Shuttle XPC® SN25P Barebone
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- Form Factor: Small Form Factor
- Type: Stationary
- Chipset: NVIDIA nForce4
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Missed the mark...
Pros
Small, cool looking.
Cons
Some design issues, motherboard seems flaky.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Don't bite unless you REALLY need a tiny case.
I bought the Shuttle system because of the small footprint. I was impressed at first when it arrived...but after working with it for a while, I'm not loving it.
The case design seems to be an acceptable compromise between functionality and simplicity. In writing this review I am trying to keep in mind that the system was designed to be compact, and I have attempted to adjust my expectations accordingly. I can understand that some sacrifices must be made to save space.
Installing the CPU was a little awkward, but not miserable. The system includes a specially designed CPU heatsink/heatpipe cooler mechanism which seems reasonable in design. I was disappointed to find that the kit did NOT include thermal paste. I had to make a special trip back to the store before I could assemble the system.
The drive mounting mechanisms use spring-clips rather than screws to secure the drives. I was dubious about this at first, but it seems to work fairly well. The clips are flimsier than I would like. Since these clips seem to be necessary to mount the drives, a broken clip would render one of the drive bays unusable.
One seemingly "DUH" point is the SATA data and power connectors. The top 2 drive bays are dedicated to SATA, with power and data cables already in place. The connectors are pre-installed and routed from the bottom of the case, UP to the drive... but when I attempted to plug them into the drives, I found that the connectors were upside down when routed directly to the drive plug. This meant I have to bend the cables into an upside-down "U" shape so they run into the drive plug from the TOP of the drive, then bend over and route down into the case, leaving an awkward loop of cable sticking out. Not a huge problem, the case still fits on fine.
Otherwise the case did fit together well, and the system is reasonably quiet when in operation. There are lots of ports on front and back of the case, and the hidden CD/DVD drive and floppy bays are quite cool. The hidden CD/DVD drive bay has an eject button that is supposed to be able to line up with the eject button my the DVD drive. I bought a SONY drive, and found that while the button DID line up properly, it stuck in too far, and caused my DVD drive to constantly load/eject when powered on. I had to pry the little rubber adjustable foot off of the button in order to get things working properly.
Once completely assembled I inserted my new XP disc, and started installing. (Don't forget you'll need a floppy drive to load the SATA driver for the XP install! D@!# Microsoft, why don't they have USB or CD support for XP SP2 discs? I had to rip my system apart and temporarily install a floppy drive. This was NOT Shuttle's fault though)
XP loaded OK, but it would lock up every time I tried to shutdown or reboot. I made sure all the latest drivers were installed. I downloaded and installed the latest BIOS for the FN25 motherboard. No love. It still locks up.
I installed an ATA drive and reinstalled XP on that drive. That install is working fine. I have no clue yet on why the SATA drives aren't working properly. This *might* be my fault somehow. I have built many, many computers and never seen this issue...but I am fairly new to SATA. Maybe I've just been lucky.
Linux hates this PC. So far it won't install properly on a ATA or SATA drive. Grub and LILO don't like it. Most people probably dont' care, but I am disappointed.
I've been messing with this system for about a week now. So far, I just can't recommend it to anyone. I can't think of a PC I've ever worked on that gave me so many problems. For less $$ I could have got something with a slightly larger footprint that would have worked without the hassle.
------------
UPDATE (5/11): I was wrong about having the newest drivers loaded. I doublechecked later and found a more recent driver update. This fixed my lock-up problem when rebooting XP. I finally got Linux loaded after some forum searching to discover the necessary install trick.
It also turns out the thermal paste WAS included. I had somehow overlooked it when unpacking everything, but found it yesterday.
While I'm disappointed in myself for making a couple of stupid mistakes, I still can't really recommend the SN25P very highly.
The case design seems to be an acceptable compromise between functionality and simplicity. In writing this review I am trying to keep in mind that the system was designed to be compact, and I have attempted to adjust my expectations accordingly. I can understand that some sacrifices must be made to save space.
Installing the CPU was a little awkward, but not miserable. The system includes a specially designed CPU heatsink/heatpipe cooler mechanism which seems reasonable in design. I was disappointed to find that the kit did NOT include thermal paste. I had to make a special trip back to the store before I could assemble the system.
The drive mounting mechanisms use spring-clips rather than screws to secure the drives. I was dubious about this at first, but it seems to work fairly well. The clips are flimsier than I would like. Since these clips seem to be necessary to mount the drives, a broken clip would render one of the drive bays unusable.
One seemingly "DUH" point is the SATA data and power connectors. The top 2 drive bays are dedicated to SATA, with power and data cables already in place. The connectors are pre-installed and routed from the bottom of the case, UP to the drive... but when I attempted to plug them into the drives, I found that the connectors were upside down when routed directly to the drive plug. This meant I have to bend the cables into an upside-down "U" shape so they run into the drive plug from the TOP of the drive, then bend over and route down into the case, leaving an awkward loop of cable sticking out. Not a huge problem, the case still fits on fine.
Otherwise the case did fit together well, and the system is reasonably quiet when in operation. There are lots of ports on front and back of the case, and the hidden CD/DVD drive and floppy bays are quite cool. The hidden CD/DVD drive bay has an eject button that is supposed to be able to line up with the eject button my the DVD drive. I bought a SONY drive, and found that while the button DID line up properly, it stuck in too far, and caused my DVD drive to constantly load/eject when powered on. I had to pry the little rubber adjustable foot off of the button in order to get things working properly.
Once completely assembled I inserted my new XP disc, and started installing. (Don't forget you'll need a floppy drive to load the SATA driver for the XP install! D@!# Microsoft, why don't they have USB or CD support for XP SP2 discs? I had to rip my system apart and temporarily install a floppy drive. This was NOT Shuttle's fault though)
XP loaded OK, but it would lock up every time I tried to shutdown or reboot. I made sure all the latest drivers were installed. I downloaded and installed the latest BIOS for the FN25 motherboard. No love. It still locks up.
I installed an ATA drive and reinstalled XP on that drive. That install is working fine. I have no clue yet on why the SATA drives aren't working properly. This *might* be my fault somehow. I have built many, many computers and never seen this issue...but I am fairly new to SATA. Maybe I've just been lucky.
Linux hates this PC. So far it won't install properly on a ATA or SATA drive. Grub and LILO don't like it. Most people probably dont' care, but I am disappointed.
I've been messing with this system for about a week now. So far, I just can't recommend it to anyone. I can't think of a PC I've ever worked on that gave me so many problems. For less $$ I could have got something with a slightly larger footprint that would have worked without the hassle.
------------
UPDATE (5/11): I was wrong about having the newest drivers loaded. I doublechecked later and found a more recent driver update. This fixed my lock-up problem when rebooting XP. I finally got Linux loaded after some forum searching to discover the necessary install trick.
It also turns out the thermal paste WAS included. I had somehow overlooked it when unpacking everything, but found it yesterday.
While I'm disappointed in myself for making a couple of stupid mistakes, I still can't really recommend the SN25P very highly.
