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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."
Shuttle also has plans for a SS40 model, 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.
"It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
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
Shuttle's SS50 mini-barebones system
Cube power
by Scott Wasson -- April 25, 2002
SHUTTLE'S FIRST cube computer, the SV24, arrived on the scene last fall, and it created a sensation. The SV24's compact form factor, wealth of built-in features, and potential expandability left our minds reeling over the possibilities. Sold as a "mini-barebones system," the SV24 could be outfitted with a processor, storage, and a single PCI card as its owner saw fit. We could build a home DVD player, or a purpose-built PC, a web-surfing terminal, or just a nice computer for grandma. Fully decked out with a 1GHz processor, the SV24 could become a fairly powerful little system.
Much as we liked the SV24, it wasn't without its faults. The form factor was, if anything, actually a little too small. The inevitable wave of SV24 copycats and competitors, like the Pandora S, offered more room for expansion and a much-improved vertical PCI slot configuration. And small as it was, the SV24 still sounded like a much bigger computer. The din of the SV24's exhaust fan was enough to lull an overworked tech writer to sleep at the keyboard.
The SV24's biggest drawback, however, was its outdated Socket 370 platform. See, truth be told, we like the cube-PC-as-second-computer thing, but some of us prefer the option of replacing our massive tower cases altogether. Maxed out, the SV24 could accommodate a 1.13GHz Pentium III processor with a 133MHz front-side bus and PC133 SDRAM. That's a recipe for a brand-new Apple or an outdated PC; we considered it a little pokey. An updated version of the FV24 motherboard added support for faster PIII "Tualatin" processors. Yawn.
We said when the SV24 arrived that Shuttle ought to "sell a bundle of these things." And perhaps they did, because Shuttle is already launching a pair of powerful successors to the SV24. These new cubes address most of our complaints about Shuttle's original cube systems. The system we're reviewing today will support Pentium 4 processors as fast as 2.4GHz, and an Athlon version is reportedly on the way. Depending on your needs, this cube might just--maybe, possibly--be able to replace your desktop system altogether. To that end, we've benchmarked this thing to see what happens. Can a cube fulfill a PC freak's desire for both high style and high performance? We'll find out.
The new cube
Shuttle's SS50 is significantly more advanced than the SV24 in a number of ways, but before we get into that, I'm sure you'll want to get a look at the SS50. As you can see below, the new cube is just a little bit larger than its predecessor.
The Shuttle SV24 is just a shade smaller than the SS50
Obviously, Shuttle hasn't strayed from the original mini-barebones system concept. The SS50 is larger than the SV24, but you'd only notice the extra size when comparing the two systems side by side. The most obvious changes are the number and orientation of the PCI slots: the SS50 packs two vertical PCI slots that rise directly off the motherboard, eliminating the need for a PCI riser card. Shuttle has also equipped the SS50 with an additional IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port up front and a third mini-DIN audio port for six-channel surround sound.The SV24 has only one horizontal PCI slot while the SS50 has two vertical ones
No, I'm not kidding about the surround sound. It's for real. But I'm just getting started on the specs.
More here.
the price would've been much, much steeper if any of those 4 would've built this.
This is reatailing at $350 bareboned
pretty cheap
"200x181x280mm" ... "the latest aluminum cube from Shuttle"
As the object is a cube,
200 = 181 = 280
Therefore,
200 = 181
19 = 0
and
280 = 181
99 = 0
Therefore,
99 = 19
80 = 0
Cool... I like these new cubes. Next lesson: Using the circumference of a Pepsi can to disprove the theory of relativity.
- Jester
with pics too ..
ViaHardware
http://www.american-media.com/ the gBox P4 comes with an AGP port.. then I can really use it as my lan party box
Slashdot :So unless you pay mr Neal the amount we agreed upon bad things may happen.
Techsite : What ya gonna do tony. You can't do business like this.
Slashdot Tony: Lets just say your site will pay oh yes they will pay.
Techsite : You will never get the money from us.
Mr Neal : Tony unleash the hounds upon the site. Make a example of them.
Hounds : oo tech review lets check out the website.
Techsite webserver : AAAAAHHHH!!!!!!*puff of smoke*
-THIS SPACE FOR RENT!
You're not a true lanner unless your main form of exercise is hauling your computer around.
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 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.
aus.music.scrapbook
One person measured the SS50 at 56dba:
:P
Viahardware Small Form Factor & Quiet PCs Forum
And a number of ppl on that forum have complained about the noise--the SV24 was loud, but the SS50 is even louder
Apparently the excessive noise is die in large part to the crappy PSU fan, but
And incidentally, for the crowd that thinks undervolting the fan or using a low rpm fan is the solution, note that at 26'c ambient, the CPU already measures >50'c (more figures on page three of the above link).
-DrMPF
<Leslie Neilsen mode=on >
Sit on my lap Timmy! Oh, it's ok, I'm not a priest!
</leslie Neilsen>
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.
