Shuttle build

Robi · 22 Jul 2011 at 08:18

To cut a long and utterly boring story short, i'm looking to build a mid-range SFF computer, ideally Shuttle based.

However, one problem. I literally have no idea what to buy. With hardware getting bigger and bigger these days, are shuttles even a viable option anymore?

I'm looking to spend no more than £400 on the shuttle itself. No real requirement for massive amounts of storage as I can easily use an external drive for the main bulk of content; music, videos, pictures etc. I mainly use my 360 for gaming, so a ridiculous video card isn't critical, although I would like to try the new Star Wars MMORPG, in some detail at least. It's not Crysis 2 by any means but something with a little bit of power is probably needed.

That's about it really. Also, I don't need to buy Windows 7 as I already have a copy.

Fire away!

SimonMaltby · 22 Jul 2011 at 08:50

Hi Robi,

If you are looking at shuttle based systems then you should be able to do everything you need.

I would recommend Intel based Shuttles at the moment as, in my opinion, they are far more reliable and flexible.

If you are not looking for a huge amount of power you can pick from quite a range starting with the Intel Skt 775 Dual or Quad core upto the latest Sandybridge Skt 1155 Dual and Quad core.

Shuttle use to distinct manufacturing methods... the J series cases which are steel chassis with Aluminium facing whicl all the others are Aluminium throughout.

Other than the manufacturing method and the CPU type, it really comes down to the case style and look you prefer.

Personally I find the SH67H3 to be a very good blend of performance with reasonable looks. All aluminium, using the latest Sandy Bridge CPU and the ability to take a dual slot GPU. These retail for arround the £230 mark, add an i3 CPUfor £100, 4GB ram for £35 and so on. This will be alittle tight on your £400 budget but will allow for expandability.

Robi · 22 Jul 2011 at 08:57

Ah I was under the silly assumption that you had to buy a seperate motherboard.

Motherboard and PSU come with the Shuttle?

SimonMaltby · 22 Jul 2011 at 09:04

Robi said:
Motherboard and PSU come with the Shuttle?

Yes. Shuttles come with...
Case, PSU, Motherboard, Heatsink.
You need to add...
CPU, Ram, Hard Drive, DVD/CD Drive, OS, Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor

Some Shuttles come with built in Graphics, but not all so be careful and check. The SH67H3 does have built in using the Intel CPU's built in graphics. Something like the SX48P2 does not.

Robi · 22 Jul 2011 at 13:58

Exclude the OS, keyboard, mouse, mat, monitor and speakers.

OcUK only seem to stock 1-2 Shuttles, any particular reason?

And Shuttle SH55J2 is £9 cheaper via a rival, savings can be made.

SimonMaltby · 22 Jul 2011 at 15:06

I have been asking OCUK to stock more shuttles for ages, but for some reason they have not done so. I presume thier supply channel is not so good for Shuttle product at the moment.

Robi · 24 Jul 2011 at 23:01

How does this sound?

Shuttle SG41J1 Plus (Socket 775) DDR3 Barebones - Black
Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 Game
OCZ Vertex 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTX30G)
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3G1333LV4GK)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Total: £414.53

Skyboat · 25 Jul 2011 at 00:55

That CPU and Motherboard use different sockets.

Robi · 25 Jul 2011 at 07:37

Oops, looks like i'll have to change the Shuttle to a SH55J2.

SimonMaltby · 25 Jul 2011 at 09:53

Robi... the SH55J2 is not for the 1155 (Sandybridge) cpu either.
The only shuttles that take the 1155 socket are the SH67H3 and SH67H7 neither of which are available at Ocuk

The SH55J2 takes the 1156 CPU's

Take care.

Robi · 25 Jul 2011 at 13:03

Ouch, both seem very expensive.

Which CPU / Shuttle / SFF combination would you guys recommend then?

SimonMaltby · 25 Jul 2011 at 16:30

Personally I think you have everything spot on except the fact that you need an SH67H3 shuttle which costs about £235 taking your total spend up to £550, so quite a bit more than the £400 you wanted.

Other than that you need to go for the 775 socket i.e. changing the CPU to something like a Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 4MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor (£115) but performance will be massivly different to the 1155 Sandybridge

Could you forget the 6770 GPU for now and just use the onboard graphics on the SH67H3 then maybe upgrade it later?

edGfaCTor · 25 Jul 2011 at 20:02

You can do a shuttle setup for under £400

Shuttle SH55J2 Intel i3 / i5 / i7 H55 Express DDR3 Barebones £167.99
Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £79.99
OCZ Vertex 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTX30G) £45.59
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £32.99
LiteOn iHOS104-37 4x BD-ROM Drive / 8x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £41.99

total £380 which includes £10 shipping.

i would have chose oem cpu but ocuk was out of stock that would have saved another £10 which then gives a graphics card which there ati ones on offer for about £26 and as you can see there is a blu-ray drive in the build also last thing if your not happy with the 30gb ssd you could swap that for 500gb+ sata hard drive.