Shuttle's SS50 reviewed

EconolineCrush writes "What's 200x181x280mm, decked out in brushed aluminum, and supports a Pentium 4 processor with DDR SDRAM? Shuttle's SS50 bare bones system The Tech Report has a review up of the latest aluminum cube from Shuttle, and it's an impressive little beast. Small form factor PCs are becoming more popular, and this is the first platform I've seen with Pentium 4 support, DDR, and decent on board video via SiS' 650 chipset."

Upcoming SS40 (AMD based)

[Gandalf_007]

Shuttle also has plans for a SS40 model [shuttleonline.com], which is very similar to the SS50, except for supporting AMD processors instead of the Pentium 4. It also uses the SiS chipset (745), which is very similar to the 645 Pentium-4 chipset (same GF2MX-level integrated graphics), and is even better than the surprising 735 chipset.

SV24 Here

[Moridineas]

I've got an SV24 (with a celeron 1000) that does an excellent job of sitting on a shelf in my closet (dorm room) serving files and running the occasional quake/half-life/etc game. Nice sexy little box, and GREAT for portability.

If it wasn't quite so loud (get a Centaur CPU, no fan! also, some people have modded the power supply fan) it would make a great little computer for acting as a portable DVD/VCD player.

One thing it could REALLY use is a handle on the top...would be perfect for carrying.

Scott

Another review at VIA-Hardware

[Tensor]

with pics too ..
ViaHardware [viahardware.com]

Cute little MAME/Video/Jukebox

[galaga79]

The more and more I read about these barebones/minicases the more I think that could make a tiny entertainment box in the living room. Especially after a few case mods, like clear casing and/or neon lights.

You could have MAME and other emulators running on it, and just connect up some Playstation controllers via a USB adaptor. Then it could double as a DVD/video/music system via an infrared remote control, cordless keyboard and/or mouse. It wouldn't be that expensive either as looking at the specs [ocworkbench.com] it looks most above are already taken care of. The only concern would be the noise generated but I don't know enough on that to comment. Maybe you could downclock the machine and use a smaller fan.

Anyone know the availability of these in Australia? I couldn't find anywhere via google that sold them locally.

Great little routers

[Anonymous Coward]

These make great little routers... We are rolling them out to approx. 10 stores at the company I work for... yes, they're WAY more than we need for a router, but the "IT" person in corporate that I had to fight tooth and nail with to go with a Linux solution was only won over by way of the "that's neato" factor than by factual and financial information (I was competing against the vomit-inducingly overpriced watchguard fireboxes... nice product and all, but pay a per-user fee and negate the possibility of running other services or protocols, ever? fuck that.)

No, the Problem with Compaq...

[Chasing Amy]

No, the problem most geeks have with Compaq/HP/etc. machines isn't just price-based, it's standards based. If you build a machine yourself or buy this barebones Shuttle system or something similar, you're getting a more standard, interchangeable design, often with more expandability.

See, most 1st-tier mass-market PC companies have their motherboards manufactured according to proprietary designs by companies no one's ever heard of. They seldom live up to ATX or MicroATX or any similar spec, instead using strange form factors that often necessitate weird 2-piece motherboards with segments connected by ribbon cables. This was the case with 2 PCs I opened up recently, a fairly recent Compaq and an IBM. The PCI slots were on a PCB placed at a 90-degree angle to the main PCB.

So, good luck ever moving it to a different case. Not that you'd want to, because while motherboards designed by retail by reputable manufacturers are designed for a large measure of expandability, motherboards designed for big OEMs aren't. I bought my motherboard nearing 2 years ago with a 600MHz Duron and can upgrade to any socketed Athlon or Duron with a 200MHz FSB; if I'd bought a Compaq, odds are it would have used the obsolete slot design, and even if it used the socketed processors it almost certainly wouldn't have the multipliers and support logic for the higher clock speeds.

