Shuttle SK41G AMD Aluminum MiniBarebone w/ AGP $167 AR and Free Shipping

[BiggieC]

http://www.ajump.com/ajump/product.asp?pf_id=4840122&dept_id=4070


$207 - $40 rebate = $167 and free ground shipping. Just picked one up. Called Shuttle to make sure rebate would be valid from this vendor, and it is. Not as fast or cheap as a regular PC, but kind of cool. Im sure you anandtechers can find cheap amd proccessors, memory and hard drive to make nice little pc.

 

[abc]

just how much less would a 'regular' sized amd of this class be?

 

[jozone]

I think im gonna have to buy one of these.

 

[Greg03]

I owned this little guy , but I just couldn't stand the noise. A Dell 8250 rescued me. Cheap price though.

 

[Kato]

Just built a second one of these for my sister. Reasonable performance, no exapandability (1-5.25, 2-3.5 bays, 1 PCI slot, AGP slot), whole bunch of I/O ports (USB 2.0, firewire, LAN, front and back panel audio/USB I/O), built in sound, video (S3). Helps in building if you have skinny fingers and small hands.

 

[mdcrab]

Linkified

Nice deal, should be able to quiet it down with a new Power Supply. Does it take a standard ATX PS?

mdcrab

 

[Cybordolphin]

Are you guys complaining about the noise.... sure your Shuttle had the "heatpipe" technology in them? I have heard that makes quite a difference?

 

[BiggieC]

Any one know of any AMD CPU deals? i think i want to put a xp 2000 in it. I heard if you go much faster you can have overheating issues.

 

[uwannawhat]

Looks very tempting. I've been wanting to build one of these for quite a while now. Thanks for the deal BiggieC
.

As far as cpu's, it should handle up to a AMD AXP2700/2.16GHz/333MHz CPU.

 

[BiggieC]

I read a review that says the noise varies depending on how hard, and hot, the cpu is working.

 

[3point14]

I got one through Accupc last week.
Barebone = $211-$40 MIR (shipped)
512 DDR PC2100 (Crucial.com) = $47 (shipped)
AMD XP 2000+ (Googlegear because of 2nd Day shipping) = $70 (shipped)

It runs great and is quite if you use the heat pipe and turn on Heat Guardian in BIOS (makes the fan quieter at lower temps). The PS is kinda loud, but for being this small, it is just fine. My temps are around 41 - 45 under normal conditions. I ran Sisoft Sandra for about 5 hours and it never broke the 48 temp mark. This computer is also very light, which makes it great for my intended use, a carputer. Good computer at a good price!

 

[thewyz]

Anyone have an opinion about whether this would make a good HTPC?

Thanks

 

[abc]

this MB can take 2GB of memory? it has 2 slots though, so they expecting you to buy 2 x 1GB pieces?

how much is that these days.


is this system really loud, cheap oldschool loud or what.

 

[vfrjim]

does anyone know if the shuttle SK41G(or others)will wake from hibernation (S4) from an operating system call (winxp/win2k)?

Jim

 

[NorthBear]

Originally posted by: thewyz
Anyone have an opinion about whether this would make a good HTPC?

Thanks

I have an SK41G with a Hauppauge WinTV PVR250 card. The CPU is a 1600+, but seems to handle
the MPEG decompression OK. The onboard VIA audio presented problems for RedHat 8.0, which
selected a driver for the audio that was *almost* right. When I installed Mandrake 9.1, the audio
worked without any problems. The system is currently running Windows 2K.

I haven't tried the onboard video, I'm using an old GeForce 2 Ultra card in the AGP. System
temperature stays around 45 degrees C. The SK41G does use the heatpipe with variable fan speed.

The unit has been reasonably quiet. It is light weight. I would think that there would be heating
problems if there were two hard drives installed. I have only one, with the floppy slot empty.

I most likely will purchase another SK41G. The rebate is good until the end of May, the unit is about
$175 +/- shipped from various sources, GoogleGear, NewEgg, etc.

 

[AgentZap]

Hey NorthBear I want to use this shuttle as a tv tuner/capture system. Does it look ok with the hauppage? No voice to movement lag or anything like that right?

