What do ya'll think about the mini-shuttle pcs?

[gujuguy007]

I was just browsing through newegg and stumbled across the Shuttle XPC SN41G2 pc. Link. Anybody have experience with this pc and what are your specs (ie burner, ram, hdd, etc.)? Are their better ones out there? I was looking to buy one for myself because it's so light and easy to transport. Thanks!

 

[joedivino]

I think all these CUBE type PC's are nothing but a mini-tower with a plexy glass front with no expansion slot. They are waste of money

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: joedivino
I think all these CUBE type PC's are nothing but a mini-tower with a plexy glass front with no expansion slot. They are waste of money

Great first post, troll.

First of all, they're not anywhere near minitower size.
Second, the SN41G2 doesn't have a plexi front.
Third, most of the XPCs have a PCI and AGP slot, and everything else is integrated. Not to mention USB2 + Firewire. If you need more expansion than that, you probably don't care what your PC looks like anyways and may as well go with a full tower.
Fourth, they're about the same price as a good ATX motherboard and aluminum case, so they're hardly a waste of money.
Personally, I think you have an agenda here to spam your company that sells crappy unupgradable keyboard pc's with no expansion possibilities and pass around misinformation on competing technologies...

Anyways, gujuguy, I have experience with shuttle xpc's since the SV24's. They're great little boxes. ATM, they're especially great because they are on the level with the tech that's out for ATX systems. The SN41G2 is a great little AMD box, but you could go with an SN45G as a step up. Just a note...they're not very quiet (unless you do a bit of hacking). On the plus side, they're incredibly simple to set up and even easier to move around when necessary.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I have the SN45G and it's a jewel! Nforce2 Ultra400 chipset with overclocking features and soundstorm audio. I added a Western Digital 120gb 8mb cache hdd, eVGA MX440 Personal Cinema with remote, AMD 2400+, 2x256mb 2700DDR, and a LG DVD/CDRW combo drive. It is one sweet HTPC and very low-profile so it takes up much less space than the mini-mid tower it replaced

 

[JetBlack69]

I have the SN41G2 and I love it, here are the specs:

2000+
120 Western Digital HD
LG 48x24x48x16 CDRW/DVD-ROM combo drive
512 (2x256) 2700 Crucial memory
Radeon 9500Pro
Asus TV card

I love it. I've had uptimes for over a week. Only saw a blue screen when I had an old hard drive in there. It's a little louder then expected, but the 2000+ Pal is one of the hottest Athlon XPs out there. I replaced the PSU fan and use SpeedFan to slow down the rear fan, however if I got a cooler CPU I wouldn't have to do that. I've taken it on an airplane (EDIT: in it's carring case.) I use my shuttle all the time at home (/EDIT). CPU is at 100% because I'm running distributed folding. The only thing I don't like is the line in sucks because it shares a port with the line out. Other than that, I love it!

 

[gujuguy007]

Thanks for the honest responses. They have given me a whole lot of insight. Jetblack, you are crazy. Have you actually used it on an airplane? That's amazing. I have read that the powersupply maybe a little weak and there are some cooling issues. What is ya'll's take on those problems?

I also want to throw in another pc that seemed of interest. This one is by . biostar. I know they have good MB's. Feel free to throw in your 2 cents.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The SN45G when coupled with the ACHME PSU instead of the enhance is plenty powerful. I bought mine at googlegear and it came with the ACHME but Excaliberpc has a better price link though googlegear is adding a 6in1 card reader now that makes it about even.

Something to keep in mind is that the potential voltage drops across the connector and traces leading to the motherboard components isn't as significant as with full sized boards and the number of I/O slots is reduced as well. Then consider that the room in a XPC case doesn't permit much HDD expansion and the power requirements for the system can be lowered. Damien, the Shuttle Moderator@NforcersHQ.com runs the following setup in his SN45G

9700 Pro, TWO Western Digital 120GB hard drives with 8MB cache, a DVD/CDRW combo drive, a hard drive cooler, LED fan, 1 GB of PC3500 RAM, and I have my system overclocked to 2.1 GHz with a 440MHz FSB.

 

[JetBlack69]

Originally posted by: gujuguy007
Thanks for the honest responses. They have given me a whole lot of insight. Jetblack, you are crazy. Have you actually used it on an airplane? That's amazing. I have read that the powersupply maybe a little weak and there are some cooling issues. What is ya'll's take on those problems?

D'oh, I ment I took it on the airplane, IE it was in it's carring bag, I didn't use it on the plane. I guess I was just saying I like the portability of it and mentioned that I used it all the time. I don't use it all the time on an airplane.

