To barebones or not to barebones... A build question.

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:53 pm

I am having a bit of trouble planning my newest build, so I thought I would solicit a few 1337 opinions. Here is the scenario...

I am building a new rig for my family. Usage pattern isn't going to be extreme, however it will be used for gaming quite a bit. It was also mentioned to me that they wanted something "upper class" this time, not just enough to do what they need.

Given the current state of technology, I would normally gravitate towards a Conroe-based build in an Antec SOLO with a Thermalright tower heat sink. The issue is that this particular machine will need to be shipped cross-country, so a big, heavy thing hanging off of the motherboard may not be the best idea. The situation is made a bit more complicated by the fact that there will not be a technically inclined person on the receiving end, so simply detaching the heat sink and putting it back when it arrives would be ... difficult.

So then my mind started wandering to the Shuttle products. I've used a few of them before with mostly positive results. Only one of the four I built was unbearably noisy and couldn't be fixed with a fan swap or other minor alteration. I was thinking of giving the new SX38P2 a try. I think the smaller footprint would add an appreciated "cool" factor to the project. They're not really into windows or neon, but a spiffy case is always a nice thing.

My current thoughts for specs are:

Conroe 3.0ghz 1333MHz FSB 4M (E6850)
EVGA GeForce 8800GTX 768MB (768-P2-N831-AR)
WD Raptor 150GB (WD1500ADFD)
Samsung DVDR DL (SH-S203B)
Samsung 20" widescreen 2ms (206BW)

Barebones:
Shuttle SX38P2 (Intel x38, 400W)
Corsair 2GB Kit DDR2-800 (TWIN2X2048-6400C3DF)

Full Build:
Asus P5E3 Deluxe (Intel x38)
Corsair 2GB Kit DDR3-1333 (TWIN3X2048-1333C9DHX)
Thermalright Ultra-120
Seasonic S12 Energy Plus (SS-550HT)
Antec SOLO

Has anyone had experience with the new Shuttle SX38P2?

Any thoughts on other options?

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 4:11 pm

Why not stick with your original idea for case and tower heatsink and just go with a bolt-through kit for mounting and pick a heatsink that isn't outrageously heavy? Maybe even go with something with an integrated fan, so you don't even have to worry about that coming lose in shipping . Something like one of the Zerotherm butterflies would seem the perfect solution: good performance, integrated fan, not super heavy (esp. the aluminum one), and comes with bolt-through mounting. It may not quite be a TR Ultra-120, but it is certainly good enough for a C2D.

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:22 pm

I am currently thinking of going with the full build with a SI-128 or SI-128 SE. Perhaps with the fan removed it will be safe to ship? I could probably walk someone through just reattaching the fan...

Any thoughts? Would the non-tower heat sink be safe enough to ship?

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 1:36 am

I think just about any heatsink, tower or otherwise, would be safe to ship as long as you use bolt-through mounting.

Also, if you are contemplating having to talk them through attaching a fan on site; why not instead do the complete build yourself but fill up the case with crumpled newspaper to keep stuff from shifting. Very easy to talk someone through removing that . . .