 

[NorthBear]

Originally posted by: AgentZap
Hey NorthBear I want to use this shuttle as a tv tuner/capture system. Does it look ok with the hauppage? No voice to movement lag or anything like that right?

Seems fine with a 1600+ XP and 512MB of PC2100 DDR. Audio and video seem fully sychronized. The only delays I see are when buffers are filling up, which is to be expected since the pause buffer is a file on the harddrive. The hauppauge software is OK under windows. I expect to experiment with the ivtv driver and MythTV under linux within the next week or so. I see that Newegg has a *hot deal* running on the 1700+ XP for $50. Getting an SK41G and a 1700+ CPU for $225 after rebate certainly looks good.

Compare to something like a VIA eden mini-itx mobo with 1GHz processor and a similar case such as the caseoutlet.com case. Total cost would be around $263. The VIA mobo has only one memory slot and one PCI slot plus the C3 style CPU is weak compared to the AMD XP. The VIA does have onboard MPEG encoder but I'm not certain how that would work with a regular TV card.

 

[Cybordolphin]

3point14....

What kind of inverter are you going to use? I was wondering if you can get away with a cheaper "modified" sine wave inverter, or if you really need a "pure" sine wave inverter. I want to put one in a minivan and use as a dvd player/game player with dual monitors (7") in headrests.


ALSO... anyone know where I can get free shipping AND give Uncle Sam the bird (no tax), to Calif?

 

[CoolTechie]

question.. I want to pick one of these up.. I got an old 850 tbird to spare.. What is the heat difference between the 850 tbird and the newer xp cpus.. what im trying to find out is if the heatpipe will be substantial enough for the cpu.. i dont plan on overclocking.. thanks

 

[NorthBear]

Originally posted by: CoolTechie
question.. I want to pick one of these up.. I got an old 850 tbird to spare.. What is the heat difference between the 850 tbird and the newer xp cpus.. what im trying to find out is if the heatpipe will be substantial enough for the cpu.. i dont plan on overclocking.. thanks

Shuttle publishes a CPU compatability list that shows the 850Mhz Tbird with 100/200Mhz FSB. I suspect the heatsink/heatpipe setup of the SK41G will handle the Tbird, but it's handling an additional 4-5 watts over an XP (maybe more?). You might have to disable the Fan Guardian feature in the BIOS and run the cooling fan at full speed. It'll make more noise that way, though....

You could rig a small heatsink/fan assembly on top of the heatblock. The SK41G supports a total of 3 fans (3 pin) from the mobo. An old Pentium style heatsink with fan would be cheap, hold it on the block with some thermal tape. Checkout the sudhian forums, forums.sudhiam.com for lots of XPC information on additional/modified cooling.

 

[gadgetboy]

sff-tech is saying the SK41G has a price is coming soon ($175). Not sure of the source, but if credible, I would guess the drop will come after the rebate ends (5/31).

http://www.sfftech.com/news/index.cfm#4

I also remember reading somewhere (I think on the sff-tech forums) that someone found that tbirds don't work well with Shuttle AMD boards/XPCs and that he got Shuttle tech support to confirmed this.

 

[rchang713]

Originally posted by: thewyz
Anyone have an opinion about whether this would make a good HTPC?

Thanks

Quite a few people on the mythtv mailing list are using this case for their PVR box. The onboard sound is well supported by alsa, and I think the onboard video is ok for tv-out viewing. I was planning on ordering one for my HTPC.

 

[CoolTechie]

hmm.. thanks for the info guys.. im gonna give it a try and see what happens.. i can always sell the tbird and buy a cheap xp if it doesnt work out

 

[BiggieC]

Googlegear has the AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.666GHz Processor for $63 plus free second day delivery. not a bad price.

 

[JeffSpicoli]

Originally posted by: thewyz
Anyone have an opinion about whether this would make a good HTPC?

Thanks

About 4 months ago, MaximumPC magazine ran an article on building a HTPC with this barebone system. It gave options for components to use and software depending on your intended use for it (PVR, MP3 player, etc.). You might try to dig it up...