Shuttle SG41J1 Mini-Review

[Zap]

In terms of fitting the new board in, it was a breeze. The board mounted on two raised standoffs, and needed two additional screw-in standoffs that Shuttle had already provided, screwed into the bottom of the case - not sure but these may have been holding the original board in, but all I had to do was move them.

That's good to know. In the past people have had to mod Shuttle boxes to fit ITX motherboards.

 

[WildW]

Awesome - you're definitely getting a lot of use out of this system. That's a big step up you have (can finally use AHCI too, right?).

In case people are looking for the case, you can get the newer version with the integrated heatpipe cooler

Yeah, AHCI now, Windows Experience Index for hard drives (booting from now-old 30GB OCZ Vertex) has jumped from 6.9 to 7.3. More importantly, my 4th hard drive is now on a proper native SATA connection at full speed, instead of plugged into the IDE port via an adapter (that was no faster than USB anyway.)

Re: the heatpipe cooler - the Shuttle ICE coolers are nice, but I'm fairly sure that they wouldn't work with a change of motherboard. Those coolers are rigid collections of heatpipes linked to a radiator that fits over the rear case fan. . . which is fine so long as the CPU socket is in the same place for every motherboard. . . . which it isn't If I'd bought the one specific to this case, there's no way I'd be able to use it with my new motherboard. It's just possible that ITX has standardized this by now for new boards. . . but I'd just be guessing.

 

[WildW]

I seem to remember saying something before about a "Final Chapter" to this thread - clearly this was at best plain wrong, and at worst a lie. I considered making a new thread, but since this one seems to be the internet's definitive source of information on the Shuttle SG41J1, it seemed a shame to start over.

In any case, I'm feeling unjustifiably pleased with how well my new upgrade to my Shuttle has gone. I say Shuttle, at this point the only thing that's original is the case. . .or half of it anyway. I wanted a graphics upgrade from my now anemic Radeon 5770, but even that fairly low-power card was about as much heat as I wanted in the little case.

I considered some case modding. I could drill holes, or jigsaw holes, or even better have someone with a clue and ability do those things on my behalf. Ultimately though I hatched a plan, and with only £5 outlay the end result looks. . . better than I hoped

It's doing a good job cooling too. System spec is now:

Asus P8H61-I Mini ITX socket 1155 motherboard with i5-2500, 8GB DDR3.
EVGA Geforce 560TI Superclocked
30GB OCZ Vertex SSD for boot drive, 3 x 2TB Samsung F4 EcoGreen for storage.
Shuttle PC63J 500W power supply.
And all in half a cubic foot.

 

[donghui90]

nice review

 

[Timble]

Hi There,

I found this as one of the few places that have any info on the bargain (discontinued) PC I recently bought, a Shuttle SG41J1 Plus V2 silver.

The manual supplied with it was for the old (DDR2) version and this is the new (DDR3) one. It also seems that I can't find the mobo serial number without dismantling the whole thing to look on the back. So anyway, I ended up with the wrong speed RAM (1333 when the max. the board spec is 800/1066).

Is there any way to make them work together? I don't really know anything about -clocking, but I searched around and found a comment about underclocking memory. Would that be possible here?

Timble

 

[exdeath]

Glad to see I'm not the only one going insane over Shuttle SFF

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2234199

I plan to use a 92mm self contained water cooler like a Coolermaster or Asetek, I'd look into that to address the CPU location issues with third party ITX boards. Runs about 10 degrees cooler or so too. There is a link to a guy running a i7 3xxx chip IIRC at 5 GHz in a Shuttle with a GTX680 using the Asetek.

 

[WildW]

I used 1333MHz ram with the original SG41J1 motherboard without issues.

In general you can always over-spec for RAM speed without problems. It is the motherboard that decides what speed to run the memory at - in this case 1333MHz memory will just run at 1066MHz in that motherboard.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

ghetto for real
is that just mesh?

 

[Timble]

In general you can always over-spec for RAM speed without problems. It is the motherboard that decides what speed to run the memory at - in this case 1333MHz memory will just run at 1066MHz in that motherboard.

OK, thanks. The reason I was asking is that the correct memory size is not displayed. I have two 4Gb sticks but it only reports 2.9 Gb of RAM whether I put one or both in.

Timble

 

[WildW]

Yes, it is just mesh =P

As for your memory, where is it reporting 2.9GB? In Windows?

I think that motherboard may (I'm not sure) have had an absolute limit of 4GB memory.

If you are using a 32bit version of Windows, around 3GB is what you'll see reported there.

