Shuttle SN41G2 Barebones System

[Testin da Cable]

hot air going out is good...but if it's so hot you can't hold your hand in it then you may worry from reading the thread I'd expect the machines to run kinda hot. my thermal goo layers are usually about 0.3 or less (I scrape it on with an x-acto knife) mm's thick. remember that your heat-sink has to touch the cpu core with a tolerance of (ideally) 0 so there you go.

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Ahhh - good to know.

Never used a system with a heatpipe before, so I was kinda worried. *is such a n00b*

 

[xane]

Just a quick confirmation if anyone would oblige.

Replacing my kids PC with a Shuttle SN41G2, I can slap an Athlon 1.3Ghz (Palomino), 512MB of PC2100 RAM, and a regular EIDE HDD in it. I know it comes with a built-in GeForce4 MX, decent soundcard and LAN, but anything else I need ? CD drive ? FDD ? etc ?

Could I also stick a Duron 850Mhz in it as a stop gap until I free up the Athlon 1.3Ghz ?

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Give your old comp to the kids and get a shuttle for yourself - once you've touched it, you won't want to give it away.

Yes, you'll need a CD drive and if you want so a floppy drive.
I didn't bother with the latter - didn't want to ruin the stylish looks with an ugleeh floppy. Used a 128 mb USB memory stick to transfer data (drivers et al).

And as long as it's a socket A chip, it will work.

*pats his preciousss shuttle*
*sighs*
*pats it again*

 

[Embattle]

The SN41G2 supports both those processors, you will need a CD Drive but I personally don't use a floppy drive because I use CD-Rs for most stuff.

 

[Jonty]

Hi xane

As Embattle and Uncle Sick(tm) have said, those processors should both work. Ideally, you need a CD/DVD drive although I suppose it's technically possible to get by without one. That said, when you can pick up a nice 16x DVD for little over £20, it's probably worth purchasing one.

Other than that, I think you have most things covered. Many people don't bother with floppy drives, as recordable CD/DVDs or USB pen drives prove a popular alternative and offer many advantages over standard floppies.

Kind Regards

 

[Embattle]

A floppy also spoils the looks

 

[xane]

My main PC has the delicious A7N8X mobo with GeForce 4 Ti4200 in it, but I want to upgrade the CPU on that, I was thinking of putting the existing CPU in the kids PC.

I upgraded the kids PC earlier with an older nForce (Asus A7N266) mobo but have since found the in-built sound is screwed on it, spent too much time trying to figure out if its the drivers, etc, and the replacement PCI soundcard isn't much cop because its restricted to the "secondary channel", plus the in-built GeForce 2 MX struggles a bit.

Basically it died trying to play FIFA 2003, so time for an upgrade

Thanks for advice.

 

[Embattle]

http://www.sfftech.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=423

 

[old.tRoG]

*wonders if his very tight budget could afford a shiny new comp*

 

[Clowneh!]

Tight budgets suck! I got to some conclusion that waiting for more money was better than buying summat with little money. I can't remember how I came to this, and I don't have the working

 

[Ch3tan]

Okay, earlier in this thread we were told to use the thermal paste that came with the shuttle, now we are being told there is none in the box? What is going on? This weekend I get to order, so I want to make sure I get everything.

 

[Jonty]

Originally posted by Ch3tan
Okay, earlier in this thread we were told to use the thermal paste that came with the shuttle, now we are being told there is none in the box? What is going on?

Unless things have changed significantly, you should get thermal paste included with your Shuttle. If it is missing, getting in touch with the retailer should resolve matters. Other people prefer to use 'professional' thermal paste, such as Artic Silver, but the one bundled with the system should be fine for most people.

Kind Regards

 

[Ch3tan]

Right another n00b question from me. Do I need a floppy drive to update the bios? Could I use say a usb flash drive, or other removable media to do it? Or even run the file from the harddisk?

 

[Testin da Cable]

hmm I don't rightly know. instinct says you'll need a fdd, but I seem to recall reading in previous posts that there's now a windows based flash util.

 

[Ch3tan]

Yeah on this ole barge ye needs a floppy to flash ye bios. Really would prefer not to use one for the shuttle when I get it though.

Embattle, Jonty, definitive answer please?

ps. Yaaarrrr.

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

SB51G - definitely no thermal paste in teh box.

I looked twice.

 

[Jonty]

Ch3tan - The bottom of the Shuttle download page indicates there is a pure DOS BIOS update and a Windows mode BIOS update. If you grab the latter then you don't need a floopy disk drive (I have heard rumours that you can boot from a USB pen drive and use the pure DOS BIOS update, but I haven't really tried this method myself).

Uncle Sick(tm) - I believe there should have been some thermal pase. Try asking the retailer you bought it from. Sometimes they put one system aside and use it as a box of spares, so they should be willing to forward you the missing paste free of charge (if indeed there was supposed to be some).

Kind Regards

 

[Quige]

Originally posted by Ch3tan
Okay, earlier in this thread we were told to use the thermal paste that came with the shuttle, now we are being told there is none in the box? What is going on? This weekend I get to order, so I want to make sure I get everything.

I got some with mine in the end ... though it was tiny amount ... in the box with the cables and manuals and stuff. Got just the right amount onto CPU (I hope), and the rest liberally spread about myself, table, & 2 year old toddler

 

[Jonty]

Originally posted by Quige
... and the rest liberally spread about myself, table, & 2 year old toddler

Not just me who got it absolutely everywhere, then? hehe. *Jonty breathes a sigh of relief*.

