Well, Christmas is approaching. Which means it's high time for an upgrade, sicne the parents will give me a bit of money towards it. So I turn to you.

I'm looking for a machine that will last me three or four years (mainly through university) and hence I'd prefer it in a shuttle or other small form factor case. I've probably got around £500 or 600 to spend on it. Note that probably doesn't mean about $1000 or so, because we get price hikes over here and as such stuff like that is evil.

In all, I'll probably need

- New HDD
- Case (or a PSU if a small form factor doesn't work out)
- Motherboard (probably Asus A8N or something... although I'd rather have one with no frills like SLI, but PCI-E is pretty much writ now, and I haven't a clue about the hard drive connections anymore. I think they changed... listen to an old man prattle)
- RAM (naturally. Probably Kingston or Corsair, as much as I can get... and is there any noticeable performace difference between PC2700 and PC3200, or will it be better to get, say 1.5GB of 2700 over 1GB of 3200? EDIT: Wow. Old. Goes up to PC5300, it seems. I suck.)
- Processor (is 64 bit viable yet?)
- Graphics card (the battleground... although I haven't a clue where the latest cards compare)
- Sound card (if my budget stretches far enough, and if I don't get a shuttle)

I leave the rest in your capable hands.

A shuttle is going to cost a lot more and be a lot less powerful. It's also going to be warmer. Unless you have a fair amount of experience building PCs and you understand cooling quite well, I strongly suggest that you don't build one.

That said, we need to know what you plan on using this computer for. If it's gaming you'll have a few problems (like the newer video cards, with a riser, probably won't fit inside a shuttle case).

...

which is why I said we need to know what he wants to do with this machine. A MCE isn't going to run as hot as a gaming rig. And new video cards are much bigger than a "full size AGP card".

Yeah, it woud be for gaming. Should've mentioned that.

I thought Shuttles might be a bit dodgy, but I've got a spare case that I can shove all the old bits in if I don't get one.

And as I understand it, PCI-E shuttles are built slightly larger anyway.

We have it at a lan party now, it's been running ut2k4 at full for 8 hours now with no problem... Also, I bet my 7800gt would fit in there just fine...

Plenty of room for a bigger card...

FILL IT WITH CHICKENS

First, if you are comparing the price of a Shuttle to an entry level case with a cheap as hell power supply and adding a subpar motherboard, then yes, they do cost a lot more. But if you're comparing it to good case, a power supply that will actually put out stable rails, and good brand motherboard, then the Shuttles aren't that much more.

Second, besides the fact that the motherboards are just smaller, plus the fact that they use the same processors as full ATX motherboards, how are they less powerful? I switched from a full tower to a Shuttle a long time ago and about the only difference was less overclockability. At default speeds they perform the same as full ATX motherboards.

Lastly, depending on the model of Shuttle, some of them can be warmer, but the new P series chassis runs pretty cool.