Build Your Own Mini-Computer

Bored in Chattanooga writes: "Tom's is running an article reviewing a Shuttle mini-computer. Seems to have everything the average computer user would need, minus a nice 3D graphics card. Perhaps the standard large ATX-size computer cases will cease to exist and be replaced by these "mini-computers." I find these gems cuter than any iMac I've ever seen!"

It's in the car

[Sauron23]

Bought one. Works great for browsing, running Morpheus. Didn't read Tom's article. Did he mention you can have 3 ATA100 devices? Use the floppy slot for another disk. Yes you can use standard cables, yes the power supply has enough watts to do this. Sound is good for MP3 quality, graphics suck, go buy a PCI card and use that one slot, such as a 64 meg MX400 which does the trick for me as it has the TV out. Don't ask it to copy 10 gigs while your watching a DVD and you'll do fine. Add a 300 watt inverter, wireless keyboard, touch pad and small lcd and throw the whole thing in the car. Add GPS, cell phone to match your needs. Now go buy one. I want more cases like this. The cappacino PC almost made my list but lacks that important ingredient, versitility, which this has.

Another similar, but better looking case

[Nerant]

Soldam [soldam.com] also has something similar. Pandora [soldam.com]

Re:Slow graphics?

[Anonymous Coward]

They're not gonna put an Athlon in there, it runs too hot.

not good for a/v component

[tap]

I've got one of these at work to make an X-terminal out of. It comes with three fans, a 60x10mm fan on the short heatsink that sounds like a jet engine, a rather noisy 60x25mm fan as the case exhaust, and a tiny 25mm fan in the power supply. Even without a hard drive, it's a very noisy machine.

In order to quiet it down, I got a low power VIA C6 CPU for it, the 800Mhz samuel2 1.6V model. I couldn't find the C3 ezra 1.3V cpu for sale anywhere at the time. The small heatsink wasn't enough to cool the chip without the fan. I've ordered the Alpha PAL6035 heatsink to see if that will cool the C3 ok without a fan. There isn't much space in the case to put a large heatsink in. The intel OEM PIII heatsink is too wide, so is the Alpha PAL8045 and Thermalright SK6. The Swiftech MCX370 should fit, and I think the Zalman heatsinks can fit if you cut and bend some of the fins and don't have a harddrive.

Re:I don't understand.

[Anonymous Coward]

What does "friggin" mean? Did you mean "fucking" instead?

frig (vulg.) v.i. and v.t. to masturbate : loosely, to have sexual intercourse with: (often with about) to potter about : (with off) to go away

frigging : masturbation : pottering about.

So "frigging" (or friggin') is not identical in meaning to "fucking" but you did get the general idea right, yes.

Hopefully this has helped to expand your vocabulary.

Re:Mini-computers from the retail world

[really?]

Akihabara if full of those small "pizza box" type barebones.

As for this "minicomputer" ... OLD news, and I believe it's been on Slashdot before ....

Re:Stupid

[tempmpi]

The article is by tomshardware, sure it says build your own machine, because most if not all of the readers of tomshardware build their own machines. But I also the that these case has really chance to enter the "aunt, uncles and newbie" market. Barebones are really great for small computer stores. Just add a CPU, some ram and a harddisk and you can sell a complete computer. Sure that wouldn't be as successfull as selling it at fry's, but it would be a start and I think the sv24 is already clear success for shuttle.
Also you ask if geeks would buy that barebone. You said they wouldn't buy it because it is too slow and not upgradeable. I think you forgot something here, sure geeks wouldn't buy it as their main working machine but it is a really good case for every geek that wants to build a small pc for a special purpose like a small fileserver or a mp3 player, or just a pc to surf the web in the living room.
I think this is a great computer for both the newbie and the geek.

AMD model, an alternative, and experiences...

[Anonymous Coward]

There was a Shuttle mini-site that showed an upcoming AMD based SV24-alike --- I think the SV31? 35? Hopefully it'll be out soon. I couldn't find *any* information *anywhere* about a release date at the time (mid-December).

Also, there are alternatives. FIC have a similarly endowed model, the Sabre 1815.

