This week I decided to order a Shuttle box to build a new MCE PC to replace my old dual Athlon MP 2000+ system.
I ordered the following from newegg on Monday and it got here wed (price included for those contemplating jumping to sff/mce):
Item List
BRBN PC SHUTTLE SB81P RETAIL (Qty=1,Price=$374.00)
VGA LEADTEK GF PX6600GT-128MB RT (Qty=1,Price=$208.50)
CPU P4/3 GHz 800M LGA775 530 RET (Qty=1,Price=$179.00)
DDR 512MB PC3200 BL6464Z402 CRU (Qty=2,Price=$218.00)
HD 160GB|WD1600SD RAID Edition% (Qty=2,Price=$230.00)
KB MS|NATURAL KEYBRD ELITE PS2 REV% (Qty=1,Price=$18.00)
KB&MS LOGITECH DINOVO KEYB/MOUSE RT (Qty=1,Price=$149.00)
DVD+/-RW 16x+|NEC ND-3500A BK (Qty=1,Price=$62.99)
S/W MS|WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER 2005 % (Qty=1,Price=$131.00)
WRLSS-G NET ADAPTER|LINKSYS WUSB54G (Qty=1,Price=$49.99)
IR REMOTE CONTROL BATAM MC GENERIC% (Qty=1,Price=$29.00)
Subtotal:$1,649.48
TAX:$119.59
Shipping and Handling Charge**:$38.02
Total:$1,807.09
I'm still waiting on this:
HAUPPAUGE WINTV PVR-500 MCE 2 TUNER PCI W/MCE 2005 (White Box) $136.67
update: this card will not fit in the shuttle pci slot. in fact, not many PCI cards larger than a modem or USB2.0 expansion card (which is what I stuck in there) will fit in the slot. any card with a big thick component protruding from the top half (like a tv tuner card), just forget about it. I'll be using a USB tuner instead.
Fedex delivered yesterday morning and I decided to put everything together. Here's how it went (with pics-tars, thanks Beau).
Ordered on monday, delivered on wed w/standard shipping. Newegg rules!
Not much in the box. MS ergo keyboard for mrs., dinovo bluetooth for me.
A box worth keeping.
box contents
I still don't know what all the holes on the right are for.
first look at the guts
from above
the other side
So that's what PCIe looks like
screwless rails & manuals
IDE drive enclosure removed
starting with the NEC 3500 DVD-RW
which will go here
Tip: remove the front bezel at this point (or you'll have to take it all apart later)
snap-on rails
ready to install
installed in enclosure (I would be adding an IDE HD later, so changed jumper to slave)
P4 3.0 lga 775 - fast enough for under $200 and hopefully to be replaced with an 3.4 EE whenever price comes down
new pull cord on P4 boxes for easy opening
sweet fan... it's almost a shame not to need it
512 megs of CAS 2 Crucial goodness
need to remove the shuttle ICE heatsink/fan
remove air duct on other side
ICE, ICE baby
socket exposed
pop open the hood
Pinless processor
just drops into place (note, the black plastic cover needs to be removed)
cooling gunk
spread it around
locking down the CPU is easy as one, two, three!
insert memory
Reinstall ICE
reinstall air duct
moving on to the video card
so many games... so little time
prepping the slots (they lock down with the flip latch/screws)
POS 6600GT installed
it's going to be a tight fit when the pvr card arrives
install IDE bay, attach cables (don't forget about the audio lineout to onboard sound)
now time for the HD... these WD were built specifically for RAID applications)
install the rails and they drop right in
opposite view (IDE HD bay can be FDD bay, either/or but not both)
plugged in and ready for RAID
If you're going to be running RAID, you need a floppy for the F6 driver install in windows. I had to install the FDD cable and hang the drive out the side)
2-2-2-8 = sweetness
enable RAID
set the bios to boot to CD, and start installing MCE. Setup asked if I wanted to join a domain, but I thought that was disabled in the OS?!? You need to install CD1, then CD2, then reinstall CD1 when it askes for SP2 (sort of confusing), and that's all there is to it!
Done!
When a co-worker saw the finished product, he said it was so sweet it was "technosexual." I have to agree, it is one
sexy machine.
I just got the third HD (Maxtor 150GB) installed last night and the music and picture files copied over to the RAID/system partition. I should get to start playing with it tonight. I'll need to get a USB hub soon to support two printers, a scanner, two keyboards, and the MCE remote control reciever.
build time: 1 hr
windows install time: 1 hr
transferring profiles/data: 4-5 hours
so far, so good. I'll update as I get to play around with the MCE features.
update: hooked it up to my tv and reciever last night via s-video and spdif connectors and watched a dvd. It looked and sounded great. Hopefully I'll get more time to play with it over the weekend.
update:
At home in action
Rockin' out with SRV
cliff notes:
i built a sff computer.
so far it's eaten 2 PCIe video cards and one PCI tuner card.
UPDATE:
tried x700 256MB card instead of PX6600GT TDH and it's working like a champ. It's handled everything I've thrown at it so far!
Update 1/26pm
24 hours of use and not one sign of trouble. YES! I'm a happy camper again!
update: got RMA from newegg. my time is not worth trying to make this system stable. I'm getting a new one and will try again from the ground up.
update 2/15: new system is built and working ok so far. the ATX3 connector is necessary to make the system run, but there's no mention of it in the Shuttle manual. I probably would not recommend this model to someone building a new system until they get the bugs worked out.
see links below.
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