Shuttle's new $199 KPC Linux box (or $99 barebones)

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DW in UT

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Mar 30, 2007
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Aug 30 update: New variation coming out in late September. See newest posts in this thread for info. But since the new model x27 has major differences, perhaps it is time for a new thread....

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June Update: Inventory may be arriving at dealers. One eBay seller is listing 6 units of the KPC barebones in stock, (as of March 26), but he is selling them at a 50% markup.

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Original message:


Shuttle recently announced their new lines of cases, and one is a mini whose two main options seem to be a $199 complete system and a $99 barebones. Designed for Linux users, but also getting some interest from OSx86 users.

Super small case has no internal cd/dvd, (external usb or firewire only?), and no option for a pci-e video card. Article and comments about it can be found here.

And Shuttle's own site has a downloadable .pdf file which includes pictures but no real technical details.

If anyone gets more info on what this new product can or can't do, please update.
 
frostedflakes

frostedflakes

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Mar 1, 2005
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Looks pretty good, other than the fact it doesn't come with an optical drive. Also the graphics stamped on the front aren't really doing it for me.
 
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Parasitic

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Aug 17, 2002
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$99 doesn't look too bad, if they could deliver.

I'd get that instead of a Mac Mini.
 
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DW in UT

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Mar 30, 2007
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Just realized that Anandtech also posted an article about this on their CES news blog pages a few days ago after seeing the item in person at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Has a few more details and reader comments at this page.
 
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widefault

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Apr 28, 2001
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Case seems larger than it needs to be, but at the same time looks like it'd be easy enough to mod it to fit an optical drive. Looks like a regular Shuttle with a solid faceplate, wonder if the internals are changed at all?
 
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DW in UT

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If this proves popular expect Shuttle or some 3rd party to offer matching add-on cases to provide for a (slot loading?) optical drive and several usb-2 inputs up front.

Exactly what happened for the Mac mini to allow for larger & faster hard drives.
 
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zig3695

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Feb 15, 2007
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might make a great diy tivo box for not much more then an actual tivo, minus the monthly fees of course
 
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DW in UT

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Originally posted by: clandren
i already posted about this earlier . . .
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't mean to threadnap. I actually searched for the words "shuttle" and "linux" as a combo which didn't catch your posting.

But since were here, I'm still curious about some of the specs.

1. How much can the included 100 watt power supply handle? Will a Core2Duo with cooler and 1 meg of ram really work in here, since the onboard video likely won't draw power for an extra fan?

2. How large a monitor can this onboard video drive? I'm interested in at least 19" LCDs for running slide-shows at conventions. (Laptops would work for that too, but risk of theft is making me look for cheaper alternatives.)

3. Assuming there will be an ethernet port for internet, but how about wi-fi? Hate to waste a usb port on a wi-fi adapter, but that might be the only other alternative.

 
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IlllI

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2002
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na its ok. my post got buried pretty quickly, since nobody seemed to care to comment about it. i'm not sure where you are getting that 100 watt psu number from, but shuttles generally have a 350+ psu in them.

i found more info about them here

 
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DW in UT

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Mar 30, 2007
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Originally posted by: clandren
i'm not sure where you are getting that 100 watt psu number from, but shuttles generally have a 350+ psu in them....
Click to expand...

The 100 watt figure came from Tech Report, but even they admit there is a lot of speculation in that article. It also suggests that the inclusion of an optical drive bay, a pci-e slot, and up-front usb ports are still possible before rollout, or maybe that is just wishful thinking.

 
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IlllI

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Feb 12, 2002
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seems like theres a few conflicting reports about it. its probably due to the fact that shuttle hasnt settled on final specs yet. 100 watts seems a little low though.
 
frostedflakes

frostedflakes

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Mar 1, 2005
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Yeah 100w does seem kind of low, although with no PCI-E that means the only big power consumer will be the CPU, so I'm sure it could get by with it. But I'm with you, I'd feel much more comfortable with something bigger, 150w would be ideal IMO.

DW in UT have you heard whether it will be an internal power supply or a fanless external brick? I almost wonder if it'll be an external PSU. Shuttle did something similar with the ST62K Zen, they removed the AGP slot which allowed them to make the case smaller and use a smaller external (I think it was 220w) PSU. To me the KPC kind of seems to be a continuation of this philosophy, just taken a bit further.

What was really nice about the ST62K Zen is with the ICE system and external PSU, the system only needed one fan for cooling, giving it great potential for low noise operation. If the new KPC follows the same design and includes a motherboard that allows undervolting the CPU I think it could be a great candidate for a quiet, basic use system.
 
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DW in UT

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Mar 30, 2007
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No clue about the possibility of an external power supply, but the various sources who saw the prototype at CES did not mention it, so I'd guess it is just a smallish internal. Since it is reportedly scheduled to hit the market by March 2008, how much time to they have to keep refining it?

I also looked at the main page for the OS "partner" Ubuntu, and couldn't see any mention of a connection in their news pages or their forums. Makes me wonder if it is really a "partnership" or if Shuttle is just going to pre-load the current free Ubuntu general release on its own.

Also of interest to some, one of the reports states that the clear front cover panel allows for owners to replace the front panel graphics with their own custom graphics. (Sorry, forgot where I saw this, but this is probably just another of the vagaries that we'll see cleared up in 10 weeks or so.)
 
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Banzai042

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Jul 25, 2005
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Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Yeah 100w does seem kind of low, although with no PCI-E that means the only big power consumer will be the CPU, so I'm sure it could get by with it. But I'm with you, I'd feel much more comfortable with something bigger, 150w would be ideal IMO.

DW in UT have you heard whether it will be an internal power supply or a fanless external brick? I almost wonder if it'll be an external PSU. Shuttle did something similar with the ST62K Zen, they removed the AGP slot which allowed them to make the case smaller and use a smaller external (I think it was 220w) PSU. To me the KPC kind of seems to be a continuation of this philosophy, just taken a bit further.

What was really nice about the ST62K Zen is with the ICE system and external PSU, the system only needed one fan for cooling, giving it great potential for low noise operation. If the new KPC follows the same design and includes a motherboard that allows undervolting the CPU I think it could be a great candidate for a quiet, basic use system.
Click to expand...

According to the Techreport article mentioned earlier the CPU is a celeron 420, which consumes 8 watts of power on standby and 35 watts max according to intel. Aside from that you're looking at maybe 10 watts for an HDD, and a few more for the mobo, well inside the 100 watt envelope of the PS mentioned in the article. I'm looking forward to this for use as a home fileserver, my current NAS box is way overpowered for what I'm doing with it.
 
Aikouka

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
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Personally I'd prefer a nice slot loading DVD drive in it. That would've been nice. Maybe the black one will have a cool looking The Punisher-esque skull on it too! :D
 
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IlllI

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2002
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according to tomshardware, its only about an inch shorter than a normal shuttle.. i think if they wont include a spot for an optical drive, then they need to make it smaller, or just add that inch back and put a slot for an optical drive.




 
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DW in UT

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Mar 30, 2007
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Update: Inventory may be arriving at dealers. One eBay seller is listing 6 units of the KPC barebones in stock, (as of March 26), but he is selling them at a 50% markup.
 
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xSauronx

Lifer
Jul 14, 2000
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im kinda interested in one of these, but id like to have a dvd burner in it :-/

my file/media server is huge, and old, and as much as it would pain me, id like to get rid of it.
 
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