...making Linux just a little more fun!
Thomas Adam [thomas.adam22 at gmail.com]
Hey all,
As I am sure many of you know, I don't get on with hardware. 
Thanks to Ben's suggestion I now have a USB Sun keyboard though, and
despite people's horrific claims, I at least like it. So thanks,
Ben.
My next question concerns a possibe replacement for my workstation. I've had my current PC for about three years now, kindly donated by a friend of mine. It's a nice system, but it needs replacing. I've had enough of the CPU being at 70C plus, despite cooling attempts.
So I was looking at buying a Shuttle PC. Specifically the SD39P2 which would be a bare-bones system [1]. What I'm curious to know is whether any of you have used one, and how they stack up against a regular PC? My reading suggests they can act as a pretty good desktop replacements. Whilst the model I'm looking at only has two PCI slots, I only really need to add a wireless PCI card and an NVidia graphics card, so that's perfect.
Does the model I'm listing [1] suggest any problems with running Linux
on it? I can't see how it would at a cursive glance of what's
available. My only real reservation is what would be the driving
force of me buying this model when I could go to Dell and spend an
equivalent amount of money and get a whole lot more.
Kindly,
Thomas Adam
[1] http://www.trustedreviews.com/pcs/review/2007/05/30/Shuttle-SD39P2-Barebone/p1
Kapil Hari Paranjape [kapil at imsc.res.in]
Hello,
On Sun, 22 Jul 2007, Thomas Adam wrote:
> So I was looking at buying a Shuttle PC.
If you are looking for small form factor machines you should probably check Mac-Mini (and the AOpen(?) open spec version). These come with bluetooth, wifi, ethernet and a couple of USB ports in addition to the usual HDD and CD drive for about $300-400.
The shuttle is IMHO only an alternative if you want to tinker around (or want someone else to tinker around) with the inside. Even then the AOPen machine with its open specs may compete. The Mac Mini like other Macs should probably not be opened except by a company man.
Regards,
Kapil. --
Thomas Adam [thomas.adam22 at gmail.com]
On 22/07/07, Kapil Hari Paranjape <kapil@imsc.res.in> wrote:
> If you are looking for small form factor machines you should probably > check Mac-Mini (and the AOpen(?) open spec version). These come with > bluetooth, wifi, ethernet and a couple of USB ports in addition to > the usual HDD and CD drive for about $300-400.
Ah, yes. I don't want a Mac-Mini though. I don't like the thought of it going wrong, and as you have said already, if it goes bang, the only people who can open it are Apple themselves. For a computer... that just seems wrong.
I'll look into the AOpen. I know I've heard of them.
Thanks, Kapil.
-- Thomas Adam
René Pfeiffer [lynx at luchs.at]
Hello!
On Jul 22, 2007 at 0110 +0100, Thomas Adam appeared and said:
> [...] > So I was looking at buying a Shuttle PC. Specifically the SD39P2 > which would be a bare-bones system [1]. What I'm curious to know is > whether any of you have used one, and how they stack up against a > regular PC?
A colleague uses them as desktop machines and he is quite satisfied. I just checked the hardware on the SD39P2 and it seems the Linux kernel has drivers (the BCM5789 is supported, as is the ICH7R controller).
> Does the model I'm listing [1] suggest any problems with running Linux > on it?
I don't think so. Most of the new Intel-based systems run fine (I tried several new Asus boards with an Core 2 Duo CPU), you just have to be careful about the new Ethernet and PATA/SATA chips.
Best, René.
Thomas Adam [thomas.adam22 at gmail.com]
On 22/07/07, René Pfeiffer <lynx@luchs.at> wrote:
> A colleague uses them as desktop machines and he is quite satisfied. > I just checked the hardware on the SD39P2 and it seems the Linux kernel > has drivers (the BCM5789 is supported, as is the ICH7R controller).
Yup -- that was the conclusion I came to as well, which is good.
I know people do use these things as desktop machines, but I somehow
have this mental block in my head that because these things are small,
they're going to break easily.
> I don't think so. Most of the new Intel-based systems run fine (I tried > several new Asus boards with an Core 2 Duo CPU), you just have to be > careful about the new Ethernet and PATA/SATA chips.
Well that's OK. Nothing I have here runs SATA, I only have IDE drives at present.
Thanks!
-- Thomas Adam
Karl-Heinz Herrmann [khh at khherrmann.de]
On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 12:42:16 +0100 "Thomas Adam" <thomas.adam22@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yup -- that was the conclusion I came to as well, which is good.
Well -- we run two older shuttles with Intel P4s here and do even some number crunching on them. They are pretty stable, they did take a new graphics card and a gigabit ethernet (which wasn't on board in this old version) and they are not extremely silent -- but astonishingly quiet considering they sit right next to you on the desk. The heat pipes seem to work pretty well, and thats the realy TDP nightmare generation of P4s we have in there.
What is a bit limiting -- the two PCI slots only. There is no way put anything additional in now. No second HD (-> no raid), no second optical drive (-> burner has to do all the reading as well -- but considering the price drop on standard burners thats no big deal).
So if you fancy the small size and don't want to have a bix box sitting under your desk -- I would go for something in the shuttle category.
K.-H.
Thomas Adam [thomas.adam22 at gmail.com]
On 22/07/07, Karl-Heinz Herrmann <khh@khherrmann.de> wrote:
> Well -- we run two older shuttles with Intel P4s here and do even some > number crunching on them. They are pretty stable, they did take a new > graphics card and a gigabit ethernet (which wasn't on board in this old > version) and they are not extremely silent -- but astonishingly quiet > considering they sit right next to you on the desk. The heat pipes seem > to work pretty well, and thats the realy TDP nightmare generation of > P4s we have in there.
Thank you for that. With the model I've mentioned it has Raid
support on the motherboard.
> What is a bit limiting -- the two PCI slots only. There is no way put > anything additional in now. No second HD (-> no raid), no second > optical drive (-> burner has to do all the reading as well -- but > considering the price drop on standard burners thats no big deal).
Again, this model has space for two optical drives.
> So if you fancy the small size and don't want to have a bix box sitting > under your desk -- I would go for something in the shuttle category.
I'm definitely thinking of going for it.
-- Thomas Adam
Thomas Adam [thomas.adam22 at gmail.com]
On 22/07/07, Thomas Adam <thomas.adam22@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm definitely thinking of going for it.
Well, I did just that. I am now a proud owner of a Shuttle-SD39P2
with an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU (2.4 GHz), 2GiB RAM, a 500 GiB SATA
drive and an NVidia card. This thing is damn quiet, and not to
mention it flies.
It wasn't all that difficult to put together, either. Took me about an hour; the instructions that come with it are very clear, with a step-by-step process. I think I might have used a little too much silver thermal paste. According to the BIOS the machine is running at about ~43C over all, which is a vast improvement over my 70C+ startup temperature with the old Athlon XP chip.
Thanks all for the recommendations.
-- Thomas Adam