First =)

It is interesting to see the total power consumption of the Shuttle system never went above 212W. This is with a Core i7 and a GTX 260. This system comes with a 500W PSU, which is more than enough. It is interesting to see that large PSUs are definitely not a necessity as the trend continues towards circuit breaking sizes. I have a 650W with 3x19A 12V rails and that is plenty for me. 212/500=42.4% of the PSUs total output. This is fine, but you could get by with an even smaller PSU.

awesome system ( i am unaware of the price ).

It actually went to 425W peak with both Prime95 (8-threads) and Crysis GPU bench (2560 Very-High 8x) running at the same time, but that's not a very realistic test.

Nice article. Figured the case would run a lot hotter, not bad.

This is less an article more like an extended IMHO.Stay tuned Monday when it's back to SSD or and overclocking contest.

This is less an article more like an extended AD IMHO.Stay tuned Monday when it's back to SSD or and overclocking contest.

It shows how the system compares to a standard motherboard and cooler in performance and overclocking. If you want more than standard cooling, you can read any of the X58 motherboard shootouts where a big liquid cooler is used.

I'm curious, how noisy is it when idle and at full load? Does the fan always run at full speed (i.e. 41.3 dB) when the GPU is used?

Something I found with my current Shuttle box (i.e. SN21G5) is that, having added a modest dedicated graphics card (i.e. NVIDIA 9500 GT), the heat generated by the GPU was enough to keep the main fan spinning at low speeds even when idle. So as soon as the system is put under some load, even if the GPU is idle and only one CPU core is used 100%, the fan will spin at almost full speed generating quite some noise.

Since these small computers are often placed on the desktop, next to the user, the noise level is even more apparent than with other systems which generate similar decibel figures, but rest on the floor, etc. So... should I move away from SFF for my next PC if I want a silent Core i7 system with a GTX 260 GPU?

So what comes w/ this, I figure the Case, PSU, Motherbaord, CPU?, RAM?
I can't really seem to figure this part out, at ava direct they have this XPC SX58H7 for about $688 I think, but again nothign conclusive as to what it comes w/....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6856101082

Case, mobo, PSU. Yes, it's expensive.

How about the price.. 710 @ newegg. It's insaaaane! Just for a mini non-standard mobo (lock-in to one manufacturer), heat pipe (tech is awesome), (sturdy) cage and 500W UPS. You'd think for that price they could put a nice carrying handle on top that is recessed when at rest. Granted I love my Shuttles but I coughed up a 'nad when I saw the price. Bargain hunters beware!

Sorry 'bout the gonad dude: The price wasn't available when the article was written. I'd discuss the idea of adding a pricing coment with funkmaster Angelini now that it's available.

Wow. It's really everything I have wanted. It does seem to cost too much but it really fits my idea of the perfect system. Small and quiet while still being a high end or upper middle performer. Very well done. The 80 plus PSU is a god send. Most micro ATX PSU's are junk and the limiting factor in all small foot print builds.

There's no way that this can house a GTX 295 without overheating. The heat inside the case would just melt everything together into one big pile of slag.

I'm not quite sure I believe those temperatures unless they were tested outside the case, in which case it's irrelevant. Those temps surpass the Noctuna and Vigor coolers which is not only hard to believe seeing what Shuttle uses but also may just be impossible.

I built 8 i7 920's @ 3.2GHz with Vigor Monsoon III LT's and they ran in the 38-42c/65-70c range.

Of course since you decided to gauge temperature as "Degrees Above Ambient" instead of just degrees, who knows what your temps really were... (I assumed 24c room temp)

I will read a few other reviews but as I stated above. This is amazing work out of shuttle its its real. I have a home office with 3 systems in it. One is a Antec Full Tower monstrosity. Which has a AMD 64 single core in it running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise. It is literally 5 feet tall and used only for testing purposes like once or twice a year. The other is a Dell Power Edge T300 running Debian 5.0. This is my new toy. Talk about overkill.
My main system is a dumb looking mid tower with all kinds of neon crap on it and ~95 fans. I caved to my gamer nature when I selected it. It was never intended to be in this office and I'm a little embarrassed by it if a client stops by. This little shuttle would give me back my desk and still run a decent game without making me look like I'm permanently 14 years old.

A lot of the Antec line is perfectly suitable for both gaming, with a professional look. For something like a wolf in sheep's clothing (if you don't mind the noise), look at the New Solutions cases. Otherwise, the p180/2 series are quiet, and sleek looking, without all the crazy lights. You're paying a bit more for those, however.

I'm sure there are other options, but for the cost, I've found the Antec cases to be quite worth the money.

Agreed about Antec, I have 2 Antec cases at home right now. Especially pleased with the Titan 650 case.

Of course the point of the shuttle is the small compact form. However, it's not for HTPC purposes, I'm not sure I'm sold onto this. Seems like their board doesn't have wireless either.

Agreed, with the two PCIe x16, it's definitely not an HTPC. It can be USED as such...

My personal take: I LOVE the idea of the heatpipes and relocating the CPU heatsink. I'm contemplating seeing if I could apply the same thing to my HTPC at home. However, I'm absolutely serious about using two single slot cards or one of the SLI'd/Crossfired cards in there. They recirculate the heat back into the case, and are not nearly as effective at exhausting it outside the case. As such, a configuration like that...

To put it simply, I had a case with VERY GOOD cable management (routed cables behind the mobo), used a 200mm and 120mm fan for exhaust, and a 120mm for intake. About 160CFM's at full blast. Threw in a 9800 GX2, and consistently was hitting 90degC on the GPU; on intensive games I could bat 100degC. The CPU was also affected, going up to 80degC at points.

Simply using a cardboard heat shield to redirect the recirculated air out of the case - now I'm about 50degC at CPU and it's rare to crest 80degC on the GPU.

As stated previously, you stick a GTX295 in there, you're going to melt that thing.