The FIC has a thinner footprint when sitting upright. Form factor is the differentiator, imho, when choosing between these, because they are both rock-solid in terms of construction. The Shuttle *is* much cuter, tho. (The FIC came with two little cradle-feet to serve as a base, as well as a really slim but great cpu fan.) Read the review, of course, for the goods on the Shuttle.

For the record, both models run and install Mandrake 8.1 and RedHat7.2 just dandy. As well as Win2k Server, although for Win2k I had to install the drivers that came along with these fine foxen' boxen on CDROM. What?! Linux install was easier? Someone is doing something right. Good going you hax0rzz.

The FIC/RedHat combo did get a little fussy during install due to something weird with the screen bring at 60Hz, but that went away when I changed modes after login. Could have been the monitor, but I have a feeling it may have been the 815 chip. No biggie tho.

These things got snatched up like candy during the Christmas rush.

Happy minicomputing. Hah.

I needed a display stand...

[TicTacTux]

...so I bought this [in-win.com] and that [asus.com.tw]. Not as geeky as the shuttle thingie, not as fast as the bleeding edge, but a tad cheaper... Most important: Everything is supported under Linux, hehe.

Re:replace ATX???

[Anonymous Coward]

>where do i put my 4x raid array?

in a raid enclosure where it belongs

>my 2nd nic for my home network?

get a router

>my removable HD bay, cdrom and cd-rw with only one bay?

why do you need a cdrom if you have a cdrw?

>how about my firewire card?

FIC sabre 1815 has 2 1394 ports onboard and similar size

>ok yea, its cute, and its a nice idea for ppl who dont want to upgrade in the slightest

i just upgraded my "mini" to an 800mhz, 60gbHD, 512MB ram, have a pci video card, pci audio card with digital i/o, and raid controller

>pretentious to say that it will replace ATX, the whole AT/ATX concept is built on scalability

ATX isnt "scalable", you just have empty slots right now. you cannot add more. THAT is not scalabilty.

>take that waya and you have you're own use once and throw away computer.

no, you find another use for it.

Re:replace ATX???

[Anonymous Coward]

> where do i put my 4x raid array?

On your LAN.

> my 2nd nic for my home network?

And how about a 3rd nic to talk to your printer. And a 4th for ICQ chatting, and a 5th for Quake games. Or wait...could the same bits go over the same wire, and be handled differently based on various packet criteria?

> my removable HD bay, cdrom and cd-rw with only one bay?

It has USB and firewire built in, so outside the box. (Yes, there are *removable* external firewire drives).

> how about my firewire card?

It's built in...if it weren't, this would be pretty fscked as far as expansion.

Re:What about heat?

[TheMeld]

The problem with your argument about cubic feet and flow rate is in the basics of fluid flows. Given a presure on a fluid in a duct/pipe/whatever, the flow rate goes up with the fourth power of the diameter! This is why, as you correctly pointed out, fans don't scale down well, and thus a bigger fan is much better.

However, when you get small cases, you get small spaces for air to move through, and thus reduced flowrates regardless of fan size. The CFM rating on a fan assumes no significant load on the fan. The types of fans used in pc cooling cannot handle large resistance to flow; their cfm will drop like a rock.

Blowers (the things with a rotating circular mouse cage thing) do a lot better, but are noisier and don't move air nearly as fast in the first place.

Alternate vendor

[RedDirt]

The case, power-supply and motherboard is also available from AMS, the company that makes the case: http://www.american-media.com/index-CF7989.html

Hell Yes

[soupforare]

Mount one of these bitches [overclockershideout.com] on there (whee, Svideo), hack up a custom battery and you have one *hell* of a quake2 mobile rig.
(Good for trash-talking bastards:) "Man, I'm the fucking best DM'er ever! My sk1llz are t3h best, rar!"
'umm, right, so, ok. Here's my box [*grunt*] Bring it'

Screw you guys with your fancy-ass video cards, poor people *tweak* baby! I had a P200(nonMMX) with a Savage4 and I got it to play UT.
I currently run a G400(guh) and I run Counterstrike in OpenGL 800x600x32 at a consistent 70fps, it spikes to 99+

So when is the shipping company getting off it's ass to bring me mine? :D

Re:Mini-computers from the retail world

[spudnic]

That's a Book PC. You can still find them at several places on the 'net. They really are good little boxes.