Considering giving the kids my main pc, the other one is too crap for words so was thinking of getting a little TFT and a mini pc, you know, chengfun or Shuttle, shoe box sized pcs, not for games though wouldnt mind the option of some older ones but not a priority, web browsing mainly. Want to get the kids off the main one as we cant get near it and make a bit of space in the kitchen.

Don't know what your question is but

They are very good all you really need is a shuttle, hard drive, cpu, 256meg memory (minimum) and a DVD/CD RW drive.
The onboard graphics card is fine for web browsing and non intensive gaming but start with 3D based stuff and you'll need to update card, not sure if they still do ones without agp slots but i'd steer clear of these if they still do.
Probably the best one is the SN41G2B]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Shuttle_102.html]SN41G2B uses a geforce 4 gfx and and has tv out, plus it's AMD so cpu's are nice n cheap for say a XP2500

Si

Mr Cookie, just read a review on that one and it was pretty positive considering how small it is, question was really for experiences or impressions of these little pcs.

Jacko

Mine is a 51 it's got a celeron 1.7 in it and a Geforce 4200 Agp card returns score of 6,500 in 3d marks 2001 and plays most games quite happily at 1024 by 768, basically i use it as a PVR and a LAN Games rig when the sessions aren't at home :D (main pc weighs too much)

If it's a very quiet enviroment you'll notice a bit more fan noise but nothing spectacular, the setup guides that come with them is quite good and you should be up and runnning inside an hour plus windows install time.

To be honest i really can't think of any negatives.

Si
Ps
this is what i'd buy
Shuttle Spacewalker XPC SN41G2B nForce2 £199
AMD Athlon "Barton" XP2500+ 333FSB £67
Crucial 512 meg DDR PC3200 times 2 £135
Pioneer DVR-106 4x DVD±RW £95
Western Digital Caviar 120GB Special Edition 8MB Cache £78

Total £574 :D

Shuttle Spacewalker XPC SN41G2B nForce2 £199

Yep, looking like thats the one to go for.

AMD Athlon "Barton" XP2500+ 333FSB £67

Something along those lines

Crucial 512 meg DDR PC3200 times 2 £135

I think 512 will have to do for know, dont think the missus will authorise it otherwise !

Pioneer DVR-106 4x DVD±RW £95

Am just going to stick an old CD rom in it for the time being, Have a CD writer in the other one and not quite ready for the DVD thing yet.

Western Digital Caviar 120GB Special Edition 8MB Cache £78

Have a choice of redundant HDD's around 20 or 30 meg so they will have to do.


Will need a TFT monitor to replace the honking great iilyama 19 inch CRT, main aim is to make some space.


Cheers for all the info, very helpful having some decent feedback on which to base a purchase.

Mark

Your welcome Jacko, i've got a cd rw/dvd combo drive in mine but like you i've got hard drives left over, if your going to use it as a media centre i'd recomend a blue tooth keyboard mouse combo, this is how i use mine adn i've only got a standard wireless combo and range is quite poor.

All the best
Si