Got my new shuttle /ram/HD (120gig for $80) (1 Viewer)

[Kyle McKnight]

My Shuttle SS51g arrived from NewEgg.com ($179) along with my Kingston 512MB PC2700 333DDR ram.



Saw in the paper this weekend that Office Depot was offering up a Maxtor 120GB 7200rpm 8MB cache ATA-133 drive for $109 that comes with a $30 mail in rebate...so I picked one of those up this morning.

Now I just gotta get my 2.4BGHz P4 on Friday, and it'll be up and running. Just gonna use one of my current ATI Rage Fury Pro 32mb AIW cards until I buy a 9600. I just realized this thread is kinda pointless.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

Woohoo, tomorrow after work, I'll be picking up my processor. I'll let yall know how quite the machine is, only having a fan on the power supply and all.

 

[Scott L]

That Shuttle keeps surprising me about how small it is each time I see it. A word of advice about the Maxtor 120gb; I have that very same drive (also got it for $79.99 AR's a month ago) and it runs HOT. It idles dead quiet though, but if the noise bothers you when it writes there's a utility on their site to help quiet it down.

Oh and the most important question- will this be a dedicated HTPC or just something cool to look at?

 

[John_Bonner]

Kyle,

That looks very interesting. Can you tell me more about it?

Is it a case with a built in mobo?
How 'bout onboard sound, video or NIC?
How many USB ports?
What kind of optical drive is in there?

Sorry for all the ??? but I'd like to put together a small, inexpensive pc mainly for PVR.

Thanks.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

Scott...
not a dedicated HTPC, just gonna be my new toy.

John...

It comes with the motherboard and powersupply installed. There is on-board audio/video and NIC. I think the video can use up to 64mb of your system ram if you want. There are two USB 2.0 ports on the front and two on the back, one firewire port on the front with two on the back, digital audio in/out. You put in your own optical drive. It has one slot exposed so you can put in a floppy, or you can skip that and put a couple hard drives in it. There is one PCI slot and one AGP slot on it. I've got some more pictures of it here where you can see the ports.

 

[DaveGTP]

Someday, when I can afford my Panny ED plasma (hopefully, within the next few years), I will build one of these little PCs myself - as an HTPC and gaming box. There's a lot of uses for these little things.

 

[Francois Caron]

The SS51G mobo actually has provisions for six USB 2.0 ports, but the case only gives you access to four of them. So I added two more ports using a Belkin USB port bracket and a Dremel rotary tool to cut out the holes.



Since this picture was taken, I've also replaced the stamped fan grill on the power supply with a proper wire grill. The two expansion cards are a WinTV capture card and an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro video card. I've also replaced all the fans with quieter models, stealthed the front panel and replaced the white sheet behind the blue panel with the image of a gas nebula.

Surprisingly, I find working inside this small case no harder than working with a full size case. In fact, the Shuttle is much easier to move into "working" position.

 

[Dave F]

Keep an eye on that power supply. The ones made by Enhance are notorious for going bad. What's even worse is that the PC just starts rebooting and acting similar to an overheating problem. Since that is a concern in small PC's, a lot of people have spent a lot of waster time trying to resolve heat issues when it turns out to be bum power supply.

I've got mine on RMA, and in the interim, I have a regular 300w psu sitting alongside the unit and acting as an external power supply.

-Dave

 

[Kyle McKnight]

So far I've been having the computer run, with all the components installed, including a 32mb ATI Rage Fury Pro 32mb AGP card and a ATI Tv wonder PCI capture card for the past couple days, and the computer is doing just fine. Not nearly as loud as my old, full size machine. I've been playing American McGee's Alice for the past four hours. I love it. I am gonna be swapping out the tv capture card for one that also captures FM radio...and the AGP card for a ATI 9600 card in a couple months, for DirectX 9.0 support. May also be adding in a 40gig Maxtor drive that I have all my MP3's and DVD Trailers on. I'll update this thread when I do....and will also update it if I have any problems with the machine.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

OK, I haven't added the new HD yet, seeing as how the HD cable that comes with the system only has one HD connector...so I'll be adding that shortly. This computer is running great, without a hitch. I don't know how to monitor the temp of it, but so far, with gaming, tv capture and video compressing, I haven't had a hiccup with it yet. Heat doesn't seem to be a problem. With Half-Life 2 being pushed back, it may be a bit before I upgrade my vid card to something more powerful that puts out more heat...and getting that 2nd HD in there will add some more, but I'll keep the thread updated as I upgrade. Until then, thread shall be dormant unless questions are asked.

 

[John_Bonner]

I don't know how to monitor the temp of it,

Try this: Mobo Monitor

I also think you can check temperature with Sisoft Sandra but I'm not sure.