As for cooling issues, my CPU has been in 59C for a few days when I had a quiet panaflo in there, but I put the regular fan back in there and only turn in to a low speed setting at night. There are no power supply problems for me, I'm using the Achme power supply. I too have read about weak power supplies, but I believe those were with the first batch of them.

 

[xizor]

I have 2 SK41G's and absolutely love them, I'll never go back to a fullsize case again. My desktop is running a 1700xp @ 2400xp, 1Gb of ram, 2 x 120GB Hd's, GF4 and CDRW and idles under 110F. Like Jet Black said, it really is portable, I carry mine to work on the subway in a backpack because the laptop my company gave me is crap.

XPC's are best if you plan do some modding and after market upgrades like a new quieter system fan. here's my HTPC SK41G, 1700xp, 80GB hd, 512MB ddr. It has a custom bezel with a slot loading dvd-rom, its hard not to love these things.

case

 

[galt]

I built a SB61G2 last week with a 2.4c and 512mb pc3200 corsair c2 ram, 80gb maxtor 8mb fdb hdd, 52x32x52 lite on cdrw, and a radeon 9600.

It honestly was the best looking computer I've seen. MUCH quieter than my desktop tower, and so easy to move, and such a pleasure to look at.

I say if you are planning to get a new PC, xpc is *definitely* the way to go. All the performance in 1/4th the size.

 

[elsomo]

GO FOR IT!!!!

the SB61G2 roxors ( i want to buy one)

 

[codeyf]

I have SN45G. Never going back to a full tower again.

Small, takes up very little desk space. Has all the room I need. Here's my config:

Barton 2500+ @ 2.25ghz
512mb PC2700 Kingston Value (hope to add another stick for dual channel goodness soon)
WDSE 80gb HD
MSI Ti4800SE
Lite-On 52x CDRW

Best part of these are the fun mods you can do to them. Mine does have the plexi cover on it. I stealthed my CD drive, and put a pic in front. I used my favorite piece of art, "The Great Wave" by Hokusai. Looks great. Will look even better when I get a completely clear faceplate (no silver band, no logo).

Performance is great. While not quiet, it's no louder than my old Lian-Li that had seven 80mm fans in it (counting PSU and HS/F). The nForce2 audio has a couple minor bugs, but for playback, it's excellent.

They're sweet boxes! Head over to SFF Tech for more info on em.

 

[dbwillis]

I love them!
I have a SS51G and just got an SB51GB...I keep my full tower around to use the DVD-/+RW, CD-RW and CDRom drives in it

 

[drquest]

Another happy XPC user here as well..

SN41G2
2400+
256X2 Crucial
80gig Maxtor
Samsung DVD/CDRW -stealthed
ATI AIW 9700 Pro

Very cool machine...

mrpeabody

 

[MemberSince97]

Way cool , definetly my next pursuit... Amazing how it can run problem free @ 200 watts

 

[boomerang]

I'm getting ready to suggest one of these as a possibility for a friend. Just how loud are they? I know this is rather subjective but perhaps something I can reference to? Would you put one on the desk next to your monitor, or are they too loud for that?

 

[alm99]

Originally posted by: boomerang
I'm getting ready to suggest one of these as a possibility for a friend. Just how loud are they? I know this is rather subjective but perhaps something I can reference to? Would you put one on the desk next to your monitor, or are they too loud for that?

I would like to know this as well and what do you replace the fan with to make it quieter, but also to keep it cool without modding the case?

 

[xizor]

i have a sk41g and stock its pretty quiet. you can control the system fan through the bios to run at 1500rpm which is pretty quiet. I replaced my stock Sunon with a Thermaltake Smart Fan II. My temps have stayed about the same and it made the system quieter. My XPC however is not as hot as some of the newer Intel ones which put off a lot of heat.

Also some models the PSU fan is annoyingly loud so many people replace that 40mm fan w/ a quieter one. This is more difficult since you have to chop up the PSU somewhat. I did it last week and now my video card and hard drives are the loudest things in my computer.

I'd say no shuttle is louder than a midtower ATX case w/ good cooling.

 

[Netopia]

Excaliberpc has a better price ...

I just got one last week from eXcaliber and it came with an Achme PS. EXCELLENT service, btw.

I got the SN45G, a NICE carrying case and a 1700+ GUARENTEED to be a "b" chip with DLT3 stepping. The stock voltage on that CPU is 1.5v. It has been running SWEET as a 2700+ (13*166) with the stock voltage! The bios on this model is great for OC'ing as it even unlocks the multiplier of the chip without having to do any mods.

Joe