A Shuttle PC..?
Posted by: Dave Hartley on 14 October 2004
Hi....
It is time for a replacement PC , mine is a 350mhz Pentium II and it's slow..v.slow. The problem is I need to replace it with a desktop
as a tower won't fit the unit. I don't want to change the unit as it that matches the rest of the furniture. I would like one with USB and head phone access at the front.
I have seen a shuttle PC which fits the bill size wise but I don't know a great deal aboutthem.
Do I build or buy one.?
Can anyone recommend where I can buy one..( only the box as I already have a new monitor.)
If I go down the road of building one, has anyone done this, and are there any pitfalls I need to be aware of.
Dave
It is time for a replacement PC , mine is a 350mhz Pentium II and it's slow..v.slow. The problem is I need to replace it with a desktop
as a tower won't fit the unit. I don't want to change the unit as it that matches the rest of the furniture. I would like one with USB and head phone access at the front.
I have seen a shuttle PC which fits the bill size wise but I don't know a great deal aboutthem.
Do I build or buy one.?
Can anyone recommend where I can buy one..( only the box as I already have a new monitor.)
If I go down the road of building one, has anyone done this, and are there any pitfalls I need to be aware of.
Dave
Posted on: 14 October 2004 by Roy T
Dave,
Just over 19000 shuttle and SmallFormFactor fans visit this Sudhian Forum to discuss all facets of SFF kit and read the latest kit reviews at SFF Tech.
The kit ranges from quiet boxes suitable for a home theater through office / work machines right up to bleeding edge and rather quiet hardcore gaming machines.
May I suggest you have a few visits to EU Shuttle and click away to your heart's content browsing all the kit on offer and see what catches your eye. As you can see kit can be powered by Intel, AMD or AMD64 cpus, some kit has onboard graphics and all kit has loads of firewire and USB connections.
A lot of people buld their own starting from a Shuttle box and then add whatever cup, ram and graphics cards are certified to work with that flavour of box, you can download full construction instructions and judge just how complex a job construction may be.
If you see something that takes your fancy get back and we'll chat some more.
Roy
Just over 19000 shuttle and SmallFormFactor fans visit this Sudhian Forum to discuss all facets of SFF kit and read the latest kit reviews at SFF Tech.
The kit ranges from quiet boxes suitable for a home theater through office / work machines right up to bleeding edge and rather quiet hardcore gaming machines.
May I suggest you have a few visits to EU Shuttle and click away to your heart's content browsing all the kit on offer and see what catches your eye. As you can see kit can be powered by Intel, AMD or AMD64 cpus, some kit has onboard graphics and all kit has loads of firewire and USB connections.
A lot of people buld their own starting from a Shuttle box and then add whatever cup, ram and graphics cards are certified to work with that flavour of box, you can download full construction instructions and judge just how complex a job construction may be.
If you see something that takes your fancy get back and we'll chat some more.
Roy
Posted on: 14 October 2004 by Dave Hartley
Roy,
Thanks for all those links. I will have a look tomorrow evening.
regards
Dave
Thanks for all those links. I will have a look tomorrow evening.
regards
Dave
Posted on: 15 October 2004 by Occean
I have one of these and would high recommend them - they are great little machine with virtually no compromise to a desktop.
I have a friend who has built about 20 of them (including mine) - so if you need any advice on specific models or would like any general help do not hesitate in asking!
There are a couple of companies that build them for you such as www.gemma.co.uk also I think eversham now use one in their range. But as usual the flexibility of choosing your own bits is lost.
I have a friend who has built about 20 of them (including mine) - so if you need any advice on specific models or would like any general help do not hesitate in asking!
There are a couple of companies that build them for you such as www.gemma.co.uk also I think eversham now use one in their range. But as usual the flexibility of choosing your own bits is lost.
Posted on: 15 October 2004 by Roy T
I would just like to add to Occean's post by listing a few places where you can purchase the kit
Aria
Dabs
Komplett
MicroDirect
MicroLandTechnology
TeckHeads
as well as having kit built to your specifications.