Just a side note, but 'professional' thermal paste often comes with a special applicator, which makes applying it far easier than the simple sachet which the bundled paste comes in.

Kind Regards

 

[Quige]

Originally posted by Jonty
(I have heard rumours that you can boot from a USB pen drive and use the pure DOS BIOS update, but I haven't really tried this myself).

I was looking at my motherboard manual this morning and it says you can boot from these devices ... I would think that a USB thumb/key drive counts as a usb-hdd

Use these three items to select the priority and order of the devices that the system searches for an operating system at start-up time.

The Choice: Floppy, LS120, HDD-0, SCSI, CDROM, HDD-1, HDD-2, HDD-3, ZIP100, USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, USB-CDROM, USB-HDD, LAN or disabled."

This is on the SN45G m/board.
Not having one of these USB pen drives I'm afraid I can't check it out for you.

Thanks to the link to the windows bios update Jonty by the way.

 

[Jonty]

No problem, Quige As for the pen drive (or whatever name they've been given this week, hehe), I think we can count it as a USB hard disk drive. I'm lucky enough to have a lovely 128Mb USB2 device, and Windows detects it as a 'High-Speed USB Mass Storage Device' and treats it as any other removable storage peripheral.

If anyone has actually updated the BIOS via such a method, please let us all know

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. Thanks for the checking the manual

 

[Quige]

I've just scanned through all 11 pages of this post as I thought I remembered a discussion about tempratures ... but couldn't find it anywhere (it was a quick scan -11 pages - give me a break!) . Mine seemed to be running at about 52C after a couple of hours gaming ... does this sound reasonable? I've got 2 hdd in there.

And secondly what do people use to tell the temp, other than popping into the BIOS?

And lastly, if I've downloaded and installed this from nvidia (nForce_2.45_WinXP2K_WHQL_english.exe)
do I need to bother with any of the drivers on Shuttle's download page?

 

[Jonty]

Hi Quige

Temperatures vary a lot in Shuttles, often depending on what you're running inside. Having two HDDs, adding a graphics card and/or PCI card etc, all these things restrict the airflow slightly and push up the overall temperature; so don't be worried if it's higher than a normal desktop might be. And even if things do go sour, many of the Shuttles have automatic temperature cutouts to prevent any lasting damage to your hardware.

As for measuring the temperature, utilities such as StatBar, SmartBarXP and Samurize include built in temperature monitoring which I think you can access straight from your desktop without too much messing. All of these can be found in the Drivers and Utilities thread

Kind Regards

Edit ~ If you're using nVidia's reference drivers, as many people do, then I wouldn't bother with the Shuttle-branded versions, as I don't believe the latter add anything new (and invariably they take a while to catch up to where nVidia are anyway).

 

[Embattle]

As Jonty said there is a Win based way to upgrade the Shuttle BIOS, I also put it in this thread although good luck at finding it

Quige - 52C is fine, mine runs about that if not a little bit above and it hasn't crashed once yet

 

[vofflujarnid]

Motherboard Monitor can also be used to check for system temperature, CPU temp, vcore etc. It's a free program and it's often updated

 

[Quige]

Thanks once again for your sage advice.

I might check out the statbarXP thingy, but I'm not much of a fan when it comes to 'extra bars' around my desktop.

I'm using Motherboard Monitor at the moment to check the temp from windows.

I've been experimenting with turning off the auto fan option as it was the 'revving' up and down that was starting to annoy me a bit tbh - a steady noise seems easier for me to 'blank' out. I've got it on 'low' at the moment and played a couple maps of UT2K and it seemed to stay at 45C system, 52C CPU and 49C PWR (power supply?) - I suspect that some of the noise is coming from the fan on my Ti4200, which though not the original (a replacement copper fan) was quite dusty when I put it in. Gave it a blow and a brush with a camera puffer thing, but I expect it's unbalanced now. Might replace it next time I'm down Maplins way.

 

[Clowneh!]

I wanna get that 400MHz thingy (SN45G) cuz it's cheaper and I don't need a GFX card. I dunno what CPU to buy tho, Barton 2500+ XP or Thoroughbread (err spelling?) 2600+ XP?

... Oh and thermal grease

 

[Quige]

Originally posted by Clowneh!
I wanna get that 400MHz thingy (SN45G) cuz it's cheaper and I don't need a GFX card. I dunno what CPU to buy tho, Barton 2500+ XP or Thoroughbread (err spelling?) 2600+ XP?

This is what decided it for me ... the 'Bartons' seem to be newer;

"A new generation of AMD CPUs the AMD Athlon "Barton" XP2500+ features a total 640KB of full-speed cache memory - 128K L1 cache (64K instruction and 64K data) and 512K of L2 cache. Increased cache memory allows more information to be stored closer to the processor, leading to greater performance on software applications such as digital content creation, 3-D gaming, media encoding and office productivity. Featuring QuantiSpeed™ Architecture for Rapid Execution of Applications."

Well that's what they say on OCUK

(mistyped the URL and ended up at www.overcockers.co.uk and the mysterious message "Site removed for legal reasons.
Domain for sale. Offers in the region of one burnt-out clutch." with a link to email lucifer@overcockers.co.uk )

 

[Clowneh!]

So even tho the 2600+ has a higher clock speed, the 2500+ is faster or what?