Page 1 of Help me downsize my PC system

I have a full sized pc tower, and need the space it is taking up, along with the desk and everything.

Any suggestions on a smaller case which will take an ATX mobo.
want to keep.

Current system comprises:
2GB DDR2 ram
Intel core 2 dup E6600 cpu
AGP NVIDIA graphics card - 256 MB and VIVO - needed as use for capturing video cam video`s
DVD writer
DVD ROM
2 SATA Drives
2 IDE Drives
a few pci cards - inc pci wifi and firewire card
Motherboard is an ASROCK DUAL 775 VSTA - onboard 7.1 audio
PSU is a good 600 watt jobbie as before it was too low and couldn`t handle all the drives etc

Basically I want to rebuild all these into a smaller system, and be able to edit and capture video via the AGP and firewire.

Any suggestions ?

I don`t really want a laptop as all this hardware - which is still fairly capable will go to waste.

Oh , I am running win Xp SP3, But will be upgrading to Win 7 soon [i hope]

Want to spend money on a case and reuse as much of the stuff as poss

Would like maybe a shuttle style system, to put next to TV in bedroom, and use on that. So HDMI or VGA port needed.
I know I will prob need to get a PCI graphics card but which one?

Thanks for any suggestions.

This item was edited on Saturday, 16th April 2011, 15:10

You want to fit 4 hard drives & 2 DVD drives into a small case?! Seriously?  If so, I`d love to see you try it :D

The Shuttle style boxes will usually only fit 1 optical drive and 1 or 2 hard drives in, and their power supplies are usually under 300W.
You`ll probably find that many of the LGA 775 based case & mobo combos are discontinued, so that either means you`ll struggle to find one or that the old ones are a reasonable price (I hope it`s the latter).

Firewire isn`t as common on a lot of PCs these days, so you may have to look at a PCI-Express based card.

And yes you`ll probably need to replace the graphics card with a PCI-E one. For what you want though you could spend less than £50 and get a pretty good one that has HDMI output included, however, a lot of them these days don`t support video capture (via S-video or composite etc.) So you may need to look at a USB capture solution for that.

Personally I would look at ditching the CPU & RAM and buying a new case/mobo which supports Intel`s Core ix series. Then buy a cheap i3 CPU (which will probably be better than the 2.4Ghz CPU you have now, same as mine by the way).
It gives you much better options for future upgrades.

personaly, i`d go for a HTPC type pc, as it`ll cut down energy consumption, & the newer ion based units will be at least equal to you current system, but if you really need 2 dvd drives, & want to keep your mobo/cpu etc, i`d buy  large sata hd (bear in mind, you can get a 2TB drive for around £70) & a midi case with 2 dvd bays...

But,  i do think it`s false economy, you won`t save a great deal on space/wires etc, & if your current system does everything you need it to, then i`d consider looking at ways to just tidy up any external peripherals,

Would like maybe a shuttle style system, to put next to TV in bedroom, and use on that. So HDMI or VGA port needed.
I know I will prob need to get a PCI graphics card but which one?

by the time you`ve messed around trying to fit your current hardware into a micro case, & spent money/time making it less noisy etc, you could have bought an ion micro system, which would not only be more powerfull, almost silent, but is more suited to the job of a bedroom HTPC (ie, native HDMI/silent/energy efficient etc)

hope this helps.

Thanks for the quick reply.
I will not fit all drives in the new system. Just the DVD burner and 1 or 2 hard drives.
I was searching for small cases on scan ebay etc, and kept coming up with matx, or iatx which I don`t want.
I don`t really want to spend more than 200 if can be helped. - do you think that this shuttle would be suitable ?
Shuttle SG41J1or Shuttle SX48P2E Barebone
would an i3 be up to the job of editing video?

Quote:
KaTz says...
would an i3 be up to the job of editing video? People use the term `i3` etc. but in truth there`s a big range with the i3 CPU range.
Having said that, you with 2GB RAM it`s not as though you have some video editing powerhouse now (pretty poor/average really) so I would think most i3`s with 4GB RAM would be better than you have now....

Ste

This item was edited on Saturday, 16th April 2011, 16:01

Quote:
[MAD]TheOgster says...
you could have bought an ion micro system, which would not only be more powerfulNot for video editing Ogs.
The C2D E6600 running at 2.4Ghz will definitely beat the Atom CPUs (even the newer ones) for general purpose stuff as well as video editing. It`s at least 3 times faster.
I agree that for video playback and general Internet surfing etc. the Atom`s are great.

Quote:
sj says...
People use the term `i3` etc. but in truth there`s a big range with the i3 CPU range. Yep there is. But even the lowest speed i3 chip (which I think is the "530"?) is almost twice as fast as the C2D E6600 in terms of raw CPU performance anyway - and I`m sure you can get it for around £80 (retail box).

KatZ -  if you`re going to stick with the components you have, then you need to properly check out the CPU model you have to ensure that it will work in the Shuttle cases you`ve linked to.
The same with the RAM. 

If you push ahead with it and manage to get a motherboard etc. with 4 slots in total, then let me know and I`ll give you 2GB more RAM (800Mhz DDR2). It`s been sitting in my drawer for a long time and I`ve never bothered using it.