Pre-purchase review: SFF Shuttle build - FINISHED!

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Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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Update:

Click here for pic (pencil on top for size reference)

Finished the build, everything is peachy. You need to do a BIOS update right away to fix a fan problem, but other than that everything is great. Well, that and the blue power LED is horrendously bright. Also, I wish I had gone with a quieter hard drive; I got the MaxLine for performance but it's sure noisy. A Seagate Barracuda or Samsung SpinPoint would have been a much better choice. Also my SATA DVD burner is fairly noisy; I should have read more reviews and found a quieter one. Overall the noise is on-par with my laptop - fairly quiet. Not silent though. Aside from the hard drive, it makes about as much noise as a new Dell tower.

It fits on my desk perfectly; I'm very pleased with the size. I really like having my DVD drive and memory card reader within reaching distance from my keyboard. Since I have a NAS setup and I'm not using this machine for gaming, I was able to get away with not having extra expansion options. Internally it can take a single PCI card and a single PCI-Express card. However, it cannot take a dual-bay PCI-Express card like an 8800GTX since the PCI-Express slot is on the left. So your gaming options are limited that way. I'm using a fanless card anyway (256mb Radeon X550, just for the DVI). Also, the reviews I read on Newegg said that it has proprietary 5-pin internal USB ports which meant that I would have to buy a Shuttle-brand card reader. I did this and dropped the Floppy/Card Reader only to discover that the case comes with a 4-pin adapter cable. Luckily I have a USB Floppy card reader (which I use mainly for flashing BIOS's) so it wasn't a big deal, but keep in mind that you can use any standard internal USB drive you want, despite what the reviews say - you don't have to purchase the adapter separately since it comes with the case.

Hmm, what else. I got an SATA DVD burner in addition to the SATA hard drive. Shuttle includes one SATA cable and one IDE cable, both pre-installed, so make sure you have a spare (long) SATA cable if you want to use a second SATA drive. It's actually pretty quick little machine - no IDE devices and no legacy devices. SATA hard drive, SATA DVD burner, and 3.5" USB card reader drive. All in all, the perfect little box for me. The $600 pricetag got me a quiet, compact computer, a dual-core processor, 2 gigs of ram, a DVD burner and card reader, and a 500gb hard drive (plus plenty of USB ports). Very pleased overall and would recommend it to anybody!


Original post:

I need a new desktop, mainly for Adobe CS under Windows XP Pro. Prices include shipping. Going for a semi-budget build. Just wanted a quick review to make sure I got everything right:

Shuttle XPC: $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101020

1.9ghz X2: $59
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103036

2gb Gskill 800: $125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231065

Maxline 500gb: $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144016

DVD burner: $39
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827136114

Floppy/Card reader: $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821104104

5-port PCI USB card: $15
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815104216

256mb Radeon X550 video card: $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102565

Total comes to $628 shipped.
 
eggrolls

eggrolls

Senior member
Oct 11, 2006
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well, i took a quick look at that shuttle, and it doesn't seem to include a heatpipe cooler for your CPU. and your CPU doesn't come with one either. also, you may want to get a SATA DVD burner as well, just for the thinner cables. i dunno whether memory timings matter for adobe cs, but there are cheaper ddr2 800 out there.
 
Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,742
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Originally posted by: eggrolls
well, i took a quick look at that shuttle, and it doesn't seem to include a heatpipe cooler for your CPU. and your CPU doesn't come with one either. also, you may want to get a SATA DVD burner as well, just for the thinner cables. i dunno whether memory timings matter for adobe cs, but there are cheaper ddr2 800 out there.
Click to expand...

What makes you say that it doesn't include a heatpipe cooler? That would be the worst idea ever :Q

edit: one of the reviewers mentions one, plus the same model at eWiz says it has one. if not, I'll just return it and get the eWiz model:

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-SK22GV2
 
Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,742
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Originally posted by: Tick
I'm thinking you may be skimping a little too much on the X2. How about the 4200?
Click to expand...

Nearly double the price. I'm running a 2ghz Core 2 Duo mobile right now, so a 1.9ghz X2 should be that much of a step down.
 
Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,742
6,769
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Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
Get a NEC / Optiarc AD7170 SATA or IDE whichever you prefer.
Click to expand...

I wanted the LightScribe feature; Lite-on was the one with the best reviews. Just curious, why the AD7170?
 
A

Aluvus

Platinum Member
Apr 27, 2006
2,913
1
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Originally posted by: eggrolls
well, i took a quick look at that shuttle, and it doesn't seem to include a heatpipe cooler for your CPU.
Click to expand...

You should have taken a longer look; it's visible in 3 of the 10 pictures that Newegg has.
 
W

wwswimming

Banned
Jan 21, 2006
3,695
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Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,742
6,769
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Originally posted by: wwswimming
Originally posted by: Kaido
Shuttle XPC: $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101020

1.9ghz X2: $59
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103036
Click to expand...

looks like you don't like Stealth drive covers. me neither.

it will be a heck of a lot of system in a small space.

the Seagate 320 GB SATA is getting awesome reviews
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140
$80
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm pretty excited, I've never had a Shuttle before. My only other SFF computer was a Mac Mini about a year ago. I got a fully-decked-out Shuttle for the same price as the base Mac Mini model, that's pretty cool! As far as Stealth drives, I don't really care. I saw the price tag of $189 compared to $300+ on some of the other Shuttle models and decided to go for it. I just want something small to sit on my desk; I'm replacing a laptop on an iCurve stand. The onboard CPU fan is supposed to be pretty quiet, so I matched it up with a nice fanless video card and a quiet Maxline drive. I got a good deal on the Maxline because it's both quiet and about equal in performance with the Raptor 10k-rpm drives, plus I get 500 gigs of storage onboard. Yippie! I've also really wanted an integrated card reader, less stuff on my desk you know? I will return with pics when I do the build.

Yeah, I usually use that exact model Seagate when I build PCs for people. It's a great drive.
 
E

Eos

Diamond Member
Jun 14, 2000
3,463
17
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Nice.

I'd like to dump my AMD Socket 754 and full ATX tower for something like this.
 
Synomenon

Synomenon

Lifer
Dec 25, 2004
10,547
6
81
Looks good. These little Shuttle boxes are great. My last four or five PCs have all been Shuttles. My current rig is a SD39P2.
 
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