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
Hmmm. "Bareboned" sounds like a good title for a pr0n film that takes place in a computer store...
:-)
"Oh yes! Gimme access to that CPU slot!"
"No mister, your multiplier's too big!"
"Don't worry, baby, I'll tweak your jumper settings before I slide it in..."
"Don't forget to put on your heatsink! And use a little arctic silver to...make it go in smoother..."
Bareboned. I like that new word.
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
I've got one of these and it isn't very loud at all. My CPU stays a cool 40 C most of the time, so the fan is able to stay at 2400 RPMs, even when the fan has to speed up when the CPU heats up (which is customizable in the BIOS), it isn't too incredibly loud. My laptop overpowers this thing by a quite a bit. Maybe they just put a noisy hard drive in =]
What?
No kidding! Although the reflection the blue LED makes on my wall at night is pretty impressive sometimes =]
What?
Major copyright issues.
It might be legal for Slashdot to set up a caching proxy server, (like ISPs do), but can you really see that?
Hmm, that might just be a subscriber feature. . .
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 =]
What?
People are complaining hard about the noise
from the power supply fans in some of these
small form factor PCs. The problem is you are
stuck with a hard-to-replace small power supply which may be noisy, built into the case.
Here's an idea, how about remove the power supply from the PC case entirely. Just put a connector on the PC to accept 5V and maybe +/- 12V.
You don't need 110 VAC
flowing into the machine, it just needs 5V internally. The +/- 12V don't need much power, and could probably be run from a small DC/DC converter in the case. But the high current 5V supply should come from an external box. It could be a
big quiet power supply tucked under a desk or something. It seems stupid to keep buying expensive high-end quiet power supplies for a PC.
If you want to sell tons of these....
. whatever... Just please please make one that has an AGP slot and no onboard video....
MAKE ONE WITH AN AGP SLOT AND NO ONBOARD VIDEO.
Dammit, I want a nice tiny lan-party box... I want a Geforce3 in it. I dont care about any pci slots or the super-crappy integrated video. (integrate audio if you wish, integrate 10/100,firewire,USB,DSP,TCPIP,MSETP,GPs,DVD,MEEP.
and if you want to make one with 1 AGP and 1 Pci so I can install a real soundcard and make it double duty as a lan-party box / portable digital record/mastering system.
they could do it... I know it..... I want my AGP slot.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
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.
Just to follow up on what you said about the cables for those who haven't used one of these... This is a very complete package. They ship it with custom IDE and floppy cables made the perfect length for the case. They also throw in extra screws, wire ties, etc. Little things like this just make for a better first impression. More manufacturers should take note.
.
load "linux",8,1
If you threw in a 40 gig hdd, a video card with composite out (or use the svid if your tv supports it), 256 megs of memory, and the slowest cpu that works (as long as its over 1 ghz, it should be fine, since we want coolness instead of power), and you'd have a cheap but effective emulation gaming box set to hook up to the tv. Throw Windows 98 on it, install MAME, neoRageX, Nesticle, zSNES, Massage, no$GMB, and whatever else you want, add a few USB joysticks (AxisPad Pro works for all of the above examples, and is very similiar to the playstation controllers with analog sticks), and you have yourself the perfect retro emulation box for less then half a grand. There should be enough room left over for about 30 gigs of music or video too, which, if you sacrifice range of playable games and go with linux (which one day, might actually have the mapper support that nesticle or fwnes includes), you could make yourself a homebuilt tivo with the addition of a TV tuner.
I'm drooling now.
I've been running Linux on my SV24 for quite awhile now with absolutely no problems. I'd monitor the temperature of the box as well as make sure that the RAM you are using is perfect. Linux uses RAM much more aggresively than Windows. This is a fairly common problem I hear from people with less than perfect memory.
Just an idea...
.
load "linux",8,1
Via EdenManufacturer's page
Good features:
Fanless operation
Eq to Pentium 533 (< 10db?)
integrated decent graphics with iDCT compensation for DVD
ATA-33/66/100 support
10/100 Mbps Ethernet
MC 97 Fax/Modem
TV-Out (S-video)
1394
USB 2.0
AC 97 codec
Compact package
Quiet HDTV home entertainment with following add-ons:
Ultra-quiet DVD drive
160G HD
HDTV Card
Decent 5.1 sound card
Roll your own software
Estimated cost $900
Connected to a 5.1 receiver w/speakers, this gives you a good sytem which plays all music formats, DVD player, acts as a DVR (for both NTSC and HDTV formats, > 40 hrs.), file server, reasonable gaming.
Gerry
my $0.02
Manufacturer's page
Review1
Review2
Review3
umm, did you look at the user number/name? that is not the real cmdrTaco, it's an imposter.
-- free as in swatantryam - not soujanyam.
this
:)
Similar size, but much prettier
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
That wasn't "CommanderTaco" it was "CommanderTaco (editor)" Which is an etirely diffrent person, and in fact, the 564,483rd user to sign up
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.