Birdman March 20, 2004 Share Birdman Member March 20, 2004 (edited) First a little background: Recently I ran into some money and decided to invest in some computer hardware that would eventually allow me to build a Personal Video Recorder(PVR). I set off to find a good base to build a PVR around. I had seen some cases that were built to fit perfectly into a home entertainment system that had been posted on HTPCNews.com but didn’t really like the fact that they reminded me of old desktop cases from a couple years back. I had always liked the looks of Small Form Factor(SFF) cases, however, and had heard mostly good things about them. After seeing a handful of SFF setups at a lan party I attended last summer( MML )I had made up my mind that one day I was going to purchase a SFF setup. With my recent desire to have a PVR I decided to look into a SFF and attempt to kill two birds with one stone. I set off to find the best SFF bundle(SFF setups usually come with a case, motherboard, and powersupply) I could. I visited the forums of a SFF community aptly named SFFTECH . There were many discussions about two AMD SFF bundles by a company named Shuttle . Shuttle pretty much started the whole SFF craze so I figured I would check out their solutions first. Two setups were mentioned most; the SN41G and the SN45G . There were a couple of differences in the two. Both motherboards in the bundle are based off the N-Force 2 platform. However, the SN45G is running the most recent version of the chipset known as the N-force 2 Ultra 400. This means the SN41 doesn't support newer Barton cored 400Mhz Athlon XP's, but the SN45G does. The SN41 comes with integrated Geforce 2 mx Graphics that would be fine for casual Internet browsing or seldom light 3d gaming. For my needs I chose the SN45G. I didn’t need the onboard graphics and the Ultra 400 chipset almost guarantees good overclocking results. Review: The SN45G is my favorite computer right now. Out of the all towers I have seen I prefer a SFF to all of them. The SN45G looks great and runs good. Some people might think such a small computer has limited abilities to overclock and experience heat problems. However, I've found that there is plenty of room for overclocking and some room for upgrading. The shuttle boxes do run a little hot, but they are perfect for things like LAN gaming and even a PVR setup. There are various solutions that shuttle offers so any platform you are thinking about moving to (AMD 64 bit, Pentium 4, or Athlon XP) is covered. You can get boxes that range in price too. Some boxes cost upwards of 300 bucks will others are under 200. The SN45 fits somewhere in between and packs quite a punch. The current version of the SN45G can be a little loud. The fan on the power supply is a little louder than some would like, but isn’t overwhelming in its presence. A newer version of the SN45 was just announced though, so if quite is what you then wait for it. The newer version will add SATA capabilities along with a more powerful fanless power supply. The current version of the SN45 has one 5 1/4" bay and two 3 1/2" bays(one of which is external). A DVD+-R drive would work perfect in one of these boxes and would cover all your disc needs. The cooling apparatus on the SN45 is flat out amazing. It cools as well as my all copper Thermalright SLK-800 that I have in my tower. The shuttle cooling device (ICE) works by having a copper base that whisks heat into aluminum evaporator pipes. The pipes lead upwards into a Radiator that has a 80mm Sunon fan blowing over it. The Sunon fan also serves as the primary cooling for the entire shuttle box. Fan/Radiator Nickel Coated Copper Base and Radiator The wiring and general aesthetics of the case are a sight to behold. The Power supply cables are neatly routed through the case along with rails that allow for IDE cables to be tucked out of the way. Everything fits together with ease. Working inside the Shuttle can be daunting at times, but it's not that much harder than working inside a full size tower thanks to great design and planning. With the right processor the Shuttle SN45 can surprise you with its overclocking prowess. I picked up Mobile Athlon XP 2500+ (not to be confused with an Athlon MP which is designed for SMP setups) from newegg at the same time I bought the Shuttle and the combination turned out to be very impressive. The 2500+ Mobile normally runs @ a voltage of 1.45. The Shuttle was able to take the Mobile processor from 1866Mhz to 2200Mhz with no voltage increase at all. Surprisingly the temperature of the Shuttle didn’t seem to move much with the increase in Mhz. I proceed on and eventually got the Mobile chip to run stable @ 2400Mhz with slightly more voltage than a desktop 3200+ (1.7Volts). So that’s a 533Mhz increase in speed. Keep in mind this is all taking place in a box 1/4 of the size of most mid towers with nothing more than a mild 80mm fan taking care of cooling duties for and entire case. After seeing the speed available on the Shuttle SN45G I can't ever see why I would by a tower with a full size motherboard in it again. This thing is going to be great for lan gaming or people that find themselves moving their computers all the time. The weight/power ratio is flat amazing with SFF computers. Grab one with an AGP slot and throw in your favorite processor and you are ready to roll. If you are lucky you may be able to get some free Mhz in between too. If you have ever wanted to build a PVR then having on of these would solve a lot of problems. Add a large hard drive and a Video capture card and you would be able to capture hours of your favorite TV shows. One of the only