SFF PC's you are still running

[spirits247]

We went through a period where everyone was SFF crazy - new models popped up from Shuttle, Aopen, Biostar, MSI, etc. even Epox (RIP) had a go! They are great compact machines!

So which ones have you still got lying around the place and what do you use them for?
How reliable were they?

I have an Aopen XC Cube EX18 and a Biostar IDEQ 210N.

The Aopen is a nForce2 model with mobile Barton at 2.2Ghz, used as a MAME and retrogaming console. Still works perfectly to this day for such tasks.

The Biostar is an nForce3 with Athlon64 at 2.2Ghz, has a x800 Pro and is used for playing older 3D games in XP and, gasp, Windows 98SE!!! Yes, drivers still existed for this machine supporting Windows 98SE back then.

Never felt the need to upgrade them, and never felt the need to build faster SFF's as these both do the job well. Perhaps that's one of the reasons the market died down - people got the novelty factor out the way with.

 

[spirits247]

So, no one running an SFF as a retro console/computer for playing older games amd emulators on? Along with some arcade sticks and pads, I think they're ideal.

 

[spirits247]

i had one of those (aopen ex18) still running strong but now my dads machine
currently running a shuttle sg33g5 with quad core not latest tech but it pretty quick

The EX18 is a solid machine. The nForce2 chipset was ideal for SFF PC's, with its integrated features and graphics that used dual channel memory (one of the dual 64bit controllers) to massively improve integrated graphics performance.

It works so well with mobile bartons - very cool and quiet. You can tell by reading the credits in the Bios a lot of love went into designing that machine.

The modern SFF's - shuttle sg33g5 for instence - what are they like? Are you limited to what graphics cards you can run in them due to there huge power requirements these days?