Got a new PC, you may consider it

[Taipan]

Just got one of those Shuttle XPC (aka Barebone or Mini-PC) and it really rocks !

For those who don't know, it's the latest hype for hard-core gamers who regularly join massive multi-player LAN contests with dozens/hundreds of competitors in a single building (often an in-door stadium). Thus they want high-end performance in a small/light/transportable central unit.

I chose the lastest model (SB61G2) which comes with the new Intel motherboard (I865g) and stuffed it with an Intel P4 "C" 2.4ghz with FSB 800Mhz and Hyper-Threading technology, plus a GeForce TI 4800SE with 128mo and AGP 8X, two IBM 80Go 180GXP 8mo hard-drives and 512Mo of Winbond DDR PC3200 400mhz Ram.

Here are a few pix :

The box (it's like a large shoe box)


The back


Forget the fan : the processor cooling system/ heatsink which takes the heat out of the processor (looks like liquid-cooling from a car




Here's an extensive review : http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003 ... dex.x?pg=1

And Shuttle PC site : http://www.shuttle.com

All this, with an XP license, for EUR 1,100 (+/- £ 650).

A serious alternative to consider if you ask me.

Eric

[PhilT]

Cool [img]images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

If anybody would like one of these fitted to their car, then contact me... I'm not joking!!

Haven't got the bandwidthat the mo to investigate Eric's new toy, but where's the floppy/cd-rom/dvd-rom?

On a side note, I am a dab hand at building PCs. If anybody needs a new PC/upgrade, then let me know. (Desparately trying to find ways to keep the RS)

[Mo_S3]

Ive built many many shuttle systems from the entire 'shuttle' range and can confirm that they are very good systems. Quality is also excellent, and if u look at the price they are damn good value too. SB61G is only £250 !! as a barebone !!
[img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

[Taipan]

The first picture showed it "out of the box" so the two upper covers are to be removed once you install the CD/DVD reader/writer and the floppy. But the floppy spot can be ignored in order to install a second hard-drive (for you to choose if you want to go, say, for a 180 Go HD + a floppy or 2 HD of 80Go average). I chose the second alternative as I use ADSL or CD-Burner to replace the floppy drive's most rare use as of today.

Here's a pix showing a CD-Rom once installed :


This is a pix of the bay behind the covers (the upper slot can take a CD/DVD drive and the lower can take either two HD or one HD + one 3.5 Floppy)


And here's the neat little bag provided by Shuttle if you need to carry your XPC (about EUR 30 extra). Well-made, includes steel clips for the carrying-belt (not shown here).
Basically a large photo camera bag.


Forgot to mention : the SB61G2 comes with an in-board Intel Extreme Graphis video/graphic chip taking 64Mo out of the standard Ram, so if you ain't an hard-core gamer, you can rely on it for almost everything and save an extra EUR 150-250 from a dedicated video/graphic card such as a GeForce 4/FX or an ATI Radeon.

There's also a serie called the SNxxxx which use an Nvidia NForce motherboard in combination with AMD Athlon XP processor. But I was strongly advised against it by support techies because (1) it's very noisy due to the extreme heat coming out of the AMD processor which requires the cooling system to run 100% all the time and (2) it's significantly exposed to crash/bugs/re-install because of conflicting speeds between the Ram and Bus, etc.
Basically : go for the Intel version if you aren't too comfy with tweaking/reinstalling.

And for all the Andiroo & Co furious tuners , there's a whole range of mods available, plus tuning/overclocking options within the SB61G2 bios so you can get a few additional percent boost out the motherboard, the Ram speed, etc. Not to mention tweaking/overclocking the clocks of your video/graphic card's Memory Clock or even Core Clock.
And for the "I want my own unique look" fans, Shuttle offers a range of mods like cases, front-panels, remote controls, etc :









Eric

[john]

More info on them here if you guys are interested. If you want some trade prices then mail me - john@tdsltd.co.uk with what your after and I will try to do you a "RS246" Price...

[Bushy]

Been looking into this myself as one for the car, only concern is the power supply

As you may be aware the car is already full of gadgets and stuff and a PC is someothing I have been investigating for nearly a year

The concerns over the power supply is ideally i would want one with a 12V or 25V DC input so it is only minimum power conversion required, whilst inverters are inexpensive in my previous experience - when running a playstation (original type) that needed an inverter it could interfere with the rear speakers, some buzzing etc whereas with the playstation one, 12V DC in the power is transpfomred in the plug top I have none of these problems

The next thing to consider is the video connection, PhilT and I have already aftermarket screens in our cars but none really want to accept a VGA cable although some will accept S video

The next problem is also video output related, as long as the PC has a good graphics card you are fine. Basically some of the smaller inbuilt graphics cards have limited resolutions and as the aftermarket screens generally fitted into cars are like widescreen TV's compared to the 5:4 ratio of a standard monitor the pictures and images can look crap

I did have a PC in the car last year but the resolution was aweful

Be good if this was a soltuion

[Paul-RS]

i have sat nav plus now with screen in dash. been putting feelers out to get tuner box fitted to give me the inputs..

fancy the tv option too

[Mo_S3]

Paul do u honestly think ur gonna be watching the crap on the tv channels in ur car ?? Im much prefer looking at street signs than watch daytime tv <beep> !! [img]images/graemlins/rocketwhore.gif[/img]

[Paul-RS]

its more for the input side of things tbh. tho dvd would be trick.

tho i might swap out the cdchager and fit a phatnoise unit for mp3's.