Advice on replacing/upgrading motherboard in Shuttle XPC

[gazzarose]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for some advice on changing the motherboard in my 12yr old Shuttle XPC SB75G2. Its a small form factor cube PC that in its day was quite well spec'd and would place games like counterstrike and halflife quite happily. Over the years its got slower, and now it refuses to display anything. It could just be the graphics card, but when it was working it was struggling to play videos off my dash cam, and certainly didn't have the power to edit or convert them. I was thinking of changing the motherboard and the graphics card to something modern, but haven't fiddled with PCs for so long I don't know whats what anymore. The PC now lives under my TV in my living room (hence wanting to keep the small cube case) and I no longer want to for playing games on it, its going to be for video editing, photo editing, and general PC stuff like backing up phones and stuff like that.

Has anyone put a non-Shuttle motherboard into a Shuttle case? I guess if the mounting holes are in the wrong places I can move stuff about, but I just don't know what size board it needs.

Any advice on spec? When I had this PC build I had 2Gb on RAM in it, which was loads at the time, and when I upgraded to 4Gb it was like nothing could slow it down, but now wrist watches seem to have more RAM than that. As for processors, I never can't remember what its got or even what is good now. I remember my uni computer geek friends saying that more Mhz wasn't always better, but again don't even know what a standard PC would have nower days.

Sorry for the long post, I'm stuck looking after the office in work with nothing to do so started thinking about the PC.

Cheers

Gareth

[gazzarose]

I'm still stuck in the office so still bored, so I've been looking on ebuyer at motherboards.

The internet seems to suggest I can fit a mini-itx motherboard with a bit of fettling.

Would this motherboard and this processor be a good pairing for general PC work and a bit of video editing?

http://www.ebuyer.com/638938-asus-am1i-a-socket-am...

http://www.ebuyer.com/636285-amd-athlon-5350-2-05g...

[grumbledoak]

This from google
http://www.shuttle.eu/_archive/older/en/sb75g2.htm

says Micro-ATX motherboard. i.e. not the one you chose. I would also go Intel over AMD at the moment.


So, my starting point would be this page at dabs:
http://www.dabs.com/category/components-and-storag...

and looking for Intel i3/4GB RAM or better.

Do check my facts allegations, obviously.

[gazzarose]

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll have to do so measuring and checking. The board that's in it at the moment has only got 2 card slots, but the mini at ones seem to have 3, so don't know if they'll fit. I think the later shuttles use mini itx but the earlier ones were different. Either way I think it's going to need some modding.

I might pull mine to bits on the weekend and see if theres anything wrong with it, and take some measurements and do some more research.

I just don't like throwing it things that are working especially as the case fits in nicely under the TV.

Cheers

Gareth

[Martin4x4]

grumbledoak said:

This from google
http://www.shuttle.eu/_archive/older/en/sb75g2.htm

says Micro-ATX motherboard. i.e. not the one you chose. I would also go Intel over AMD at the moment.


So, my starting point would be this page at dabs:
http://www.dabs.com/category/components-and-storag...

and looking for Intel i3/4GB RAM or better.

ITX is smaller than mATX so it would fit fine.

Agree on Intel and suggest going for the Z97 chip set if the budget stretches that far.

http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Components/cat/Motherb...

Otherwise probably either of these

http://www.ebuyer.com/667108-gigabyte-ga-h81m-s2h-...

http://www.ebuyer.com/567708-msi-h81m-p33-socket-1...

http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Components/cat/Motherb...

[eltawater]

Oddly enough I've got a Shuttle XPC sat here gathering dust since it was retired last year from my father in law. Think it's the same one as yours, although I'd have to whip the casing off and look at the motherboard details for you.

It's equipped with an intel core 2 duo processor and a decent PCI express card for the time, but it's now way way too long in the tooth to be useful for anything.

The Shuttles of that era used something called Shuttle Form Factor motherboards, which were smaller and different from standard Micro ATX and Mini ITX boards. The power supplies can be a little bit weird as well.

To be perfectly honest, the reason why it's gathering dust is that by the time I upgraded the processor to the best the board can take (I did eye up Intel quad core q6600 processors for a bit) and then added more RAM etc, I'd still end up with a comparatively noisy underpowered desktop machine compared with the i5 laptop ebay refurb special bought for £130 which I'm typing on right now.

If you must go barebones then an asus vivopc or a zenbox will stomp all over the core 2 duo processors of that era and you'll have a much quieter, more modern pc at the end.

As much as it pains me to chuck out old kit, it's just too heavy to ship anywhere and it's not economical to upgrade compared to just buying an ebay laptop.

[eltawater]

Nup, it's an SG31G2:

http://www.shuttle.eu/products/discontinued/barebo...

[anonymous-user]

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-mac-des...

