building new rig. need advice.

[dbcalo]

Ok. So im building a new rig and i've decided that my current comp is just too large. So i've decided that the best solution, short of going to a laptop, would be to get a SFF, but with those you cant seem to be able to get pci express and a pci slot. because of this a current sound card wont work out. do you guys have any other suggestions? the solution i've been thinking about is to not get pci-express in this comp.

 

[honhon]

hhhhhhmmm..... have you maybe thought about a mid-tower? because i had a huge antec soho file server case before and i too felt it was really large, i parted that system out

now i have the rig in my signature and i have the mid-tower sviking case and it fits nicely next to my desk. wheres the antec file soho case didnt, so it makes me happy.

just an idea. also if you do think of a mid-tower i will vote for you get the kingwin kt-424 case, i love that case, i just wish that it had a 120mm fan in the front and 2 80mm fans in the rear otherwise i feal its perfect.

 

[CeeDeeJay]

My Two Cents

Shuttle has a sff with pci-e if your interested.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=51&threadid=1605390&enterthread=y
http://sfftech.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=653
Iwill announced one to be released this summer.

 

[dbcalo]

hhhhhhmmm..... have you maybe thought about a mid-tower? because i had a huge antec soho file server case before and i too felt it was really large, i parted that system out

now i have the rig in my signature and i have the mid-tower sviking case and it fits nicely next to my desk. wheres the antec file soho case didnt, so it makes me happy.

just an idea. also if you do think of a mid-tower i will vote for you get the kingwin kt-424 case, i love that case, i just wish that it had a 120mm fan in the front and 2 80mm fans in the rear otherwise i feal its perfect.

I had thought about a mid-tower and it could do the trick. the one thing i was trying to do was keep it small enough so that it could fit out of the way so i could have more leg room under the desk. the soho case is just too big in that respect, and it requires too many fans to keep cool.

 

[dbcalo]

now that i've mulled it over, im thinking that a mid-tower would be a more cost effective solution, if you know what i mean.

I would idealy like to step up to socket 939. what motherboard would you guys recommend? also are there anyother cases that i should look at? i would really love to find one that had a 120mm in the front and a 120mm in the back.

 

[smitjel]

What about the antec sonata case? That's considered a mid-tower, no? I've heard nothing but good things about that particular case.

 

[aeiou]

Yeah, some say its overrated, but I built a computer with it and it was a joy to work with. Probably the nicest case I've used. I love the side mounted hdd's and the space for such a "small" case.

 

[dbcalo]

is the cooling and airflow good in the antec sonata?

 

[dbcalo]

ok. so i'm thinking of these parts so far:

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939

pqi TURBO 1GB (2 x 512MB) pc3200

Leadtek PX6600GT TDH Geforce 6600GT 128MB

CHAINTECH AV-710

 

[Trombe]

You can google around for reviews of the Antec Sonata

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/sonata.ars