot of people currently excited in the Silverstone SG01 here (http://forums.kustompcs.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32454) and here (http://forums.kustompcs.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32406)

[Alistair]

The Silverstone does look very nice indeed :)

I suppose I could ditch the soundcard if I was able to get a SFF setup that can do onboard audio with DTS capabilities (like soundstorm on the SN45Gv3). Any ideas there ?

[Big Adam]

Unfortunately, the only S939 Shuttle with nForce4 (i.e. DTS decoding) capabilities onboard is the SN25P (http://global.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SN25P.asp) and that has a PCI-E x16 slot :) and a PCI-E x1 slot :(

No plain PCI I'm afraid.

Could try looking at other manufacturers?

[Alistair]

Have just bought a MSI RS480M2-IL Motherboard ,Silverstone SG01SCase & Silverstone Nitrogon NTO3 Heatsink. Hope my NEC 3540 & Tagan PSU Fit :)

[conan]

Very nice, let us know how the build goes. I'll be interested to hear your views on the cooler.

[Alistair]

Very nice, let us know how the build goes. I'll be interested to hear your views on the cooler.

NP will do - apparently I have a 5mm clearance 355mm max for DVD & PSU I by my measurements its 350mm!

Now to get rid of my Asus A8N SLI Premium & Thermaltake Tenor Case :)

[Alistair]

Well here's my new setup in the Silverstone case:

Silverstone Sugo SGO1 Case
AMD 3000+ Venice
Silverstone NT03 CPU Cooler
2 x 512MB Geil Value RAM
128MB Gigabyte 6200 PCI-E (Component Out to SDTV)
Technotrend Budget 1500 DVB-C Card
Hitech Digital X-Mystique 7.1 Gold PCI Dolby Soundcard
MSI RS480M2-IL Matx Motherboard
NEC ND3540A DL DVDR/RW
Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - UV Blue

Replaced Silverstone fans ( 1 x 80mm & 2 x 60mm) with panaflos

Oh & some fairly good quality interconnects to the TV & Amp :)


Here's the images:

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/3461/frontview0na.th.jpg (http://img366.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontview0na.jpg)
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/2792/backview1gu.th.jpg (http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=backview1gu.jpg)
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/6164/cardview0bp.th.jpg (http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cardview0bp.jpg)
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/2635/psusideview0oc.th.jpg (http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=psusideview0oc.jpg)
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9198/topview4pg.th.jpg (http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=topview4pg.jpg)

Had to cut away a bit of the fan casing on the rear 60mm fan to allow for the breakout box cable for component output & also file a bit away on the last slot for the DVB-C card. Otherwise no problems really.