Shuttle / Mini PCs... are they any good?

[segages]

Been thinking about getting one of these due to their size to replace a big Dell I have (it was cheap, OK? ) and I have some Qs for those in the know Bearing in mind I use my Mac for everyday stuff and consoles for gaming, I don't want to splash too much cash on it, if I decide on one. It'll be used for video encoding and running apps that just don't come on Macs and if possible, it will play Counter-Strike Source

The main thing is the video card I guess. The Dell I have uses an Intel onboard chip which is pretty awful for anything 3D from the last 3 years - can you get small size cards in these Mini PCs or is it strictly onboard? What else can you get in there? A hard drive, DVD drive and a couple of sticks of RAM? Are they loud?

As you can see, I haven't got a clue about these other than they are small.

[nips]

Yes. They're ace. Really expensive (shuttle) but really good. They're so small compared to other PCs and having the mobo, psu and heatsink etc all installed already makes it like connecting lego. (it's only a 350W supply in my kit, but it runs my DVDRW drive, my GPU and my hdds and all with no problems. It's a smart peice of kit).

If there's any problem it's so easy to remove components and stuff. The cooling in them is excellent. ICE across the CPU is great, some other components get a little hot, I personally think the northbridge is a little close the the GPU in my P series, but other than that is great.

You can get any double slot sized GPU in my PCI-E shuttle (currently using an X800XT), it's got dual DDR. You can fit up to 3HDDs (1 would have to be 2.5" mind), but two in SATA is great. It fits a DVD+/-RW drive, a FDD drive, everything a normal PC has, it's just so much smaller and better designed.

If the BTX designs are good in the future, and I've got more space, I may go with them to save money, but other than that there are honestly no flaws.

[gizmo1990]

As nips says they are excellent.

Had mine for 2 years (Shuttle sb75g2) and its been brilliant. I've currently got a 6800GT in it with no problems at all. I actually prefer older Shuttle G2 chassis's since their smaller.

Once you've had a sff pc theres no going back!

[marcus]

I got an XPC SN95G5 and its great, no problems at all, I wish now though that it had a PCI-Express slot ideally dual width to take the latest and best GFX cards. The build quality is superb Ive found.

[smokedog]

Not doing too great with mine. Midi device on my board seem to have gone titis up. The fans running on full power is stupidly loud. Using Speedfan to drop it to 5% and lid off, but have to knock it back up to about 20% onload to stop it over heating.

My Geforce 6800GT is also over heating idle temp is 80c and going up to 100c during load.

Considering changing to a tower system.

[nips]

Oof, my model has smart fan already in it.

Underload it gets noticable, but when you're playing games, the noise of that is more than the noise of the fan. The main thing that bothers me is the hot air blowing directly on me as my shuttle is at the same height as my monitor. The fan's really good on the ICE, but across other components, it's just sucing out hot air, and not blowing cold air, which hasn't been a problem, but it's probably adding a few degrees to my rig.

Is the heatsink and all connected correctly? Do you have thermal paste on it? Which model are you using, becuase on mine atleast you need to leave it atleast an inch-or-so from things like walls becuase it sucks air from one side across the components and out the other side. If you hinder the flow of air with a wall or wardrobe for example (like I did) the fan has to work harder and the air gets hotter and the CPU risks damage. It may be the same thing with your GPU, but I can only speculate!

This is my model. And the pic below is my old setup, before uni. I've got much less space now, so not having a shuttle would have been almost impossible.

I've got an X800xt, 2GB of RAM in DualDDR. A 3200+ Athlon64, 250GB SATA drive and a DVDRW in there. I was worried about the PSU, but really, it takes it no problem.

It's just really well designed, and as it's an nForce4 mobo, it's really up to scratch. It's just like having a small computer where everything falls into place.

Heartly reccommend it

[forpey]

Also check out Soltek's QBic range. They are slightly bigger than Shuttles but retain that sexy look (better in my opinion).

You can also get 2 optical drives, 2 HDs and a bigger graphics card inside. Plus they probably have a bigger power supply to cope with it all. Just a thought.

http://www.soltek.com.tw/soltek/product/index.php

I made one about a year and a half ago, when they were using AMD Socket A. I managed to overclock a AMD 2500 to 3200 - they run really cool. Although get a better cpu fan than the one which comes with the case.

[segages]

Cheers for the info guys and sorry about the late reply - just finished a 3 week stint on dial-up changing my broadband ISP. Just gotta make a decision before payday now

[Mr Pump]

Just wondering how noisey these newer cases are.
Have an SK43G with a passively cooled 6600 and pretty much the only noise coming from it is the faintest whisper from the fans and the harddrive.
Originally had a 5900XT card installed but the fan combined with the small case made it sound like a dyson on my desk.
To be honest I don't plan to upgrade at anytime in the near future, just wondering if anyone else has a quite SFF.

[forpey]

Noise can be a problem, depending on your setup.

My QBic case fan can be altered between 'Silent' and 'Full' in the BIOS. 'Silent' is no exaggeration, if you choose a quiet graphics card to go with it, you won't hear a thing and things will stay perfectly cool.

If you are planning to overclock then you will have to use the noiser 'Full' setting - its not too bad. I have a 9800pro and the fan on the 9800 is about the same noise level as the case fan on 'Full'.

Not sure about shuttles, though. Hope this helps.