ISH
TheGlowLounge
If you find others pleas let me know.
Aria
Dabs
Komplett
MicroDirect
MicroLandTechnology
TeckHeads
as well as having kit built to your specifications.
ISH
TheGlowLounge
If you find others pleas let me know.
Posted on: 19 October 2004 by Roy T
Dave, any more thoughts about your next pc?
Posted on: 20 October 2004 by Dave Hartley
Hi Roy & Occean,
Have taken the plunge after viewing your recommended sites. I decided to purchase a ready built shuttle from Micro Direct..thanks Roy.
They are only 8 miles from home so on Monday I collected a Shuttle G26100H system.A P4 5Ghz Prescott, 512Mb with on board sound and a Radeon 9600SE 128Mb AGP.
I can't believe the difference in speed compared to my old P2.
There is only one problem at the moment....On max volume both using a headphones and a pair of speakers the sound is only just audible.
The warranty is 2yrs on site so I need to get someone out to take a closer look.
Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction...i'll report back once the sound issue has been resolved.
Best wishes
Dave
Have taken the plunge after viewing your recommended sites. I decided to purchase a ready built shuttle from Micro Direct..thanks Roy.
They are only 8 miles from home so on Monday I collected a Shuttle G26100H system.A P4 5Ghz Prescott, 512Mb with on board sound and a Radeon 9600SE 128Mb AGP.
I can't believe the difference in speed compared to my old P2.
There is only one problem at the moment....On max volume both using a headphones and a pair of speakers the sound is only just audible.
The warranty is 2yrs on site so I need to get someone out to take a closer look.
Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction...i'll report back once the sound issue has been resolved.
Best wishes
Dave
Posted on: 21 October 2004 by Roy T
A good bit of kit aka Shuttle XPC SB61G2V3.
Posted on: 21 October 2004 by Occean
Unless you have missed a setting under the sound options int he control panel I would get that s/card checked out with the retailer asap.
CD5/112/150/S5e's/smiling
CD5/112/150/S5e's/smiling
Posted on: 24 October 2004 by Dave Hartley
Occean,Roy,
The sound problem turned out to be an issue with the speakers / on board sound. In my old system I had a "SB AWE 64 value". It looks like the on board sound from the new PC has a lower O/P ,even with the volume control on max.
I believe there are 3 ways out of this:-
1.Put my old sound card in the Shuttle ( but not supported by XP)
2.Buy a new Sound card. I'm only interested in stereo so do you have any recommendations.
3.Buy a pair of speakers with some internal amplification.
OR a 4th option
4.Buy a new sound card & new speakers ( I'm sure my old speakers can be improved on...they are labelled Kingsway..
Any thoughts
regards
Dave
I my old sound
The sound problem turned out to be an issue with the speakers / on board sound. In my old system I had a "SB AWE 64 value". It looks like the on board sound from the new PC has a lower O/P ,even with the volume control on max.
I believe there are 3 ways out of this:-
1.Put my old sound card in the Shuttle ( but not supported by XP)
2.Buy a new Sound card. I'm only interested in stereo so do you have any recommendations.
3.Buy a pair of speakers with some internal amplification.
OR a 4th option
4.Buy a new sound card & new speakers ( I'm sure my old speakers can be improved on...they are labelled Kingsway..
Any thoughts
regards
Dave
I my old sound
Posted on: 24 October 2004 by Martin Payne
Dave,
there are often several different volume controls in the way of sound output from the card.
If you go into the provided "mixer" application, there will probably be one "master" volume slider, plus a whole series of separate ones for "wave", "CD", "MIDI", etc.
You might even find you have to poke around in the settings of the mixer program to even be able to see some of the sliders!
cheers, Martin
E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.
there are often several different volume controls in the way of sound output from the card.
If you go into the provided "mixer" application, there will probably be one "master" volume slider, plus a whole series of separate ones for "wave", "CD", "MIDI", etc.
You might even find you have to poke around in the settings of the mixer program to even be able to see some of the sliders!
cheers, Martin
E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.