Shuttle XPC SB51G barebones PC - a detailed review

igivanov · Post by **igivanov** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 8:31 pm

This site has a reference to a very short review http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.p ... le&sid=177, but here is a much more detailed one:
http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2002 ... dex.x?pg=1.
A pretty impressive beast!

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 5:46 am

Impressive, absolutely! Quiet, not at all.

I've heard a couple of these and they're pretty darn noisy. The PSU is probably the loudest and cooling is definitely an issue with these SFF cases too. You need to run the (only) case fan at 12V to keep enough airflow going through the case to cool the drives, CPU and Vidcard and even then it's pretty marginal cooling.

I had strongly considered getting one of these to use for a server but after I heard how loud they are I changed my mind.

crawford · Post by **crawford** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 6:24 am

It's funny how people have different impressions about what is quiet.
I bought an SS51 from Shuttle thinking that it would be quiet and boy was I wrong.

Part of the problem is that these units are designed to sit on the desktop. This is a problem in two ways: the noise is closer to your ears and sitting on a desk enhances the resonance of the noise. Before when my computer was on the floor, the carpet would absorb a signficiant amount of sound.

Since buying the Shuttle, I have replaced the stock Sunon case fan with a low speed Panaflo. It actually makes a world of difference. The loudest thing by far is now the PSU fan, but I'm afraid to crack the PSU open. Maybe I'll build up my courage soon...

All in all, I still really like the Shuttle. Mostly because the P4 2.4B is a huge step up from my previous setup. Second because I really like having quick access to the front firewire and usb ports on the desktop. And finally because it looks so cool.

chiahaochang · Post by **chiahaochang** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 7:32 am

I have a Shuttle SV25, and it was really loud originally. Since I have a (passively cooled) Via C3 866 in it, I removed the PSU fan (actually I just cut it's wires and soldered them to a 4-pin molex connector so I can turn on the PSU fan if needed) and replaced the case fan (60mm) with an Adda. It's actually fairly quiet now, there's just turbulence noise from tha Adda and seek noise from the 40GB Barracuda IV.

The SV25 isn't my primary PC, and it sits on the floor. It used to sit on a couple of boxes under the desk with the Firewire DVD/CD-RW drive on the desktop, but after almost knocking the whole thing over a few times, I figured I should put it on a more stable place.