Barebones PCs

[Neil_Sc]

Does anybody have any experience with barebone PC's like the shuttle range?

I am seriously thinking about building myself a high performance box for testing middleware software. I'd need it to support quad core, 8 GB RAM, as for everything else, not too bothered, probably a couple of 500/750GB discs mirrored.

I have seen a suitable Shuttle SP35P2 I think it is called. Can anybody recommend any alternative manufacturers?

Not that it should make a difference, but I intend to run Linux on it.

[rsv gone!]

I've put together about a half dozen Shuttle PCs. Very nice little machines.

Not the cheapest, though. Any reason why you wouldn't just use a full sized case? It would give more expandability.

[Zad]

A case that small is just asking for trouble with heat problems!
8GB? Presumably you'll be using the 64 bit versions of whatever OS then.

[Luca Brazzi]

Bought this very machine 2 months ago:
Shuttle SP35P2 Pro
Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 2.4GHz (1066FSB)
Hitachi 320Gb HDD
8096 Mb DDR2 800MHz RAM
Sapphire Radeon HD2600 512Mb PCI-E graphics card
Pioneer DVDRW jobbie
Wireless Microsoft Keyboard and optical mouse
Vista Home Premium 64bit

Then added my own additional disks in the space provided inside the top of the case.

No heat problems, small, quiet enough. Fab.

Any questions, ask away

Edited by Luca Brazzi on Thursday 7th February 17:09

[Taita]

We've used a few here on a farm setup. No problems really, nice and reliable. Not super powerful unless you really want to shell out some serious money though.

[Neil_Sc]

Luca Brazzi said:

Bought this very machine 2 months ago:
Shuttle SP35P2 Pro
Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 2.4GHz (1066FSB)
Hitachi 320Gb HDD
8096 Mb DDR2 800MHz RAM
Sapphire Radeon HD2600 512Mb PCI-E graphics card
Pioneer DVDRW jobbie
Wireless Microsoft Keyboard and optical mouse
Vista Home Premium 64bit

Then added my own additional disks in the space provided inside the top of the case.

No heat problems, small, quiet enough. Fab.

Any questions, ask away

Edited by Luca Brazzi on Thursday 7th February 17:09

That is brilliant, just what I wanted to hear. Heat was a very big concern, but if you are coping with a quad core (the exact processor I was looking at), that is perfect news.

Are you just using the heat pipe thingy majig?

I would go for a larger case, but I have to say a small one looks kinda cool and being a middleware consultant, it would be fantastic to be able to cart this around with me on some engagements.

As for the 64 bit question, I understand the 2.6 Linux Kernel can handle 8 GB without problem? I was going to pop VMWare on it for running a variety of software.

[Luca Brazzi]

Heat pipe, and there are one or 2 other fans in there. Not really paid much attention to the fans, other than they spin really fast on startup, then the controller takes over and manages their speed based on temps.

Has loads of ports and stuff...6 x USB2 is surprisingly useful, and one of which can be used to hot link to another machine for file transfer on a big scale.

Not problems with it.

Are you going to buy the parts and build it or get it built...Ambros did it for me (my 3rd Shuttle from them), and they are always fantastic with their service and turn around time.

[Neil_Sc]

I was going to build it myself as I love fettling with these sorts of things.

It looks like a high quality bit of kit and the processor, memory and storage should set it as a very useful bit of kit for a variety of purposes.

[Neil_Sc]

Luca, is your shuttle very noisy under load?

Is your graphics card a full length PCI-E card?

[Luca Brazzi]

is your shuttle very noisy under load? nope

Is your graphics card a full length PCI-E card - nope