Shuttle's new $199 KPC Linux box (or $99 barebones)

[Zap]

Now that I have specs and pics on Newegg to peruse, I find myself wanting one. Barebones at $99 of course, because while the CPU is adequate the HDD and RAM might not be. Gigabit ethernet is nice for file serving. Two HDD bays is good. 945GC chipset, can overclock through BSEL mod.

My big concern would be noise level, though of course that can be fixed with more money. Start with a PicoPSU for zero noise and better efficiency. A Pentium Dual Core CPU for EIST, so I can pin mod (or software control) down to 1.2GHz and hopefully undervolt it, then find some passive heatsink for it. Then, for the HDD(s) I'd find some way to soft mount them, and maybe use one of those 5400RPM WD "green" drives.

Then again, I can probably find some case and use an Intel D201GLY2 board.

Hmmm...

 

[razor2025]

This is a cheap way to get a Hackintosh. Since it has GMA950 GPU, it should be pretty easy to run OSX on it. Add 1GB of RAM for mere $30 more and you'd have something similar to Mac Mini, but much cheaper? (albeit 2-3x bulkier, but still much smaller than mATX setup).

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Weren't these supposed to come in all sorts of silly (but awesome) colors?

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Banzai042

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Yeah 100w does seem kind of low, although with no PCI-E that means the only big power consumer will be the CPU, so I'm sure it could get by with it. But I'm with you, I'd feel much more comfortable with something bigger, 150w would be ideal IMO.

DW in UT have you heard whether it will be an internal power supply or a fanless external brick? I almost wonder if it'll be an external PSU. Shuttle did something similar with the ST62K Zen, they removed the AGP slot which allowed them to make the case smaller and use a smaller external (I think it was 220w) PSU. To me the KPC kind of seems to be a continuation of this philosophy, just taken a bit further.

What was really nice about the ST62K Zen is with the ICE system and external PSU, the system only needed one fan for cooling, giving it great potential for low noise operation. If the new KPC follows the same design and includes a motherboard that allows undervolting the CPU I think it could be a great candidate for a quiet, basic use system.

According to the Techreport article mentioned earlier the CPU is a celeron 420, which consumes 8 watts of power on standby and 35 watts max according to intel. Aside from that you're looking at maybe 10 watts for an HDD, and a few more for the mobo, well inside the 100 watt envelope of the PS mentioned in the article. I'm looking forward to this for use as a home fileserver, my current NAS box is way overpowered for what I'm doing with it.

My server is a near decade year old dell 400mhz PII. At to think I was just about to put together a new box - at $99, this will make an incredible home server alongside a low power cpu - the hardware is just right (thank god they included gigabit ethernet stock), its small, quiet and consumes very little power. Can't wait to get one.

 

[gentobu]

Review up on Tomshardware: Link

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: Banzai042

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Yeah 100w does seem kind of low, although with no PCI-E that means the only big power consumer will be the CPU, so I'm sure it could get by with it. But I'm with you, I'd feel much more comfortable with something bigger, 150w would be ideal IMO.

DW in UT have you heard whether it will be an internal power supply or a fanless external brick? I almost wonder if it'll be an external PSU. Shuttle did something similar with the ST62K Zen, they removed the AGP slot which allowed them to make the case smaller and use a smaller external (I think it was 220w) PSU. To me the KPC kind of seems to be a continuation of this philosophy, just taken a bit further.

What was really nice about the ST62K Zen is with the ICE system and external PSU, the system only needed one fan for cooling, giving it great potential for low noise operation. If the new KPC follows the same design and includes a motherboard that allows undervolting the CPU I think it could be a great candidate for a quiet, basic use system.

According to the Techreport article mentioned earlier the CPU is a celeron 420, which consumes 8 watts of power on standby and 35 watts max according to intel. Aside from that you're looking at maybe 10 watts for an HDD, and a few more for the mobo, well inside the 100 watt envelope of the PS mentioned in the article. I'm looking forward to this for use as a home fileserver, my current NAS box is way overpowered for what I'm doing with it.

100W is probably enough. Mac Minis come with a 110W max load power supply, and has 1.83/2.0 GHz C2D and an optical drive.

 

[DW in UT]

Available (in black only) at Newegg, priced at $109 barebones and $219 full system - not including shipping. Has some customer reviews there as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16856101065

 

[jaqie]

Sorry, but one thing above all else killed my interest in it.
No DVI port!? What the hell? Seriously...

~edit~
I know I am usually much more reflective and articulate then this, but right now I don't feel like being so.

 

[jaqie]

The tomshardware review piqued my interest on the linux distro they are using on it, foresight. I am trying it out right now.
So far the only thing I have to complain about is the fugly green background on the login screen (I just logged in first time on it)

~edit~
Now on it. I must say, so far I am quite impressed, and can see why shuttle decided on this OS. I haven't gotten the nvidia binary drivers set up yet, using the open source 'nv' drivers, but beyond that, the ugly startup screen which I have not tried changing yet, and an excruciatingly slow OS update (took several hours to complete), I think I may have found a new favorite distro... this isn't bad at all for those of us that just want it to 'bleeding work'. To be fair, this is the full release, and not a beta as was sent with the shuttles that were sent for review to tomshardware et al.

 

[Zap]

The barebones version for $109.99 has free shipping with a coupon code.

EMCAEBHBC

Expires 4/23. As usual, you have to be signed up for Newegg's newsletters to be able to use the codes. This code saves $12.39, and puts it basically near the MSRP ($99 plus shipping).

Couple things I found interesting...

FSB1333 support
Like other 945GC chipsets, this "support" would mean the PCI-E bus running out of spec. I've tested it with another brand board and the board does detect and correctly runs FSB1333 chips. Just know that it might "break" things that don't expect PCI-E to be at 115MHz. In my testing I had one PCI-E video card not work at that speed (EVGA 7600GT).

Gigabit ethernet
The reviews state 10/100, but Newegg states 10/100/1000. If true, then this is one step closer to being a nice little NAS-like box with more functionality, such as the ability to toss in a better CPU and make it into, let's say, a LAN gaming server.

Onboard audio
This can make for a nice media player, maybe with a PCI video card if video output is needed. "5.1 Channel High Definition Audio" according to the specs. Even if you're the type that swears by (or at ) PCI sound cards, for just playing back music cleanly this HD Audio should do well.

VGA output
That's the only output supported by the 945GC chipset, so nothing new. DVI used a separate chip and requires a 4x PCI-E slot (sometimes 16x physical) and is called a DVI ADD2 card.

External drive bay
Would have been nice, even if only a slimline (notebook) optical drive bay. Of course then people may start buying this instead of the (too) higher priced Shuttle boxes, so that's probably why Shuttle decided to intentionally castrate this box, with no optical drive bay, no PCI-E slot, small (100W) power supply. At least it can hold two HDDs.

I may pick one up, just to play with.

 

[Zap]

BUMP with another (possible) deal:

Buy.com $115 with free shipping... use GCO for $10 off, OR for those of us with the $25 off GCO deal, will end up being $90 shipped for the barebones. Says ships in 1-2 days for me, so that's usually "in stock."

EDIT: More places in-stock.

Directron $99.99 plus shipping

eWiz $101.25 plus shipping

 

[RamIt]

Originally posted by: Zap
BUMP with another (possible) deal:

Buy.com $115 with free shipping... use GCO for $10 off, OR for those of us with the $25 off GCO deal, will end up being $90 shipped for the barebones. Says ships in 1-2 days for me, so that's usually "in stock."

EDIT: More places in-stock.

Directron $99.99 plus shipping

eWiz $101.25 plus shipping

At ewiz its always good to check through a google shopping link.
$92.70

 

[bluemax]

C'mon Shuttle! The ST62K "Zen" was far better! ICE system included, external power supply and smaller size WITH optical!

The Zen was perfect! Bring it back!! I'd pay a little more for such a great design!

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: bluemax
C'mon Shuttle! The ST62K "Zen" was far better! ICE system included, external power supply and smaller size WITH optical!

The Zen was perfect! Bring it back!! I'd pay a little more for such a great design!

actually i think they might be. or at least is maybe a possibility with some modding. Text

?This accessory is compatible with G, G2 und G5 chassis XPCs and the XPC model ST61G4, but not with SD11G5, SS58G2, SK83G, SN85G4, SN95G5 and ST20G5.?

