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Athlon 64 SFF With PCI Express Reviewed
EconolineCrush writes "The Tech Report has an in-depth review of Shuttle's new XPC SN25P. At several times the size of a Mac Mini, the SN25P is an entirely different breed of small form factor system; one that supports one 5.25" drive, three 3.5" drives, PCI Express x16 graphics cards and x1 peripherals, up to 2GB of DDR400 memory, and Socket 939 Athlon 64 processors. The system also bristles with USB, Firewire, and audio ports, including digital S/PDIF inputs and outputs, and even has an integrated memory card reader. Looks like a pretty good balance between footprint, portability, and expansion capacity."
Does this mean sneaky little proprietary rails that keep things in by friction, but can never be exchanged with another system.
I hate those things.
The proper way a drive should be secured is with a Phillips screwdriver. It is not like a Phillips Screwdriver is some exotic tool that is hard to come by.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Mini tower, indeed. It's a *bit* shorter than my last mini tower, but barely qualifies as SFF, IMHO.
And, what the hell is with the Mac Mini comparison?
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
I don't understand the comparison between this and a Mac Mini. Fair enough, they try to be small form factor computers, but the end is surely different. the Mac Mini is designed to be a small, neat, consumer electronics device. Essentially a computer that is as easy to use as a DVD player.
The Shuttle is designed to be an expandable PC that has lots of flexibilty and can be modified by changing components so that it can fit the user's needs.
If the Mini does everything you need, buy a Mini. If you need flexibilty or expandablility, buy the Shuttle.
Just because they both try to be small, it doesn't mean that they are necessarily comparable.
In my (admittedly fairly worthless) opinion, the summary was using Mac Mini as a comparison just to make the front page.
I recently built a video acquisition box for work. I wanted the smallest case that could support RAID, a fast processor, and an addon PCI board (the frame grabber). The Shuttle was the perfect choice.
But if I were buying a computer for my wife or kids, the Mac would probably be better.
It all depends on your needs.
But, the Mac mini doesn't come with a mouse![!!] So, your USB mouse has infinitely more buttons than the Mac mini's mouse. :)
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit