New generation cards & XPCs?

[8ball]

Having recently bought a Shuttle PC I'm concerned whether the machine is actually as future proof as I had thought it would be.

I've noticed all of the NV40 models have a hulking cooler attached to them, not to mention the need of 2 molex connectors and a need for a 400W or so PSU.

I know it's early to say, especially since ATI is yet to show their goods, but what does this spell for the future? Will future versions of the NV40 have more modest needs? Will they fit in an XPC? Am I stuck in this generation with my current PC?

 

[etp777]

I'd definitely not try using a standard 6800 of any flavor in an XPC. And I suspect the R420s might be a problem too. WHat we very well might see though, as compact PCs are such a big market, would be that when ATI and Nvidia release their new lineup of laptop chips to go with these new families of desktop chips, that we'll see some manufacturers adapting these for normal AGP use in compact PCs(and have the inherent lower power consumption of the laptop chips). These may very well cost a bit more than the regular desktop card coutnerparts, but would work better in compact form factors of various types.

The other option of course is for Shuttle and everyone else to start upgrading their power supplies even more, which is possible, as you can see if you've played around much with servers, particular rackmounts or standard configs with redundant power, but these things tend to be nasty loud, as they're more concerned with dissipating all that heat to guarantee reliability, while one of features of small form factors, particularly those aimed at a media center configuration, is that they're supposed to be reasonably quiet.

Course, while I think the laptop cards would be ideal, sure you'll see some combination of the two ideas. Power supplies will get bigger in small form factors, and there will be some lower power consumption cards, and basically rather than what I consider the ideal solution, we'll end up with a compromise somewhere in between the two choices there.

 

[8ball]

Well here's hoping!

Thank you for your reply, at least I do not see the future so glum now