 

[Timble]

Yes, it is just mesh =P

As for your memory, where is it reporting 2.9GB? In Windows?
If you are using a 32bit version of Windows, around 3GB is what you'll see reported there.

Yes, Windows says 2.99Gb. BIOS says 8Gb (both versions of mobo have limit of 2x4Gb). However, I've just looked again at the spec, which says:

"The shared memory size is dynamically controlled by VGA driver, and the Max. shared memory size will be available only when 4GB or more memory is installed under 64-bit OS.
​

I was planning to install Linux as well, so I'll probably stick with 32-bit Windows, as 64-bit is pricey. (Just looked at a few comment on Linux 64-bit, and seems there's no big advantage yet, so I might not even bother there, either.)

Yes, it is just mesh =P

Isn't dust a problem?


BTW, the full details are:

SG41J1Plus with 2x4Gb RAM
Pentium E5700 3.0 GHz
Maxtor 6B200P0
Optiarc DVD AD-72805

 

[WildW]

Far less dust in there than there was with the old lid. The standard shuttle design with one exhausting case fan is very much negative pressure, which means dust. I think. The mesh in comparison is no pressure at all.

Anyhow, Windows, 32bit, can only support up to 4GB of memory address space. In real terms you rarely get more than 3.25GB, and the more memory on your graphics card, the less you may have for general ram.

You need 64 bit Windows to use more than 4GB of memory. This is THE single biggest advantage of 64 bit. 64 bit versions of Windows has been the same price as 32bit since Vista came out. I'm affraid that's pretty much all there is to it.

 

[Timble]

OK, thanks for all the help and info.

Actually, my previous box that died was also a shuttle, so, I have another case to play with ...

I'm on a tight budget, so I was just going to look for a cheapish flex-ITX board, but now I may transfer this system into the old case and go for a mini-ITX board in the new one as it has the mountings.

 

[WildW]

My thread that won't die is back. Finally took a chance on a motherboard upgrade from my old H61 board to the ASRock Z77-E ITX, so that I can give my poor neglected i5-2500K some more megahertz. I didn't think to do a build log as I was doing it, so by this point you can't really see the motherboard any more, but it's down there doing a fine job.

The main issue that held me back from doing this a while ago was finding the right cooler, since space is tight and the Shuttle case is limited to a 92mm fan exhaust hole on the rear. Legend has it that Asetek makes/made a 92mm sealed-water-cooler that you can't buy anywhere, and you could occasionally find on eBay, but I couldn't find one, and 92mm seems to be pretty much dead as a size now, except for the Coolermaster TX3-EVO.

It fits! Just. . . if you change the front 92mm fan for a half-thickness one. The original fan then fits on the back in a push-pull arrangement (mostly pull) and the hard drive cage then _JUST_ fits back inside with enough room to tuck the cables out of the way.

Performance? Well. . . the TX3-EVO has lousy reviews, and the performance is going to be suffering a bit from being so cramped, but on the other hand my 2500K has lept from 3.3GHz to 4.4GHz with just 1.21V to the core, full load temps on the cores hovering around 60C. That's a full 10C less than the stock cooler managed at 3.3GHz. Happy with that =)

 

[stevech]

any new case I choose (and I'm looking for mATX, small form factor or "slim" case), must have front panel USB3 and SD card reader. Hard to find.

 

[Termie]

My thread that won't die is back. Finally took a chance on a motherboard upgrade from my old H61 board to the ASRock Z77-E ITX, so that I can give my poor neglected i5-2500K some more megahertz. I didn't think to do a build log as I was doing it, so by this point you can't really see the motherboard any more, but it's down there doing a fine job.

The main issue that held me back from doing this a while ago was finding the right cooler, since space is tight and the Shuttle case is limited to a 92mm fan exhaust hole on the rear. Legend has it that Asetek makes/made a 92mm sealed-water-cooler that you can't buy anywhere, and you could occasionally find on eBay, but I couldn't find one, and 92mm seems to be pretty much dead as a size now, except for the Coolermaster TX3-EVO.

It fits! Just. . . if you change the front 92mm fan for a half-thickness one. The original fan then fits on the back in a push-pull arrangement (mostly pull) and the hard drive cage then _JUST_ fits back inside with enough room to tuck the cables out of the way.

Performance? Well. . . the TX3-EVO has lousy reviews, and the performance is going to be suffering a bit from being so cramped, but on the other hand my 2500K has lept from 3.3GHz to 4.4GHz with just 1.21V to the core, full load temps on the cores hovering around 60C. That's a full 10C less than the stock cooler managed at 3.3GHz. Happy with that =)

Wow, you have really pushed this little Shuttle to the max. Nice work figuring out the HSF. That's always tricky with SFF cases.