Very quiet and very trendy

[gazzarose]

Thanks for the other replies guys.

I had a chance to have a look at the PC this evening and got it working, I think something was a bit loose?

I've had a look at the specs-

Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz
1 GB Ram DDR400
Geforce 6600 256Mb AGP 8x

Now earlier I said I had 4 Gb RAM, but I must have misremembered it, its got 2 mismatched 512 cards in it. The manual says a maximum of 2GB total, what would happen if I put more in? If I stick to 2GB, would a matched pair of 1GBs or a single 2GB be best?

The graphics card has got a noisy fan and hasn't been plugged in for years, so if could well have cooked itself. Is it worth getting a better one anyway? I know AGP is a bit old hat, but I don't need it to play any games, just work and play videos. Do graphics cards make a clicking noise? Something in mine makes a clicking/ticking noise as you scroll down a webpage, so maybe thats not good?

Anything else I should look at? As I say, it was a good gaming PC back in the day, but I just can't get it to play videos from my dash cam smoothly, and trying to convert the videos down a a youtype size/format is an overnight job, so any advice would be welcome.

[gavsdavs]

I wouldn't attempt to upgrade the board in a shuttle, the port placements, power supply, heatpipe are all pretty specific to the board in the box.

I've used about 3 shuttles in a row and I would strongly advise just buying the latest of their stuff, or look at something like a silverstone mini-itx case which opens up a boarder selection of 3rd party motherboards (but has a price tag to go with the flexibility).

The age of yours probably means AGP (or onboard) graphics, severely limiting the chips you could use. Does it even have SATA ?

Honestly - look to newer tech. An iphone 6s is probably about as powerful as a 12 year old shuttle

[Zod]

I've looked into this before and it's very difficult, because you won't be able to find a motherboard that will have the connections for the Shuttle front panel and it is most likely that the CPU socket will be in the wrong place (amongst other problems).

[gazzarose]

I think if I wanted to do anything exciting with a PC I could justiy buying a new one, maybe something like the ASUS revo that has been suggested. I've been doing some more reading of changing the motherboard and it does just end up with a bodge.

Would this card work and be an improvement?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Club3D-Radeon-3450-512MB-G...

And this RAM

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Komputerbay-400MHz-PC3200-...

If they seem ok, then at less than £50, I think its worth a go. If I do have to get something else then at least this PC should be able to live on as a garage computer, or maybe even run a trainset in the attic. Its not helped that at the moment this PC is the only one in the house that sort of works, the 'free' windows 10 upgrade on my laptop has made it about as useful and reliable as an italian made chocolate teapot.

[gavsdavs]

gazzarose said:

I think if I wanted to do anything exciting with a PC I could justiy buying a new one, maybe something like the ASUS revo that has been suggested. I've been doing some more reading of changing the motherboard and it does just end up with a bodge.

Would this card work and be an improvement?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Club3D-Radeon-3450-512MB-G...

And this RAM

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Komputerbay-400MHz-PC3200-...

If they seem ok, then at less than £50, I think its worth a go. If I do have to get something else then at least this PC should be able to live on as a garage computer, or maybe even run a trainset in the attic. Its not helped that at the moment this PC is the only one in the house that sort of works, the 'free' windows 10 upgrade on my laptop has made it about as useful and reliable as an italian made chocolate teapot.

http://www.shuttle.eu/_archive/older/en/sb75g2_faq.htm
Socket 478 supports 400/533/800FSB and Hyper-Threading
2x DDR400/333/266/200,

So yes, you can put any AGP card in it (8x was the fastest they did I think), any socket 478 cpu with up to 800mhz fsb, and up to 2 ddr400 ram chips.

Think also how much power a cpu of that age might consume - 80 watts (with a graphics card too) ? More modern chips wil use 1/4 of that - it all adds up if it's an always-on machine.

If it's not for gaming, don't buy the agp card and switch in an SSD, it will make a bigger difference to its usability.

[eltawater]

If you're really determined to run a shuttle of some, you can have the shuttle I mentioned earlier for 40 quid to buy some more nappies.

Comes with a core 2 duo processor, 2GB RAM with a spare slot, DVD writer and one of these:


http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx...

All you need to add is a hard/ss drive and an OS.

[gazzarose]

That sounds cool. Sounds perfectly good enough for what I need it to do. Where abouts are you? In Bridgend South Wales half way between Cardiff and Swansea l, if your closeish I can pick it up. If not would you be able to post it?

[eltawater]

I'm near Milton Keynes, so I anticipated most of the 40 would go on post and packaging anyway

Drop me a pm with your details and we'll sort something out. Would be good to see someone get some use out of it.

[eltawater]

Gareth, thanks for the PM.

Just to let you know that I have replied in case it gets eaten by some mail monsters somewhere.