Recommend me a tiny MiniPC

[Bateluer]

Needs to have at least 512MB DDR memory, a 3Ghz+ P4 or a Barton Processor, at least a Radeon 9700, and a 100GB hdd. I was looking at some of the Shuttle Mini-PCs, but their 200W PSU seems kinda skimpy for all that.

 

[Jesta]

Currently running a Shuttle SB51G with a 2.8 P4, 1 gig ram, radeon AIW 9700 pro and WD 120gig/8mb, and Pioneer DVD-R drive. No power issues what so ever. Lots of people running some pretty high end stuff in them over at the Sudhian Forums. Check it out.

 

[ugh]

My friend told me that Shuttle XPCs get rather warm. Anyone has any experience on that?

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: ugh
My friend told me that Shuttle XPCs get rather warm. Anyone has any experience on that?

THG was saying their setup got up to 55^C

 

[gaidin123]

Yeah, all mini PCs except the mini-itx Via C3 based ones will likely get warmer than a normal PC simply because of the fact that a whole computer is crammed into a very small box. I have a Shuttle SS51 and have gotten my 1.8@2.4 P4 up to 63C or so in warm weather after playing games for a while. With a GF4, hot P4, hard drive, and power supply all going in a small cube, things get hot...but they were designed with this in mind and in my experience and after reading the viahardware/sudhian forums for quite some time, people usually do not experience instability due to heat with these things.

The mini-itx ones barely get warm. The Shuttle PSUs are adequate for what you can put in them at this time.

Gaidin

 

[ugh]

gaidin123: 63C is pretty hot. How hot is your warm weather BTW? Guess that's "normal" since you're overclocking

Not sure how good will Athlon chips perform in such conditions though

 

[Plester]

they get very hot in their stock configuration, if you want to run the high end stuff and be reasonably confident that it won't go poof then be prepared to do some modding.

i have a SB51G and had serious concerns, primarily about how hot the PS gets(ahcme brand in the SB51G) and an AGP vid card. i am running a 1.8A @ 2.6 (had to remove a pin - the bios recognizes 'A's and sets the available fsb from 100-132), a Ti4600, and a WD 80gb JB drive.

i started with the heatpipe 'radiator' - replaced the stock 80mm sunon w/ a panaflo L1A pulling air into the case - as the stock setup blows already hot case air through the radiator (found pulling air in to be more effective back in the t-bird water cooling days), then added another L1A to the heatpipe heatsink (zip tied on).

next the PS - i ran the system with the case open, and the side of the PS removed and i was amazed at how scortchingly hot the aluminium sinks inside the PS got - ceratinly hot enough to melt any wire insulation that might touch them and hot enough to give fingers a severe burn instantly. to deal with it, i pulled the tiny and loud little sunon 40mm fan out, cut the finger guard out of the PS, and put it back in the case without replacing the side of the PS - so now the air that is drawn through the PS isn't restricted to coming in via the tiny vents at it's rear (the PS is so packed that there is almost no way airflow could be effective). i took an old 60mm fan and cut the fan out of it and taped its cage onto a 60mm SUNON 21cfm fan and plugged it into header 1 on the mobo so it's speed can be software controlled. the assembly was then attached externally pulling air out of the PS/case.

finally using a hole saw i cut a 2" hole over the Ti4600 fan, and attached a finger guard - the aluminium case is thin enough that any reasonbly sharp hole saw makes short work of it.

now not only does it run significantly cooler, but a good deal quieter.

a picture

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: Plester
a picture

Wow, a PCI modem! It's been awhile since I've used one of those!

Seriously, though, I have absolutely no cooling problems with my SB51G. I put a 2.53 Ghz P4 and an overclocked Ti4200 in it, and the system's temperature never goes above 55 C.

 

[Plester]

would love to ditch the gd modem.

like i said in the post above, you would not believe how hot the sinks inside the PS get, i was blown away, hard to believe that they would fall within tolerance, but obviously do.

with the mods i did, idle temps are around 45 for system/board, 40 for cpu and, 30 for PS with an ambient room temp of 70F, under load around 48/44/35 respectively, i'm sure they will rise a bit during the dog days of summer. bottom line is they are significantly lower than with no mods, and i have some peace of mind that the whole rig isn't going to spontaneously combust.

ps. i'm at 39/37/29 right now w/ room temp of 68F. not too shabby!

 

[dannybin1742]

thats why you cut out the crappy grill they use and put in a 33cfm panaflow @31dba, and your set, mine now (sn41g2, 2100+ t-bred, 1gb of ram, r9700pro, tv card (winfast)) only gets up to 42C with the room at 70F

 

[Zap]

My Shuttle SS51G's power supply says "Active PFC" on it. Most power supplies (unless specified) are passive PFC. Active PFC (Power Correction Factor) power supplies are more efficient, meaning less heat generated and more of it's wattage rating put to good use. Two friends of mine run their Shuttle systems overclocked to around 3GHz without power problems.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Don't let that "200W" fool you. The SN41G2/SB51G Shuttle systems can hold their own easily. Heat is more of a concern with the SFF rigs than power demands. With a 100GB 7200rpm in there and a R9700, I'd be looking at some extra cooling pronto.

- M4H

 

[ugh]

Will the box be that hot if the processors aren't overclocked?

Anyway, the ambient room temp in my room is around 32C (90F). It can get a few degrees hotter. Will it fry a normal Shuttle box in normal operation?