Help me decide what kind of PC to get...

[Ivo]

I'm sort of wondering what kind of PC to get.

I'm currently using a netbook at home as a "desktop", which I won't have available during January to April hence I need to get another PC anyway.
If I'm at home I leave it on all the time. This is relatively eco-friendly as they don't consume much power, but I have the feeling that it is not so good for the netbook to use it like this for months on end, I don't think netbooks are very good at heat dissipation but I may be wrong. Maybe I'm just conservative but I still tend to favor a desktop to work as a desktop job (staying on all the time and so on). For now it has to do until I get another one, which I will have to do as I don't want to not have a PC at home during 3 months.

I was wondering if a Shuttle was a good idea for the mobility (the plan is to leave in 3 years, and that would make it easier to carry then), but I am worried that it may also suffer from "normal" desktop lifestyle as with the relatively cramped space it may tend to have problems with heat just like portables have.

I will be using it to browse the net, emulators/old games, webchat. It is not that I would not like to play Diablo 3 when it comes out but for one game (even D3) I don't think I should splurge on performance I don't need otherwise.

The options are basically to get
1. a normal desktop, a cheap or used one perhaps given the low requirements
2. a shuttle
3. use another portable, perhaps a larger notebook or even another netbook (I've been wanting to try out a tablet for ages).

I'm rather undecided but I'm leaning towards 1 as it may be the cheapest option. If I didn't get the netbook back again after April it would be convenient to go for another portable as I go on work trips and a shuttle isn't good for that.

Am I missing some important point?

Ivo.

[Anapan]

Yeah, get a shuttle from newegg. Free shipping right now on that $184 one.

Granted, I have 3 tower computers running in my house and I still mostly use my old Toshiba laptop. I keep it on most of the time. As long as it's sitting on the $8 cooling pad it doesn't heat up.

[D.D.D.]

I had a Shuttle PC for 4.5 years and it was really great. Powerful, quiet, and barely made a change in my electricity bill. Then about 3~4 months ago it shut off suddenly. The power supply likely died but as the custom power supply on an older Shuttle would have cost me about $150+shipping here, I just built a full-size tower for a few hundred more (and WAY more powerful).
But for the time yeah, the Shuttle was great.

[pjvdg]

I used to have a shuttle. Great little computer, it is indeed a bit cramped in there but I never had any heat related problems. There was a heat conductor placed on the processor which would lead to the back where fans would cool it off. Simple and effective. Noise was next to nothing but sometimes the metal casing would resonate causing a really annoying sound.

[D.D.D.]

I used to have a shuttle. Great little computer, it is indeed a bit cramped in there but I never had any heat related problems. There was a heat conductor placed on the processor which would lead to the back where fans would cool it off. Simple and effective. Noise was next to nothing but sometimes the metal casing would resonate causing a really annoying sound.

Yeah mine did that too but I just bent the case on the side ever so slightly so the fit was tighter and it was perfectly silent.

[Ivo]

Yeah, get a shuttle from newegg. Free shipping right now on that $184 one.

Wow nice deal there it seems. Too bad I'm not over there to buy it

Ivo.

[pjvdg]

I used to have a shuttle. Great little computer, it is indeed a bit cramped in there but I never had any heat related problems. There was a heat conductor placed on the processor which would lead to the back where fans would cool it off. Simple and effective. Noise was next to nothing but sometimes the metal casing would resonate causing a really annoying sound.

Yeah mine did that too but I just bent the case on the side ever so slightly so the fit was tighter and it was perfectly silent.

I just placed some heavy books on it, problem solved
The more books the quieter it would get.

[gtmtnbiker]

If I'm at home I leave it on all the time. This is relatively eco-friendly as they don't consume much power, but I have the feeling that it is not so good for the netbook to use it like this for months on end, I don't think netbooks are very good at heat dissipation but I may be wrong.

Why not put it to sleep? If you're using Windows 7, I find that sleep mode is a huge improvement over Windows XP. I do it with my laptop and it comes back almost instantaneous (about 5 seconds). Sometimes it's actually hibernating so it takes a few seconds longer but both are much faster than XP ever was.

[avrame]

If I'm at home I leave it on all the time. This is relatively eco-friendly as they don't consume much power, but I have the feeling that it is not so good for the netbook to use it like this for months on end, I don't think netbooks are very good at heat dissipation but I may be wrong.

Why not put it to sleep? If you're using Windows 7, I find that sleep mode is a huge improvement over Windows XP. I do it with my laptop and it comes back almost instantaneous (about 5 seconds). Sometimes it's actually hibernating so it takes a few seconds longer but both are much faster than XP ever was.

My only gripe about sleep is when the computer doesn't want to wake up via keyboard tap and mouse wiggle. Regardless of how I configured the bios on my HTPC, it always resulted in me having to walk over an wake it up with a power button. Fixed that by disabling sleep altogether

[avrame]

I've been drolling over this for a while:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6856107072

Basically a nettop (desktop/netbook) with HDMI out, dual core, and a dedicated GPU (ION 2). Nice thing about the ION 2 is that it is actually powerful enough to play Starcraft 2 on without a hitch, should be able to run D3 just fine