 

[bluemax]

Sure, that cuts down the noise of the PSU.... you GAIN the ability to have a PCIe16 video card (under 220Watt) but also gain a noticeable amount of size.

Someone should dredge up the old Zen reviews... it was quite a bit smaller and STILL had normal optical! (Some bigger drives didn't fit...)

But c'mon.... even a SLIM drive! Slims are now under $50 so there's no reason not to at least get one of those into the new "K".

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: bluemax
WITH optical!

Mod it!

Originally posted by: clandren
actually i think they might be. or at least is maybe a possibility with some modding. Text

Efficiency: >=90%
Energy Star V4.0 Ready

Nice! Put a low power CPU in there along with those WD "green" drives for a super low power yet relatively high performance server.

EDIT: Lists the K45 at the top, so no modding needed to use this PSU.

 

[jalaram]

The eWiz links says:

# LAN: Marvell 88E8056 10/100 Fast Ethernet Controller

and Newegg (as Zap pointed out) says:

Marvell 88E8056(10/100/1000Mbps)

Shuttle's website says:
INTERNET 10MB/s,100MB/s,1GB/s
and
1) Gigabit LAN port

 

[DaveSimmons]

No digital out, not even motherboard pins according to the PDF, so you need a PCI or USB soundcard if you want that (for music or video's 5.1). Otherwise this looks like a good choice for a mini-server.

I'd probably get the $99 barebone and put in a slow dual-core, 1GB RAM, and a big hard drive.

 

[IlllI]

i've just read a post by a shuttle csr on sudhian forums. looks like an upcoming KPC will have support of 5.25? bay, PCI-E and DVI

oh forgot to mention a red kpc (should) be out soon. also the i.c.e heatsink wasnt included b/c of some production issue or something.. so possibly they will release one with i.c.e hsf in the future

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: clandren
i've just read a post by a shuttle csr on sudhian forums. looks like an upcoming KPC will have support of 5.25? bay like it should have had in the first place, PCI-E and DVI

FTFM

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: clandren
upcoming KPC will have support of 5.25? bay, PCI-E and DVI
...
the i.c.e heatsink wasnt included b/c of some production issue or something.. so possibly they will release one with i.c.e hsf in the future

With all that, will it still be a $99 barebones? We can already get a $200 barebones Shuttle with the ICE heatsink, 5¼" bay and PCI-E. $99 with those features will get me to buy.

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: Zap


With all that, will it still be a $99 barebones? We can already get a $200 barebones Shuttle with the ICE heatsink, 5¼" bay and PCI-E. $99 with those features will get me to buy.

i cant answer that.. all i know is what i've stated.

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: xSauronx

Originally posted by: clandren
i've just read a post by a shuttle csr on sudhian forums. looks like an upcoming KPC will have support of 5.25? bay like it should have had in the first place, PCI-E and DVI

FTFM

Nice. Hey... there's the Zen remodel I just asked for. Just get DVI instead of VGA on there, as well as optical audio and we've got a winnnaaaarrr!!!!
*ding*ding*ding*ding*ding*ding*ding*ding*ding*ding*ding*

 

[DW in UT]

Just noticed that a dealer on eBay is selling aftermarket front faceplates to allow for mounting some types of optical drives in these new Shuttle KPC cases.

Ebay item link


Standard disclaimer - I'm in no way related to this item or this dealer except as a potential customer. Only posted here are a potential answer to a common question about this system. Please delete if this link is not allowed.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: DW in UT
Just noticed that a dealer on eBay is selling aftermarket front faceplates to allow for mounting some types of optical drives in these new Shuttle KPC cases.

That's pretty cool. Sounds as if this is just the faceplate, and another part is needed internaly as well (sold separately). This is for slim (notebook) optical drives.

Hmmm, after the extra $30 for the two parts needed... plus the more expensive slim drives... may as well get the Shuttle SD30G2 Plus for $170. Same chipset, can take normal optical drive, comes with the ICE cooler, has PCI-E 16x slot and a 250W PSU.