Small Form Factor Shuttle SK43G Question, or 2!

Noticed today that ebuyer have these for £100 ex vat with a free bag, and as I still have the majority of my old PC laying about doing nothing I'm thinking of buying it for a HTPC. I have a dvdrw, 512 ram, and a XP2500 that runs at 3200 with no problems, just gonna throw in the wireless G module and a Seagate SATA HDD.

Q1 - Does the onboard graphics use system RAM? Would I be better off throwing in the Radeon 7000 AGPi have laying around as well?

Q2 - Realistically how quiet do you think I can make it? Currently Im using a Mac Mini and all I can hear is the HDD and its right at the bottom of my bed. I plan to leave the Shuttle on 24/7 and although it will be further away I would still need it pretty quiet. I have some 80mm Fans and grills I wouldnt be adverse to chopping out the fan guard and 7v modding a 80mm with a 80-60mm fan adapter and dropping that in there. I would think the psu fan would be the main cause of noise, could I mod that out with a silent X from custom pc and chop out the fan guard on that?

I do have a 9800 pro I could pop in but I guess that would add to the noise and heat, I don't intend to use it for games just dvds/mp3 and general pc stuff via vnc as I don't have a pc in my house at the moment. Any thoughts?

Many Thanks

Edit: also, sound proofing, can't take much dynamat to fill a shuttle? Worth it? or would i just add heat?

 

hi m8
yep the oboard video uses system ram
you can make shuttes reasonably quiet by bungin a 120-80mm fan adaptor on the back
others put different fans to replace the standard fan and if your going to use it for video and dvd then id leave the cpu at 2500 to keep it a tad cooler
hth

 

Thanks for the advice! I reckon I will put the Ati Card in then, as it will do dvd decoding on the card as well, and its passive so won't add to the noise.

To be honest, that cpu ran the same temps at 3200 as is did 2500 in my previous case anyway, but will see how it goes in a shuttle, not to bothered about the overclock.

Fan wise I guess I will 7v mod, cut out the grills and replace, then decide if I need to buy a lower rated fan. I was under the impression the standard fan in a shuttle was 60mm, am I mistaken?

I also thought of another question - does the mobo have a normal IDE connector on it as well? I only noticed SATA in the spec, but then it dawned on me not many people have SATA optical drives (including me).
If it does have a IDE connector then I have a 60Gb drive & rounded cable that I could shot in there to keep my costs down for now, then upgrade when money permits.

Thanks again!

 

9800pro for mp3s, tad of an overkill? A passively cooled 9250 is what, £30? I just remember the 9800 coolers to be bloody noisy.

 

Yup, as I thought, might have been nice to be able to play games should I ever need to... probably sell the 9800. Or just swap it out if I decide to play games on it.

Pretty much the only thing holding me back from buying now is if I need a new Hard Drive. Can anyone confirm (I'm pretty sure it does) have the ability to take 1 PATA HDD and an IDE Optical Drive?

Many Thanks

 

Bindbadgi is so correct, very much overkill for just mp3s and DVD decoding.

Why don't you sell it, then buy a cheaper passive cooled Gfx card and use the rest of your money to buy fans etc for the shuttle?

 

I cant remember if the SK has onboard graphics or not, if so - why not use that?

 

I think that will be the plan

My reasoning is that I have a Radeon 7000 just laying on my desk, its passivly cooled and wont use my system ram. It has tv-out and I would think it would be better than the onboard graphics and ATi Cards do DVD Decodeing in hardware I believe so that should take some load off of the cpu (and in theory heat?). It wont cost me to use it, so I figure why not?

Also looks from the shuttle site I will be ok to use my PATA Drive in there for now and that the psu is already Silent X... so I will just start by cutting out the grills, 7v modding the standard fan, and of coarse, stealthing my dvd-rom

Woohoo! New Project!

If you have any more suggestions or I am wrong about my theory, please give me a lesson Cheers

 

Thanks for the help, I have purchased

 

no need to volt mod the fan there is an in built fan controller in the bios. If the fan is anything like the one im my sn45g even at low speed its still quite noisy. I advise doing the 120mm fan mod to the back.

 

Good advice, I probably would have started cutting cables witout even looking at the bios I'll set it as low as poss from the off and see what I think... I can always replace the fan with another after