Super Shuttle Build Advice

[supercharn]

I'm looking to build a home server using a bare-bones Shuttle system. Unless I'm missing something, this is looking like it will be an incredibly fast system for not much money. Can anyone tell me if there is a flaw to this setup? There is not a video card in here yet. I read that I might have to upgrade the PSU if I get a video card that requires a lot of power. Can you suggest that as well. Here are the specs:

* Shuttle XPC Barebone - model SX58J3 $200.00

* Intel Core i7-870 $300.00

* Video - Not sure yet

* 4x4GB RAM $240.00

* 128GB SSD $250.00

* Converter tray for SSD $10.00

* 2TB SATA $80.00

* OS Windows 2008 Server x64 (I own this so no cost)

Total cost is around $1100.00 without a video card. Is it just me, or does this sound like it will be ridiculously fast? 16GB of RAM with an i7 and SSD! Will this work? Any advice or tips are greatly appreciated.

 

[boiler1990]

The SX58J3 only supports the i7-900 series chips, not the i7-800s (that's the 1156 socket).

Also, I wouldn't spend this much on anything that isn't a new Core-i series CPU (i5-2500, etc), because it's simply a waste.

What exactly do you plan on using this for? If it's just a file server, you could run it on a Pentium 4 with 2GB RAM. If you need a more professional server, invest the money in actual server components, not desktop components.

 

[supercharn]

Thank you for the CPU info. So you are recommending the i5-2500. I will look at that.

This system needs to be small, so that is why I chose the Shuttle form factor. It will be doing heavy video compression and running VM's, so I need it to be capable. So kind of a workhorse desktop is what I was looking for.

How about the video card? Any suggestions on that?

 

[boiler1990]

You probably don't need anything extremely powerful, so anything reasonable will do.

I would look into building a mini-ITX computer, because Shuttle's PC's don't follow a standard motherboard form factor so you couldn't upgrade it in the future. There are several cases out there that can hold large GPUs and standard ATX power supplies.

 

[supercharn]

I am looking at mini-ITX cases now. Although I highly doubt I will ever upgrade the motherboard, I can see your point.

Can you recommend a mini-ITX case that is big enough for a large GPU and ATX PSU? I see a lot online that are very small...

 

[boiler1990]

Take a look at Silverstone's Sugo (SG) series cases. Some of them can hold full-size, dual-slot GPUs.