advice on purchase needed please

Hi folks,

I'm just about to go ahead and upgrade my ageing XP1600 system with a nice
shiny new shuttle....but...really don't know what to go for.

I've been looking at the SN41G2, SN45G (or SN45GV2) or the SN85G4 (all AMD
as I've been using AMD for the last 12 years)

The first two are both Socket A systems (not that it's a bad thing but am I
limiting myself a bit?). I don't upgrade everyweek (as you might be able to
tell from still running an XP1600), so I'll need it to last 18 months or so.
However they do have a reduced cost of about £50 over the 85G4. But then the
85 supports the socket 754 processor so more power, bit more furture proof,
but it also has a card reader that I don't want as I'll never use it and
don't want to pay for something that I wont use.

and as for the processors...it's all very confusing. what is a newcastle or
a winchester or a barton or a sempron etc etc etc??

so..I'm a bit stuck...

can anyone help?

many thanks


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((¸¸.·´ .·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* -:¦:- *Alistair * -:¦:-

In article <>,
(Alistair) wrote:

> I've been looking at the SN41G2, SN45G (or SN45GV2) or the
> SN85G4 (all AMD as I've been using AMD for the last 12 years)

This week I built a system using an SN41G2 V3 and I'm *very* impressed.
Ok, I'm only using a small, cool 40Gb HD and the onboard graphics, but the
only time the fan spins up to anything like full (noisy) speed is when it
first boots for a few seconds and when I gave it a stress test looping a
video benchmark. In normal use it's very quiet (not silent, but
definitely quiet).

Build quality is excellent, the heatpipe is a great way of shifting heat
from the CPU to the edge of the box, and although I bought this as part of
a project for a friend I'll be very happy if he doesn't want it. My main
desktop/email PC is getting long in the tooth (pc133, xp1700+) and the
Shuttle box would make a very great replacement.

I suppose I should say I'm only running a Barton 2500+ in it at stock
speeds (166MHz fsb), and I haven't bothered trying to push the processor
faster; it's not a games box where I want every ounce of performance
squeezing out of the hardware, with noisy consequences. That'll be helping
keep temps down and noise at bay. But I've got the BIOS set to spin up the
fan at 40C for the CPU, and even then it's hardly ever doing anything more
than spin the main fan gently. Summer will do doubt change that, but
there's plenty of headroom to play with, and 40C is very cool for a
processor; I'd happily have it up at 50C.

If I do part with this Shuttle I'll soon buy another for myself. If I do
I'll buy a mobile Barton for it...
http://www.cpucitystore.co.uk/catalo...roducts_id=392
....which runs at low voltage and ought to be even cooler and quieter,
while having plenty of flexibility to be pushed hard if I want. But if I
was after every ounce of performance or planning to use a hot modern vid
card I wouldn't be using a Shuttle anyway. Although the airflow is well
designed, the whole point of a Shuttle (for me anyway) is a small, neat,
quiet PC for everyday desktop use. Throw in an AMD64 processor and a
9800Pro vid card and you'd be spending a lot of time listening to the fans
run hard. Ok, there are mods you can do to improve cooling, but that kind
of defeats the whole point of owning such a stylish little box.

Think I've waffled on enough, don't you? :-) Good luck making your choice.

Andrew McP