ShuttleX a review

[Hollowpoint]

^^ the case and everthing in it.
comes complete with.
. tvout
. 3 x firewire
. 6 x usb (2 at front , 2 at back, 2 = disconnected)
. built in videocard (goes up to 32mb usable ram from the memory)
. 200w psu (adequate for my needs)
. sound inputs at the front, and back (built in avance ac97 soundcard)
. agp slot
. pci slot
. ps2 sockets for keyboard and mouse
. RAID (Redundant Array of Independant Drives (excellent for keeping 2 hard drives in sync, so if one dies the other takes over, providing an excellent base for a server system))
. ICE (Integrated Cooling System (built in liquid cpu cooling AS STANDARD))
. SPDIF (1 at front, 1 at the back)


The metal grilled box at the bottom with the 4 red arrows pointing right, safely bolts onto the cpu with some arctic silver in a standard AMD ZIF socket, and currently keeps the system at a comfortable 42 C


Above you can clearly see the fins for the radiator (left) and the copper surface that conducts heat away from the chip (right), this is aided by the use of a copper shim (slither of metal, between the cpu and the heatblock to aid maxmimum contact) and some arctic silver paste.

[Hollowpoint]

Yes, mine is the one with the green band across it, the power led is blue, and the hdd led is an ugly orange colour.

I am not very good at reviews, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[Hollowpoint]

images courtesy of http://www.computerhq.com/hardware/p...o-id-4647.html

and the top images are from a french site, but I lost the URL.

[RipperRoo]

a few questions for ya, to try and round out the info:


i remember you saying something about a useless user manual, just how bad are the instruction?

how noisy is the rear fan, could you sleep in the same room as it for example.

being so small, was it tricky to assemble or is it layed out in such a way as to make putting it together easyly.



more later

[igalan]

Let me add some questions :

• Is the cooling system able to keep the CPU and computer cool during as much time as you use it?
• Can you use both the AGP slot and the PCI?

I have a slim computer, but I'm not happy with it. First it uses low profile PCI/AGP so you can't use what you have, and it has trouble keeping itself cool .

[RipperRoo]

this photo should answer one of your questions, i have a couple more *WT* sent me just after he got the shuttle, ill edit them and post them tonight

[Hollowpoint]

i remember you saying something about a useless user manual, just how bad are the instruction?

hmm, good question.
If you are a picture person, then they are rather good, make sure you look out for the ide cable layout, it MUST be correct, or you risk overheating the pc, the english translation of some words could be better, but it's funny to read.

how noisy is the rear fan, could you sleep in the same room as it for example.

sure, it is very quiet, and since there is no cpu fan, it's a bonus, I keep mine switched on all the time, and they dont bother me.

being so small, was it tricky to assemble or is it layed out in such a way as to make putting it together easyly.

with its knurled thumbscrews for easy opening, and the fact you can sit one on your lap without turning your legs blue with loss of circulation, they are very nice, a little fidly with jumpers, but once the cdrom bays and the ICE unit is out, there is alot of room, and I didn't slice or dice my fingers, either.

Is the cooling system able to keep the CPU and computer cool during as much time as you use it?

I got confused by this question, but I hope the answer helps.
The system has a temperature control that allows the fan to rotate faster when it gets to the desired temperature, I have mine set at 42 degrees, and once it goes over that, it will speed up to cool the radiator done, just like a thermostat does on a car ( as it speeds up there is a bit more noticable noise).

Can you use both the AGP slot and the PCI?

not sure havent tried, but it says you can in the manual.



HEAT:
for a 7inch by 7inch by 10inch case, it stays at a comfortable 44 degrees, which is great for me, also has a critical shutdown temperature, to prevent hardware damage and fire.

Hope that helps, feel free to ask more, and I will try to answer them.

[igalan]

Thanks for the answers. It looks good . Does it have S-ATA?

[RipperRoo]

i also see an rj45 port on the back but its not listed in your features, it it a standard componant on the board and what spec's are the onboard lan card 10/100 full duplex/half duplex

any isses with windows instalations/drivers (thats if you had windows on it) if not windows, how much hassle was it to obtain the correct *nix drivers for the mobo,

does windows auto detect the drivers? if not all what ones do you need to install

any bio's issues / possible problems with using the agp slot instead of the onboard graphics?

honest opinion, if you were using this as a media pc (sort of your all in one entertainment system) would the onboard sound be good enough our would you want to useup that pci slot with a soundcard?

[Hollowpoint]

Thanks for the answers. It looks good . Does it have S-ATA?

yes as far as I know.

i also see an rj45 port on the back but its not listed in your features, it it a standard componant on the board and what spec's are the onboard lan card 10/100 full duplex/half duplex

well spotted, yes it comes as standard and runs at 100mbps full duplex

Full Specs are as Follows:
CPU Support
AMD Athlon XP processor with 266 MHz FSB
AMD Duron processor with 200 MHz FSB
Chipset
Features VIA KM266/VT8375 N.B. and Via VT8235 S.B.
Onboard Lan
Realtek 8100B, support 10Mb/s and 100 Mb/s operation.
Onboard TV-Out
VIA 7005C, support S-Video and AV Output Signals <-- comes with an adaptor too
Onboard 1394 (firewire)
VIA VT6306, support 400Mb/s, 200 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s data transfer rate.
FSB Setting
The FX41 motherboard has 100 / 133 Mhz FSB configurable with a jumper.
Onboard Video
Comes with a S3 Prosavage8 128 bit 2d / 3d which uses up to 32 mb ram from the ddr ram you install.
Audio
AC`97 Audio
RAM
2 dimm slots to support up to 2gb of PC 1600 or PC2100
Expansion slots
one 32 bit master pc i slot, and one AGP slot
USB
6 USB 2 at front , 2 at back, and 2 not connected.
comm ports
2 serial ports
1 x IR port , but no IR reciever.

any isses with windows instalations/drivers (thats if you windows on it) if not windows, how much hassle was it to obtain the correct *nix drivers for the mobo,

comes with all windows drivers, and some via chipset tools, linux was easy I run Slackware 9.0 on it, and it works fine except for sound, and since I am using it for a server, that didnt bother me, so I never tried.

does windows auto detect the drivers? if not all what ones do you need to install

only tried windows 98 on it, and as I said before the drivers come with it.

any bio's issues / possible problems with using the agp slot instead of the onboard graphics?

only tried a radeon 9700 and it worked fine, didnt crash on the POST, and it ran like hot snot, no known BIOS issues.

honest opinion, if you were using this as a media pc (sort of your all in one entertainment system) would the onboard sound be good enough our would you want to useup that pci slot with a soundcard?

never used a pc with a built in soundcard, if I get a board with onboard it's always disabled and I put my awe64 on it.



I have also run Knoppix (live cd version of Linux that runs in ramdisk from a bootable cd) on it, and was able to save to usb stick, which was on the front panel
It also supported my scsi hard drive with a pci card.



and there is more stuff to explain about it.
I would upload the manual, but it's 10mb, and my post is long enough already

[igalan]

This ShuttleX looks good, very good. I'll see how much does it cost .