downsides I could find with the SN45 is the lack of SATA connectors and the absence of room for top of the line NVIDIA cards. However, there are other SFF cases out there that can handle those needs if they are of any importance. Big SFF The Good 1. Small 2. Looks good 3. Good Cooling 4. Overclocks The Bad 1. Runs a little hot 2. Top of the line Nvidia cards won't work 3. Power Supply fan a little noisy 4. No SATA connectors on the current version More Pictures Side shot Top down view Ram/Northbridge Rear View/Power Supply Front With Cover Edited January 22, 2005 by Birdman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r March 20, 2004 Share All Kill3r Member March 20, 2004 very nice review Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdman March 20, 2004 Author Share Birdman Member March 20, 2004 Thx. Hopefully between this and your excellent overclocking guide some people will get some ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urk?!? April 6, 2004 Share urk?!? Member April 6, 2004 Nice writeup Bird. I've got one which GotGear (http://gear.gotfrag.com/?module=systems ) built for me. You can build it yourself for cheaper by ordering through NewEgg.com, but if you're lazy (like me), it's a sweet lil system. Survey: My Computer Manufacturer: GotGear Processor: Intel Pentium 4 Memory: 1 Gigabyte Hard Drive: 300 Gigabytes or more Optical Drive: DVD-R/DVD-RW Drive Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Monitor: 21" CRT Headphones: Sennheiser PC 155 USB Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Mouse: Logitech MX 500 Mouse Surface: Gotfrag Eclipse Pad Internet Connection: Cable Modem http://www.gotfrag.com/cs/user/19/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bullet-401 April 6, 2004 Share bullet-401 Member April 6, 2004 Do you know if they will have sata and support for the more higher end nvidia cards with the new one? 333/400? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdman April 6, 2004 Author Share Birdman Member April 6, 2004 Do you know if they will have sata and support for the more higher end nvidia cards with the new one? 333/400? The Athlon XP Shuttles should have Sata connectors in the coming weeks. They wont support the double size NVIDIA cards though. However, some manufacturers (Leadtek) make single slot NVIDIA versions of the FX series. They will work in the shuttle if you take of the mesh grill over the fan on the video card. The new NV40 is going to be a dual slot setup again so I don’t think it'll work in a shuttle. The 5900XT's, 5700Ultras, and on down in the NVIDIA line up will work in the shuttles though. If you are buying a video card along with the shuttle and want a super high end then you'll have to go ATI. If you wanna stick with NVIDIA but don’t need max performance at max resolutions then go with the 5900XT. http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjA0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bullet-401 April 6, 2004 Share bullet-401 Member April 6, 2004 (edited) But what about the power supply? Wouldnt you need more then 220w for most cards that need a power hook up? Edit: cuz im interested in making a lan comp this summer with the Shuttle xpc 400fsb one... unless I could get that sata then I can get a nice 120 gig sata Edited April 6, 2004 by bullet-401 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdman April 6, 2004 Author Share Birdman Member April 6, 2004 But what about the power supply? Wouldnt you need more then 220w for most cards that need a power hook up? Nope. Most all ATI 9800's work great. Never heard of problems with power with any of the Nvidia cards(mostly because their biggest power hogs wont fit in the case). Some of the earlier versions of the 9800Pro AIW had issuses with the power supply in the model I own. But with all the ATI cards on shelves now you will be fine. SATA support isn't that big of a deal unless you already own a sata drive. The second fastest SATA drives behind the WD Raptor come in plain old P-ATA form. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductListB...andName=HITACHI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar April 7, 2004 Share Crowbar Member April 7, 2004 very nice review. I will be looking into this as an option for my upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdman April 7, 2004 Author Share Birdman Member April 7, 2004 very nice review. I will be looking into this as an option for my upgrade. Awesome. I think you would be very happy with one. What has surprised me is how stable mine is. It's been on 24/7 @ 100% CPU load for two weeks now and it still hasn’t quivered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdman July 20, 2004 Author Share Birdman Member July 20, 2004 (edited) Newegg finally has the Version 2 of the SN45G(Monarchcomputers has had it for a couple of weeks). Shuttle SN45G Ver. 2 No Sata support though. But it does have a more powerful 250watt powersupply. Which would be great for the new line of x800's and 6800's if the old powersupply had you a lil' nervous. SFFTech has a review posted of my dream shuttle right now that is worth a look too. http://www.sfftech.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=563 Edited February 15, 2005 by Birdman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdman February 15, 2005 Author Share Birdman Member February 15, 2005 No Sata support though. Good News! Version 3 has SATA support! http://global.shuttle.com/Product/barebone...iew.asp?B_id=42 I wouldnt recommend the socket A platform, but it's an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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