Shuttle SX79R5 LGA 2011 - Review

[simonmaltby]

Just published my review of this Shuttle.

http://www.motormice.com/reviews/SX79R5

Hope you find it interesting. With IB running so hot when overclocked, this might prove better than the SZ77R5, once the bios improves.

Simon

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[fralexandr]

nice review!
the thermals seem pretty impressive for such limited cooling... how hot do the hard drives and stuff get?

 

[simonmaltby]

nice review!
the thermals seem pretty impressive for such limited cooling... how hot do the hard drives and stuff get?

Not really checked to be honest... The mSATA card gets hot to the touch, but that is normal as i understand. I expect the main drives are ok... there is no air blowing on them but the air inside the case is extracted so should not heat up too much.

 

[DGF]

Hello. I read your review at motormice of the SX79R5. Great review!

I am possibly buying an SX79R5 soon, and I would really really like to get an mSATA drive. I already own a big 750gb spinning hard drive (taking up one bay) and I have a card reader picked out that I want to put in the slot above it. This takes up both bays, and leaves me without any space for a 2.5 inch SSD... but that's ok, since this shuttle has the mSATA slot (which I find to be a nicer alternative anyway since it's less bulky and requires no wires whatsoever).

I was/am set on this one
http://www.crucial.com/store/partspe...=CT480M500SSD3

480 gigabytes, and sata III speeds.

Here's the problem... I have no idea whether the mSATA slot on the SX79R5 motherboard supports sata III speeds. The actual crucial card above is sata III... and obviously I want to run it at sata III speeds... But I just can't figure out for the life of me whether the slot on the SX79R5 will run at those speeds, or not.

I can't find any documentation, and I'm also totally new to mSATA. I called crucial first; the guy stated it is indeed a full SATA III drive, and the specs support that - but then I asked if certain 'slots' would limit it to sata II speeds... he said he wasn't sure, but he was under the impression that any mSATA slot would support sata III speeds.

THEN I called shuttle, and the person I talked to at tech support sounded completely unaware of what the mSATA slot was capable of... GHHER. He just didn't know. No idea whatsoever, on its limits regarding sata II or III.

Then I saw your review... The only seemingly relevant thing I read was:

"mSATA drive which will run at SATA 2 speeds"

SO... Am I reading this right? Did you come across something, anything, explicitly stating that the mSATA slot will only run up to sata II speeds, during your research? Either way I would really like to know... you are the closest I've come to anyone stating anything about the actual mSATA slot and it's speed, let alone had his hands on an actual SX79R5. This is a big thing for me, because I need to know which drive to buy when I go to purchase this setup.... Anything you could do to solve this dilemma with the shuttle SX79R5 would be greatly appreciated...

 

[Hero1711]

Yes, you read it right, mSATA slot on this shuttle only runs at SATA II 3Gbps. The SATA III drives will work but only at SATA II speed.

You said you were going to put a HDD and a card reader into the case, so you only took 2 slots, there are 3 slots in total (2x3.5" and 1x5.25").

Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_Nxc2rHW0 (at 4:30)

 

[DGF]

Damn. I was really hoping the slot would support sata III. How did you find out? I've been researching all day, and didn't find a thing.

I'm putting a standard optical drive in the 5.25 bay. Didn't think to mention it; it's not really in the same category, drive-wise... but there you go.

Understand, up until a day ago, I was trying to figure out a way to get a standard 2.5 SSD drive to fit along with a 3.5 inch drive, a 3.5 card reader, and a 5.25 optical drive. My plan was to take a creative approach and mount it to the underside of the optical drive (behind the short card reader), using large 3M command strips (sticky double sided tape which are strong, but also stretch to remove) or possibly velcro. I think there's more then enough room for both a card reader and a 2.5 inch drive underneath the optical drive.

BUT!

I found out about mSATA... and then had a huge eureka moment. No need for a 2.5 drive. Just a smaller card that fits in a slot on the motherboard, which the SX79R5 DOES have... and man, I thought I had things settled once and for all. Especially when I found that -awesome- crucial sata III 480gb card.

Which makes it really suck to hear that the damn slot would only support SATA II speeds. What a waste of space.

Are you totally sure?

 

[Hero1711]

Yes, I used to own one SX79R5 unit, but I sold it a long time ago; now I'm having 6 SZ77R5 units. Both the SX79R5 and the SZ77R5 run mSATA at SATA II speed.
A solution for you: use a double sided tape and stick the SSD on the fan's cover (or if you use Asetek 545LC, stick the SSD on the upper side of the radiator), there should be space for the SSD between the fan's cover/radiator and the case cover, see pics:

http://www.motormice.com/reviews/SX79R5/cooling.htm

Or just run the SSD at SATA II speed, you won't notice the speed difference between SATA II and SATA III in day by day usage (unless you run I/O intensive apps most of the time).

 

[DGF]

Thanks again man. Ah well, so much for the mSATA idea. As long as I'm spending over $300 for a hard drive, I ought to be getting sata III speeds, so I'll stick with a 2.5.

The idea of putting it on top of the radiator is a good one. I think that would work. Honestly, I doubt it would be a big deal, wherever it goes. It's still not very big, even for a shuttle. I just had a brief love affair with mSATA because of how well it seemed to fit the situation, but meh... not worth bottlenecking my hard drive over.

 

[allisolm]

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