Shuttle Computers - We're Not Dead Yet!

by Jarred Walton on 1/9/2008 7:45 AM EST
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  • LinuxLOSER - Sunday, January 27, 2008 - link

    The $99 KPC is intriguing and might make a nice NAS/Print/Web/All-In-One server if you have extra RAM/CPU/2.5" drives laying around. Wish there were some specs on the average wattage usage for the $199 device. The power supply is supposed to be 100 Watt so it's going to be below that. Right now I use an old laptop for the All-In-One and it only takes up about 27 Watts on average so leaving it running 24/7/365 is a non-issue. Unfortunately, the old lappy is getting dated and this would be a nice, cheap upgrade. The lack of an optical drive would make built-out a pain; but on the plus side the absence of an optical drive would lower the power requirements. I've seen NAS enclosures alone go for $200+ so $199 for a full fledged PC isn't bad at all.
  • sprockkets - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    Like all other builders, it seems most of their SFFs that are around $200 come with HiPro power supplies, which are known for reliability issues on all OEMs that use them. Also good for saving a few bucks at the customers expense.

    It is hard to find the ones made by Shuttle, though if they say Silent X 250, I think they still exist on higher end models.
  • Nyarlathotep - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    The corporate computers I have used have been 1/3 the size of the Korporate and hidden by the screen.

    You might want a screen for this thing to work properly. Then you pay more then the cheapest fullsize laptops.

    For the livingroom I would choose something blending in with my other items. But that´s just me.
  • munkay - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    No optical drive probably isn't a problem if using it as a home server. You could probably throw in a tv tuner and set it up as a Myth server, and have myth clients anywhere in your house. I'd have bought this instead of the DNS-323 (which i bought) for the same price.
  • Starglider - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    My main problem with Shuttle PCs (I've owned three) is the noise. All of them were fairly noisy to start with (moreso than the average desktop) and got steadily worse over time, to the point that I had to replace the fans or go insane. Unfortunately that just got them back down to 'fairly noisy', not 'quiet'. There's not much point having an unobtrusive form factor when the audible instrusion is so bad.
  • JarredWalton - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    I've always felt the Shuttle SFFs are relatively quiet when idle, but as soon as you put any load on them they get really loud. If you usually just leave your system sitting at the desktop, they're not bad, but a decent ATX case with an aftermarket HSF is going to be quieter for sure. Unfortunately, I don't know that there's much they can do with the noise - either you're somewhat loud in order to get rid of the heat, or you're hot and likely crash under load. All the gaming laptops I've tested are also quite noisy for the same reason.
  • strikeback03 - Friday, January 11, 2008 - link

    The one Shuttle I have used (at work) was very noisy, I'd guess it was the little PSU fan rather than the 80mm that cooled everything else. Admittedly it was powering a 3.0GHz Prescott so it had to work, but it always whined.
  • Blahman - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    replacing the stock fans with quieter/more efficient ones is fairly trivial. see here:
    http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/forums/viewthrea...">http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/forums/viewthrea...
  • FreedomGUNDAM - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    Depending on the number of 3.5" bays available (hope 3-4), this maybe the perfect DIY Windows Home Server kit.
  • sullenmoon - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    Ubuntu or Kubuntu? seems like a Korporate PC should come with Kubuntu, the KDE (instead of gnome) version on ubuntu. You'd get to play on the K letter scheme so much more with software such as Konqueror, Konsole, Kontact, and a mascot named Konqi!
  • AmberClad - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    My thoughts as far as the KPC -

    Very attractive price. But the lack of an integrated optical drive is a major handicap. Also, for not too much more, I could buy myself an Eee PC, which would be far more portable.



    Thoughts as far as the SX38P2 Pro -

    $5000 is really a bit much, considering you could build a comparable DIY SFF system using off-the-shelf parts for a fraction of that. The main selling points here seems to be that 1) it's a pre-built, and 2) it's smaller than even the smallest off-the-shelf SFF cube case.

    Point #1 isn't going to win me over, or other enthusiasts who are perfectly happy to build their own. As far as Point #2, I have seen XPCs in person, and yes, they are quite small -- noticeably smaller than X-QPacks/MicroFlys/TT LanBoxes/Arias/NZXT Rogues etc, in fact. But those cases I mentioned still aren't dramatically less portable than a Shuttle - you can still tote those around one-handed.



    Unfortunately, I think Shuttle might be a tough position right now. They have competitors, like Falcon-NW, that offer pre-built SFFs while at the same time selling non-SFFs, so they're not locked into a really niche market. And while Shuttle may have been a pioneer as far as the SFF form factor (I probably never would have gotten into SFF builds if I hadn't caught a glimpse of someone else's XPC), that trend they started has been moving towards DIY, so that a lot of the SFFs these days are custom-builds.

    I personally think there's a market to be tapped in offering more innovative bare SFF cases. The whole Microfly/X-QPack thing is getting kind of stale, and no one has come up with anything dramatically differently. But I guess the margins for that sort of thing aren't particularly high.
  • murphyslabrat - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    Holy crap, us consumers cannot be satisfied, can we? First, people whine about how small/low-powered the EEE PC is, then along comes a higher powered/lower-priced ultra-small desktop, and people whine about how it's not portable enough, completely ignoring the fact that the only comparably priced computer is the OLPC. Even the EEE PC starts at $349.

    This is a downright God-send for offices on a tight budget. While it cannot match the occasional sale on Vostro's, an office cannot always wait for those deals to start.
  • Nyarlathotep - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    Nice, for the price of a laptop I get a cube but without the dvd and portability. For the regular user this one will be a nightmare with no dvd. They better make these ones Ipodish or they´re doomed.
  • Basilisk - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    Folks are suggesting that a "Korporate" PC w/o a DVD is a liability?! I know the economy's tanking, but the IT dept can't afford a single USB DVD for build use? Or the corporate Joes don't clone disks rather than do a virgin install? [Does that LAN-boot hook support a full install? Never used it, but it might.]

    FYI: there are many companies where floor-computers are quite capability-restricted: often folks aren't allowed access to writable devices (even USB memory sticks). My bank is that way... not even cell phones are permitted [because of their cameras].

    They should get their money back on the "k" logo: looks much more like "lc" than "k".


    WTH happened to the "Preview" button for posting here?! None in sight [site?]!
  • strikeback03 - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    Not going to find many laptops for that kind of price either, but I agree that it needs an optical drive. Though for those who buy the prebuilt system they may not have much need for an optical drive, not many programs/drivers for Ubuntu come on discs.

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