Life is so unnerving / for a server's who's not serving
July 21, 2010 2:21 PM Subscribe
What can I do with an old Shuttle PC?
I inherited a Shuttle PC from work. It appears to have a Celeron processor, FireWire, S/PDIF optical audio output, a DVD+/-RW drive, and a video adapter with DVI and S-video out. It's no good as a media center PC due to its intense loudness, and this makes it pretty useless in my music room, too. No idea about its hard disk capacity.
Any other ideas? Or should I just recycle it?
I inherited a Shuttle PC from work. It appears to have a Celeron processor, FireWire, S/PDIF optical audio output, a DVD+/-RW drive, and a video adapter with DVI and S-video out. It's no good as a media center PC due to its intense loudness, and this makes it pretty useless in my music room, too. No idea about its hard disk capacity.
Any other ideas? Or should I just recycle it?
By doing things like underclocking, replacing the stock fan and swapping the Northbridge fan for a heatsink, you can make a lot of Shuttle PCs virtually silent (come to think of it, you could probably use an SSD and make it literally silent). Then you can revisit the media center/music server ideas.
The folks at the Sudhian SFF and Silent PC forums are very helpful.
posted by box at 2:28 PM on July 21, 2010
The folks at the Sudhian SFF and Silent PC forums are very helpful.
posted by box at 2:28 PM on July 21, 2010
Before my Shuttle finally gave up the ghost, it was my torrent and general downloading workhorse. In the rare event that I got a virus, it'd be isolated on that machine.
posted by Wossname at 2:43 PM on July 21, 2010
posted by Wossname at 2:43 PM on July 21, 2010
I have a shuttle K45 which has a extremely small but loud fan in the PSU. I ripped it out and put in a 120mm fan and the unit is completely silent. With yours having optical out, I'd definitely use it as a media center/DVR PC.
posted by wongcorgi at 2:47 PM on July 21, 2010
posted by wongcorgi at 2:47 PM on July 21, 2010
I've got mine running Vortexbox , serving up tunes all over the house.
posted by Runes at 3:01 PM on July 21, 2010
posted by Runes at 3:01 PM on July 21, 2010
Shuttle offer a number of replacement PSU's which will be quieter than the one you have.
If you decide to use it as a media centre, then given its age, you may need to bump up the graphics card. There are people on the forums linked to previously who will be able to advise you on a suitably beefy card which won't sound like a jet engine taking off.
If you want TV support, then Windows 7 Media Center is pretty good (but needs some work to support the common media formats - PM me for pointers).
If you don't want TV then Boxee or XBMC work like a charm.
posted by mr_silver at 4:30 AM on July 22, 2010
If you decide to use it as a media centre, then given its age, you may need to bump up the graphics card. There are people on the forums linked to previously who will be able to advise you on a suitably beefy card which won't sound like a jet engine taking off.
If you want TV support, then Windows 7 Media Center is pretty good (but needs some work to support the common media formats - PM me for pointers).
If you don't want TV then Boxee or XBMC work like a charm.
posted by mr_silver at 4:30 AM on July 22, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by me & my monkey at 2:24 PM on July 21, 2010