Shuttle SFF 865 case

[tabytha77]

The case a lot of folks were waiting for:

<A HREF="http://tech-report.com/reviews/2003q2/shuttle-sb61g2/index.x?pg=1" target="_new">http://tech-report.com/reviews/2003q2/shuttle-sb61g2/index.x?pg=1</A>

 

[Crashman]

[-peep-] you and the horse you rode in on! You are a TRAITOR to the hardware community, allong with Patrick Schmid and especially Frank Völkel for promoting this garbage.

For those of you who don't know what these people are trying to do: This is a blatant attempt to undermine the enthusiast community by promoting a form factor with limitted upgradability. The idea behind this is that selling you something that you will need to replace, rather than upgrade, will boost sales over a broader market.

It should be understood that what you get with a mini PC is:
1.) LESS room on your desktop, because these things are wider than your current tower
2.) LESS room in your Home Theater, because most home theater racks are 18 inches wide, and these are taller than most desktop cases (ie, standard cases that lay down).
3.) LESS room for top quality cards (you can't even fit an nVidia FX5800 or FX5900 in most of them, and you can't add various other PCI cards because you only have one slot). In fact, you can't even add a home theater quality soundcard and a good hardware encoding TV tuner because that requires 2 slots!
4.) Less room for drives, you can't do CD to CD coppies with only one drive, you can't do RAID with only 1 hard drive, you can't add a RAID card when you PCI modem takes up your only slot, etc.


Buying such a device ensures the dimise of usable form factors such as ATX or even Micro ATX. Yes, you could add a bunch of USB devices, but how much space does that save, with various drive boxes, modem boxes, low quality TV boxes, etc, lying around? Every purchase brings us one step closer to the END of power systems! And soon they can lock us into closed form factors, making book sized Dells seem like a reasonable choice!

I hope each one of these that leaves the line has a line worker with SARS cough on it for you!

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[MidniteArrow]

Wow, Crashman, you really hate these things. Let me just say that I'm considering one of these for my wife. Mostly for the sexy factor - and yes - there is one. I mean, let's face it, those little things are just cute. As far as upgradability - I don't really see the downside. I upgrade once a year - and I generally upgrade AT A MINIMUM the motherboard, power supply, processor, and RAM. Pretty much what this offers - with virtually free upgrades to networking, audio, and integrated video (if used). What's the downside to them "making" me upgrade everything that I'm upgrading anyway? Expansion ports are a diminishing need IMO - with so much integrated, there's not really a big need for expansion ports - something that Shuttle clearly understands. They give you just enough power and room to put a good video card and a PCI card (just in case). Now, this thing is clearly not going to replace a power user's main system, but as a quick, near error free setup for a 3rd or 4th home box, this thing's got appeal.

MidniteArrow

 

[svol]

Wow... slow down Crashman. If people like these things why can't you let them?

My CPU fan spins so fast that it creates a wormhole

 

[Crashman]

Every purchase brings us one step closer to the END of power systems! And soon they can lock us into closed form factors, making book sized Dells seem like a reasonable choice!


I meant that when I said it! Buying this stuff spells the end for full featured systems.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Crashman]

Actually these things WILL replace your power system when they become so popular that motherboard manufacturers no longer support the "niche" full sized PC market.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[svol]

If it is only bought at a small scale this will never bring the end to big systems... and because people keep putting more and more in their case big PCs will keep existing.

My CPU fan spins so fast that it creates a wormhole

 

[Crashman]

Not according to Patrick Schmid! He claims that we're tired of these "behemoth" systems and that eventually we will all come around to using SFF.

Remember, you buying one won't change the market, it's when millions of hardcore users LIKE you decide they can also settle for less that this will become a problem.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[svol]

But Patrick Schmid has proofen in many articles that he don't know what he's talking about... it is probably just a hype.

I mean I would never buy such a barbone PC as main system... it is just to fvcking small. But as second or portable PC it would do a nice job.

I mean most users nowadays have several optical drives and HDs... if you want to fir that in a SFF you got a big problem.

My CPU fan spins so fast that it creates a wormhole