Shuttle SFF questions (and barebones)

[Thoth093]

I'm looking to build my own system for the first time. I can swap out power supplies, drives and cards and such, install oses, etc., so I think I'm ready to give it a try.

I'm curious about the shuttle Small Form Factor barebones systems. Does the mainboard and such come installed and hooked up, or do you have to install all of the various pieces and parts? How "complete" are they out of the box -- can you just hook up a video card and some drives and expect to boot? Or is it more work than that?

Alternatively, can someone offer a good barebones reseller that might have something more like what I'm looking for if this isn't the case? I've been looking at magicmicro.com, but don't know much about them. Can't find 'em in reselleratings.com. I can find monarchcomputer.com, which seems to have an excellent track record.

My thanks,

Brian

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: Thoth093
I'm looking to build my own system for the first time. I can swap out power supplies, drives and cards and such, install oses, etc., so I think I'm ready to give it a try.

I'm curious about the shuttle Small Form Factor barebones systems. Does the mainboard and such come installed and hooked up, or do you have to install all of the various pieces and parts? How "complete" are they out of the box -- can you just hook up a video card and some drives and expect to boot? Or is it more work than that?

Alternatively, can someone offer a good barebones reseller that might have something more like what I'm looking for if this isn't the case? I've been looking at magicmicro.com, but don't know much about them. Can't find 'em in reselleratings.com. I can find monarchcomputer.com, which seems to have an excellent track record.

My thanks,

Brian

Mainboard comes pre-installed and all cables are routed.... though you should check for proper cable connections and ensure connectors are seated fully.

You will need to add your choice of SUPPORTED video card, RAM, Hard Drive, Optical drive, Keyboard, Mouse, and Processor. By bare bones they mean chassis + cables and motherboard only.

You can buy complete Shuttles from various resellers, namely shuttle themselves at shuttle.com.

Adding your own ram is easy, and adding your own processor is quite easy and you can find many "how to do" stuff on the internet as well many, many entries here on Anandtech.

If you buy a barebone Shuttle, try newegg.com, service is great, and prices are inline if not cheaper than anyone else.