See, Compaq and the other tier-1 PC OEMs don't have a vested interest in letting consumers upgrade their existing PCs. They want to sell new ones. This is in contrast to the retail motherboard market, where there's competition and smaller OEMs and DIYers are the target market. So, whereas a Compaq is likely to have a limited multiplier range, few BIOS updates, and still be using hardware jumper settings, a retail mobo will be likely to have a complete multiplier range, frequent BIOS updates to support newer features and processors, and have more settings accessible in the BIOS rather than in hardware jumpers.

In addition, a Compaq or similar will likely have integrated peripherals geared toward being as cheap as possible, which usually means fewer features and more CPU and RAM dependence. Which reminds me--memory upgrades on Compaqs can be a nightmare. On most retail mobos you'll get 3 RAM slots--at least 2, but usually 3 and on rare occasion on better-designed full ATX boards, 4. On Compaqs and the like, they can make it really weird; for example, a Compaq I recently upgraded had its manual state that the first RAM slot could accept up to a 128 MB dimm, and the second could accept up to a 64MB dimm. Huh? What? Why? A *real* motherboard manufactured for retail by one of the better Taiwan manufacturers would, at the time, have had at least 2 dimm slots, capable of accepting up to 512 MB dimms each. Not that weird bullshit about one 128 MB dimm and one 64 MB dimm. I still don't understand that one...

Anyway, it's about more than just price. It's about quality, it's about adherence to standards.

Re:Not with Linux

[Peyna]

I've got the latest Skipjack beta running on my SS50 just fine. Only problem initially was with the video, but I found a helpful person on the XFree86 mailing lists that makes drivers for the SiS chipsets and now for the most part, everything works great. (If I had more time to test the drivers, it would probably work even better, but I hardly get the chance to install his daily releases of them as it is). If you have one of these and want to know where to get the video drivers for X, send me an e-mail. I don't dare post a link to his website for fear of killing it.

The fans on the SS50 are not very loud at all. Even when they speed up they are fairly quiet, not much worse than my other PC. I suppose if it wasn't sitting next to my monitor and under my desk, I'd probably hear it even less =]

Taco violates Tech-Report's copyright, film at 11

[Anonymous Coward]

The editors claim that they can't mirror sites before they get slashdotted because of copyright issues, yet taco can post the full text of the page here? That's baloney. The bottom of the tech report states "All contents copyright © 1999-2002 by The Tech Report, LLC. All rights reserved." yet Taco has just copied the content to make money on his own site (if you think slashdot isn't around to make money then you're a bigger fool than I).

As usual, the editors treat the readers like mushrooms - keep us in the dark and feed us shit. Way to go, taco.

I've had mine for about a week and love it.

[SpankTech3000]

I just got mine last week with a P4 and 1GB RAM. It runs great. I have the 1.80A P4 OC'd to 2.2 GHz and it's rock stable.

A couple of observations:
* With the fan guardian on, the fan is not noisy at all, and only speeds up to the point of being audible during very long compiles, even with it overclocked.
* I tried a small form factor AMD XP 1700+ (*NOT* the SS40), and it generated much more heat than this does. I am just guessing, but I imagine the SS40 is going to have much worse heat problems than the SS50.

I hightly recommend the SS50 to anyone looking for a luggable box.

Re:SV24 Here

[spudnic]

That would get it the way too much. I have an SV24 also. I ordered an OEM replacement Fender amp handle. You know the ones, two chrome caps with a heavy black rubber handle that slide down when not in use. It fits perfectly on top of this little box and makes carrying it around a pleasure.

I used my SV24 when I was doing a lot of contracting work for several companies. I stuck a PIII 1Ghz, 512Megs of RAM, a Plextor CD-RW, and a 7200RPM 80Gig drive in it. I have plenty of room to keep all of my utilities, applications, etc on it. I get to a site, plug in, and I have my own little server on the client's network up and running without having to lug a big box around. I have ftp, samba, and http access to all my files, so no matter what the situation I can get what I need.

Much more versatile, powerful, and more storage space than just about any laptop at a fraction of the price. If you're in my situation and you know there will be monitors and keyboards at the site you're going to, it's the best thing since sliced bread.

I keep a 5" black and white VGA monitor and a small keyboard in my trunk just in case...

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