Shuttle SS40G Minisystem - USER OPINIONS

[Gog]

My friend is interested in getting this barebone system for himself. It will retail for $350 once its in stock at Newegg. Here's a review.

Gotta admit its a real good looking case and moving it around is a non-issue... The power supply is only 200W however, and I wonder if that would be a prob for an Athlon XP system...

User comments would be greatly appreciated

 

[Utterman]

They are pretty nice. There are some people on these boards who use them for their entertainment systems so they can play DVDs or divx movies. Shuttle is releaseing a new version which includes a AGP slot which will be a more appealing for a gamer. You can read a little about it at http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1631&p=3

 

[DaveSimmons]

Most of the Shuttle minisytem reviews I've seen have mentioned that the fans (especially power supply) are noisier than they should be, so if your friend is building a home theater PC then hopefully one of you has experience with swapping out power supply fans.

I'm now leaning towards a standard desktop case for a HTPC, so I can put in a PC Power Silencer or something else quiet, but I've been too busy to start working on it yet.

 

[splice]

So far so good (I'm using it as I type this message)... I just received mine today from NewEgg. Installing all the hardware (XP1800+, 384MB Crucial DDR, 60GB Maxtor, CD-RW-DVD Combo, and a Zip100) took some time (I like tidy cases), but overall it's a great little system. It comes with a PCI USB2.0 card, which I don't believe any of the review sites mentioned. Temps are staying right around 47C for the CPU and 36C for the system running WinXP. The 200W PS is plenty, all the readings are looking good in MBM5 and in the BIOS.

 

[Strych9]

Originally posted by: splice
So far so good (I'm using it as I type this message)... I just received mine today from NewEgg. Installing all the hardware (XP1800+, 384MB Crucial DDR, 60GB Maxtor, CD-RW-DVD Combo, and a Zip100) took some time (I like tidy cases), but overall it's a great little system. It comes with a PCI USB2.0 card, which I don't believe any of the review sites mentioned. Temps are staying right around 47C for the CPU and 36C for the system running WinXP. The 200W PS is plenty, all the readings are looking good in MBM5 and in the BIOS.

How's the fan noise?

 

[Gog]

From what I've read at the review at ViaHardware, this case is supposed to be very quiet.... which is a departure from their earlier models.

 

[skriefal]

Looks like a nice system, but it's too expensive IMHO. I'd like to see a similar system more competitively priced, even if that means replacing the aluminum case.

 

[splice]

Originally posted by: Strych9

Originally posted by: splice
So far so good (I'm using it as I type this message)... I just received mine today from NewEgg. Installing all the hardware (XP1800+, 384MB Crucial DDR, 60GB Maxtor, CD-RW-DVD Combo, and a Zip100) took some time (I like tidy cases), but overall it's a great little system. It comes with a PCI USB2.0 card, which I don't believe any of the review sites mentioned. Temps are staying right around 47C for the CPU and 36C for the system running WinXP. The 200W PS is plenty, all the readings are looking good in MBM5 and in the BIOS.

How's the fan noise?

It's not bad... it's not as loud as my desktop and you can have the BIOS limit the fan speed (about 2/3 the speed or less) under a certain temp. It's a Sunon 80MM Fan in the rear (3000+ RPM's) and a small 40MM fan on the PS... what you can do, if you think it's too loud, is to get some low RPM 80MM fan for the case/radiator and put on a low-profile/low-RPM 60MM fan onto the CPU heatsink, that's should really make it quiet.

 

[splice]

Originally posted by: skriefal
Looks like a nice system, but it's too expensive IMHO. I'd like to see a similar system more competitively priced, even if that means replacing the aluminum case.

It's not that bad, the system I put together was less than $800 ($757 w/o shipping)

 

[mchomicz]

>How's the fan noise?

>Most of the Shuttle minisytem reviews I've seen have mentioned that the fans
>(especially power supply) are noisier than they should be

I have been using a Suttle SS40G as my secondary machine (read ? non gaming) for about a month now. I like its quiet operation so much that I find myself using it most of the time! In my opinion, fan noise issues have been resolved in SS40G. Power supply fan is virtually inaudible. The main cooling fan, that pushes air through the nifty heat pipe CPU heatsink / radiator, can be adjusted for variable RPM from within BIOS. Most of the time, the fan will stay at 2000 RPM, which is more than acceptable.

Having said that ? I?m very picky when it comes to computer noise. In fact, over time I have come to value quiet operation above ?overclockability.? So I have swapped the stock Sunon fan for a low noise / low RPM Panaflo. Between an almost silent power supply fan, a Seagate Barracuda ATA IV (with its fluid dynamic bearings motor), a passive Zalman ZM-NB32 north bridge cooler and the Panaflo CPU fan ? my SS40G setup is almost as quiet as an actively cooled PC can get. I was originally planning on replacing the power supply fan with something quieter ? but it turned out to be unnecessary as the stock fan is already very quiet.

My main PC is outfitted with a bunch of Papst fans and I?m planning on eventually using one of those super quiet fans in my secondary system (the shuttle SS40G). I don?t expect dramatic improvements in noise output. Though some vibration from the Panaflo fan should go away ? as Papst fans are very well balanced.

Michael

 

[Greg03]

Replaced the SUNON fan with a panaflo Model: FBA08A12 from newegg. Night and day. Quiet, and only cost me 1C. Machine hovers at 52C all day long and when it kicks in to high speed, I save 4db over the Sunon.

Check out my more recent mods:

Shuttle mods

 

[slunk]

I know CPUs can run at some hot temps, but I don't like the idea of a P4 running at 52c all day. That's not going to hold me back, though. I wonder what the SN40 will be like...55-56c???