SFF gaming rig. Feedback wanted.

[twattle]

Hey folks.

Planning on buying a new pc for gaming/surfing and would be grateful for some feedback on hardware choices.
This is not a standard build as im pretty settled on a small form factor case so i have to adjust the hardware around that.
I don't think i'll be overclocking much so hopefully there won't be huge cooling issues.
I'll give reasons for my choice of hardware when i list it.
Last, I don't live in the US so I can't buy from newegg.com, but will give links to that anyways for reference.

Here goes:

Case: Silverstone Sugo SG02W.
This is the case im talking about. It's build for a micro-ATX board and should be able to house a gaming build with 1 graphics card.
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163113

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400.
I choose this cpu because it got a good reputation and because it emits less heat than the 65nm models.
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Motherboard: ASUS P5E-VM Hdmi.
This looks like a good micro-ATX board altho some say it emits more heat than the Gigabyte G33 boards?
I don't need the onboard graphics card at all so i don't know if theres better/cheaper choices here. Ideas are welcome.
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131237

RAM: OCZ Gold PC2-6400 4GB (2 x 2GB).
These seem good for the price?
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227199

Graphics: BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC.
This card seems to be a good choice in that pricerange. I'll probably wait for the new series and see if that enables me to get a better card for about the same price. Remember, no room on the board for sli/crossfire.
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143118

Hdd: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB.
Should be fast enough, also quite cheap.
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

PSU: Corsair 450VX.
As i'm running with only 1 hdd and 1 video card i thought 450W would be sufficient.
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003

Cooler: I'm not at all settled on this one. The problem is that the case only allows for a cooler with a maximum height of 78mm. It is gonna be placed right beneith the big PSU fan so im debating wether to choose a low profile cooler with fan or go for a bigger heatsink without a fan and let the PSU handle the airflow.
I'm not gonna overclock it (not right away atleast) so maybe a small cooler wil suffice.
Im thinking about these low profile coolers:
- Zalman CNPS 7500. Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118036
- Zalman CNPS 8000. Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118005
- Scythe Shuriken. Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185063

Or maybe something like this without the fan:
- Thermalright XP-90 Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109119

The cooling issue is where i have my greatest doubts altho I don't know how much cooling the E8400 needs non-oc'ed.


I hope you smart ppl can give me some feedback/ideas on this build.
I can't affort to make it much more expensive, but any ideas to improve performance/price are still welcome.

Over and out

 

[guanyu210379]

1. I am a little bit worried bout micro atx case with the 8800GT, cpu fan of your choices and corsair vx450.
Can it really fit all of 'em? If it fits, will it not be difficult to build? You don'T have much room there mate. Why don't you get a normal case than get a better atx mobo? GAX38DS5 perhaps?
Are you sure about this? I have never build a 8800 series, and an atx psu into a micro atx box before, so I don't know for sure. I have used the micro atx cases always with an onboard vga or a low class vga (not big).

2. Get better memory, corsair, or crucial. Or if you like the cheaper ones get mushkin or patriot. (I have bad experiences with OCZ products. 2 times to be exact 1 time with memory heatsink the other time with ocz vanquisher, it happened two times in a row)

3. The rest is OK. About the cpu-fan it is in correspond with your case, I can't suggest anything right now.

 

[twattle]

Thanks for the feedback guanyu. I'll look at some better memory as the first thing, any exact product suggestions here? Theres a ton of different versions from corsair afaik.

You can look at the case here: http://silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=SG02-F&area=usa
Everything should fit, theres even a picture of the case fitted with a huge 12" Radeon HD 2900XTX card.
I know it's gonna be a bit difficult to build but the look/size when its finished means more to me.

 

[guanyu210379]

For RAM :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148183

Well you gotta have a lot of finger agility for that mate! But it looks like that it will look good after your are finish building it.

 

[twattle]

Thanks! Altho the ones you posted don't come in a 2 x 2GB kit where i buy from so i am gonna go with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148180
Hope they are also ok.

 

[twattle]

On a second thought the tracer ones might be too flashy (just noticed the LED stuff).
What about: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145176

 

[guanyu210379]

Crucial is a very good brand. You don't have to worry bout it.
Right now, I use mushkin and it is good.
As long as you buy from wellknown brands like crucial, corsair, kingston, patriot, or mushkin, it will be find.
I have build about 4 systems with OC using the one that I have posted, and it works super, but the one you've chosen is also good.

 

[guanyu210379]

That is also correct of course not 100%. Not every model from ASUS is good. Many models from ASUS suck , not to mention those drives (DVD-RW, CD-RW, etc.), all of 'em got broken in no time.
Overpriced and under build....you got a point there mate specially for ASUS GPUs. That is why ASUS is on my shopping list but in the end mostly I ended up with HIS, XFX, BFG, MSI, etc.
I have once an ASUS MV8XX, with everything onboard, it was broken only after 6 months (totally dead).
But this P5E X38 is good and most of the times, nearly 90% probability, ASUS is good with its mobos and GPUs.

ASUS and Gigabytes mobos are my favorites. But stay away from ASUS drives.

Gigabyte is also good. I have experienced one or two problems but that is not a big problem. Nomatter which one you pick.

Defect products or bad design? Hey every vendors has its bad day.

I have never encountered 2 problems in a row except from OCZ. Perhaps this is only missfortune, but I wanna share my bad experiences to help others avoiding the same.

Yup. All my micro atx mobos have also only onboard GPU.

 

[twattle]

Thanks for all the input. The last two replies leads me to the question:
What is the difference between the G31, G33, G35 and Q35 chipsets?
It seems that these are the only new ones that the m-ATX boards come with.
Actually i choose the ASUS board because that was the only m-ATX board with a G35 chipset wheres all the others have G31, G33 or Q35.

 

[y2kgtp]

I too am pricing out a SFF build.....what is the advantage of the G35 chipset over the G31? This is what I am almost settled on...all from Newegg:


LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-05
APEVIA X-QPACK2-BK/500 Black Aluminum Body/ Front Mask MicroATX Desktop Computer Case
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support
EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Power Supply
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400
Rosewill RFX-80BL 80mm 2 Ball Bearing Blue LED Case Fan with Fan Controller Set
ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU 120mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan

 

[twattle]

Ok, asked the chipset question in the proper section: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/250465-12-tomshardware.

Now settled on a Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R board.