Help me choose a barebones SFF computer.

December 16, 2005 8:59 PM

Thinking about building my own PC. Looking for smallest possible form factor barebones system with Socket 479 (Pentium M).

Big pluses are: room for at least one 3.5" HD, at least one PCI slot, either onboard DVI or or an AGP slot, firewire, PS/2 mouse and keyboard jacks. I'm considering this AOpen XC Cube, but I am completely open to other suggestions or naysaying. I'll be running XP Pro. Cheaper is better, within reason. Don't care about much other than crunching numbers.

posted by Kwantsar to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

Shuttle has some barebone options that include a Socket 479 model. From personal experience, the shuttle machines are pretty slick.
posted by purephase at 9:18 PM on December 16, 2005

I just built a PC using a Shuttle XPC case, and I'm really happy with it. Has all the features you listed, and it's very quiet, because the CPU heatsink has no fan but instead has a water-cooled radiator grille by the case fan instead. It has usb/firewire/sound jacks on the front as well as the back, which is damned handy. They have motherboards with variety of socket types.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 9:19 PM on December 16, 2005

Another Shuttle user here. If two firsthand recommendations weren't enough, now you have three. I've never had any trouble with mine -- expandable about as much as you might expect given the form factor, quiet, and quite small. Hardware maintenance can be somewhat of a pain, because you can't believe how they fit all those components in that space, but again that's a tradeoff you can expect and deal with.

However, it looks like the model purephase linked above is substantially more expensive than the model you linked. Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason you want a Socket 479 machine? I'm not suggesting there are any disadvantages, I'm just wondering what the advantages are to you personally.
posted by cacophony at 9:38 PM on December 16, 2005

Well, I can't say that I have a really good reason for the preference, other than the lower power consumption, cooler operation, and my possession of two socket 479 laptops. I figure that I may want to swap CPUs between them someday down the road.

I'm by no means in-the-know, but everything I read suggests that the bang for the buck between the P4 and the PM is close to parity.
posted by Kwantsar at 10:03 PM on December 16, 2005

For maximum compatibility in a minimum footprint I would suggest something like the Aopen H420 series - similar form factors are made by many other manufacturers. It takes full height PCI/AGP/PCI-E cards, standard hard drives and CD drives, a standard mATX board and a semi-standard small ATX power supply. At about 16"x14"x6" it is 0.71 cu.ft (not 1.41 as reported on the page), not that much bigger than shuttle's 12"x8"x7.5" or 0.41 cu.ft.

I hate the cube shape and proprietary components, but it depends on your specific requirements of course...
posted by Chuckles at 10:09 PM on December 16, 2005

Shuttle rigs are hardly "smallest possible form factor." For that, you'll want to look at the MiniITX form factor.
posted by majick at 10:23 PM on December 16, 2005

You may want to hold off a bit - Intel's changing the socket (Anandtech) used by their notebook chips, so any Pentium-M board you buy now won't be upgradable to Yonah and its ilk (multiple cores). May not be an issue if you're going to scavenge a processor from your notebook.
posted by unmake at 11:32 PM on December 16, 2005

Thank you for this thread - I've been on the brink of building a new system for a while, but hadn't noticed the Shuttle systems before. For those of you who have them or have worked with them, is there a model you prefer or can recommend? My machine use is the usual, plus I tend to use the computer quite heavily as a media player - cd, dvd.
posted by vers at 6:34 AM on December 17, 2005

sff means (much) higher prices for less value, low upgradability, heat and noise problems, (very) low quality mobos.. if there's a point that balances this for you then go for it ; )

more serious answer: if it's possible wait a few months (next year there'll be yonah and more), and read lots on forums (sudhian would be a start)
posted by suni at 7:06 AM on December 17, 2005

A Shuttle box is great for portability. If you want a full-blown powerful rig that can only be found in extremely pricey laptops, the "pick-it-up-and-go" capability of the Shuttle boxes are really nice.
posted by Independent Scholarship at 11:31 AM on December 17, 2005

The last time I looked at Mini-ITX, it seemed it didn't go anywhere near to the specs of the Shuttle boxes. I didn't recommend it initially because, while I am aware it is a smaller form factor, I was under the impression it didn't contain enough of the pluses listed below. Since I can see that may not be the case, can anyone comment as to the disadvantages of Mini-ITX, specifically vs. a Shuttle-type form factor? Not including the disadvantages both have in common.
posted by cacophony at 1:16 PM on December 17, 2005

caco: the shuttle form factor (flex atx is their name i think) allows to build "normal" boards (nforce chipsets, supplying power for graphics cards and pci slots), smaller than flex (mini itx and nano itx) is only used for industrial systems (pricey pentium m boards without features and no/low overclockability, no graphics port) and media boxes (epias or geodes that just don't have enough power for normal desktop usage)
posted by suni at 1:30 PM on December 17, 2005

You can buy Mini-ITX Pentium-M systems which are speedy, but they are also pricey and tend to be geared towards embedded or industrial environments.

The SFF systems are priced much more reasonably and have all of the features you want in a form factor which is small.
posted by johannes at 4:40 PM on December 17, 2005

I have a Shuttle Zen ST62K; it's the older Socket 478 cousin of the model linked to above. It's under the TV to act as my media server. When it's on, it's pretty much silent. It's a P4 3.0E, so it's plenty fast, and the integrated graphics aren't bad. I really can't seem to find a model that better balances speed, space and sound.

The problem is, it's dead. Again. I'm waiting on my third RMA in the past 11 months from Shuttle. Each time, there's been something wrong with the case fan -- it's either died (causing everything to overheat), the motherboard fan header has died (causing everything to overheat), or got stuck in super-unbelievable-fast mode which is no longer quiet by any stretch of the imagination. I am not alone in having these problems.

Caveat emptor.
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 5:42 PM on December 17, 2005