Thoughts on Shuttle XPC SX38P2 Pro?

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-BA-

-BA-

Soldato
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4 Sep 2005
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Hi all. Seen a good price on this box and I have a Q6600 with DDR2 memory and a couple of old graphics cards lying around to try. I am curious to know if anyone is still using one of these?

If so I would love to know how it is for noise as some of the reviews say that it is noisy under load. If this is just when gaming I can live with it but is it noisy when displaying 1080p video?

Now onto the graphics cards. I have a redundant 4870x2 and a GTX260 lying about in the cupboard. This unit only has a 450w power supply and I am worried neither will be of use in it. I have recently found out that the manufacturer's recommendations on wattage aren't always the b all and end all but could do with some advice.

I love the idea of this box simply because it lets me use some old gear I have lying around and have a new Crucial SSD inbound for this HTPC build.

Primary uses will be for XBMC (mostly 1080p content), Skype, downloading gaming (Eve Online, Dirt 3, Fifa 12 - chillout stuff mostly).

Noise levels are important as this is going to be always on in my bedroom.
 
Thanks for the feedback. Not sure I want to commit just to be able to use old kit. The devil in me is screaming, "Just buy new toys, you know you want to!" :)
 
As this is going to be on all day/night, I think my decision is made. Are they pretty intelligent at scaling back their wattage need when not under load? Never really paid much attention to it on my main pc. If I am going to put a 2600k in, I'd like to know it is going to pull much less power when not running hard. With a 500w psu in the new one I am worried this is going to be a hungry beast for an always on system.
 
Sounds good to me. What noise levels would you say your SZ outputs with the 2600k and 570GTX in it? Acceptable in a bedroom environment? Is the card quiet when under load for, say, a movie? Not so important when gaming but would like it quiet under movie circumstances.

Edit: The SX case is £150 new by the way on offer.
 
Steveo would really appreciate some feedback how well you settle down with it. I am very tempted to still go this route as would like to take advantage of its DD Live capabilities too.

@SimonMaltby, is there any way to change out the chipset and other fans in these older models or are they fussy? Still very tempted to try this case.
 
Doing more reading about the noise and it really is worrying me. Also there seems to be some indication of what size graphics card will fit. My intention was to use a GTX260 that I have lying around and it seems that might not fit. Hmmm...
 
It looks like it is really coming down to the sound for me. As long as it goes quieter when it isn't doing too much like downloading (which I might have it doing overnight) or when watching a movie. I can live with it being noisy during gaming as you tend to get immersed in the game more and noise isn't so much an issue. How noisy is it during 1080p playback?

Re. the graphics card, I don't know how well a 4870 measures up against a GTX260 size wise. I do have a 4870x2 but I think that would just generate too much heat. It is possible I might need to invest in a new card for it that is better suited. What about ram; will it take either 6400 or 8500? I have both, although only 4 of each.

Thanks for the feedback incidentally.
 
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Thanks for that. Had a read of your review on the new case too and am dead keen but I see it can get quite noisy too from those graphs. My current pc is really noisy and I would love to work out how noisy one of these shuttles is against it as a comparison. I couldn't have it on at night as the two banks of 4 80mm fans are just way too loud.
 
Damn the price on this has dropped again (I am sure because they are trying to shift outdated stock) to £130. Oh what a to do!
 
Just wondering if you could give me some advice please Simon as I don't want to damage this Shuttle. My 260 is too large and is just not going to fit. The only other card I have is a 4870x2 which bizarrely does fit but has a 6+8 connector instead of a 6+6. Now I do have a 2Molex to 1 8pin convertor so I could use the 6 pin from the PSU and 2 molex into the convertor for the 8 pin but I am wondering if this is trying to pull too much out of the PSU?

I am concerned about the noise from the fans having just turned it on and had a listen without any gear in it but I wanted to get into the bios to see if I could turn down the fans.

Don't want to buy a new card to try out what might be a failed project...
 
SimonMaltby said:
Hi -BA- I warned you about the noise on these. Its mainly those fans above the power supply, I have used the combination you describe on your machine before. With regards GPU... there is no issue using a molex to VGA adapter, the Shuttle PSU's don't have many rails so it does not really matter where you take the power from.
What is it about the 260 that does not fit? I'm sure I got a reference 260 to fit, but had to remove the black plastic CPU fan funnel first... no wait, did I have to cut a little of the 260 cover to go round the CPU power plug?
Click to expand...

I think it is cutting the bottom corner that I would have to do to fit around that plug. But my worry is whether it will run just as hot as the 4870x2. I know the 4870x2 had a shocking rep for running hot but will the 260 be a lot cooler?

I have run it with the 4870x2 and it was crazy hot. No way I would want to make it a permanent addition so if the 260 isn't going to run much cooler then I am looking at a new card and just as well scrap the deal and start over with a new build.
 
Yeah I am thinking it may have been for the best but I have now got the 260 in there after butchering the bottom corner and tidying it up. Seems to be coping ok for now going to give it a go. If it sucks after the weekend it is going back.
 
Well after a day of use and leaving it on overnight to see how loud it was, I must say, I find it reasonably tolerable. On SMART fan it doesn't seem to put it into INSANELY LOUD mode and whilst it certainly couldn't be classed as silent, it is bearable. Happily goes into S3 sleep by itself if left inactive and comes out of sleep with a touch of the touchpad on my diNovo mini. Seems to be coping ok with transcoding to my Touchpad and 1080p playback via VLC and XBMC is fine. Eve Online looked fine in 1080p although I might lower that for more intensive gaming. Installing Dirt3 over steam at the moment so will test that later.

Temps aren't horrific with idle CPU temps of 48°C and GPU temps of 56°C. These rise to high 50s on the CPU and high 70s on the GPU when under load. The GPU fan doesn't seem to be going over 1700rpm though so I am going to install RivaTuner to see if there is any room for altering it higher if necessary.

For £130 it has given some old gear a new lease of life. I did spend an extra £115 on an SSD of course but that would have had to be factored in on a build with new gear anyway.
 
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Simon, if you read this, I wonder if you wouldn't mind checking on your SX48P2 Pro for me. I am not sure if it is the same case or not but I notice that there is a small slot above the 5.25 drive bay and the plastic at the front is smoky but see through. I am wondering whether I might be able to mount an internal RC6 IR receiver. The mainboard doesn't have an IR jumper but I have found an internal one that plugs into an internal USB header.

I think my only concern is how dark plastic can be before the IR signal won't pass through. It would be great to have IR functionality that is well and truly hidden.
 
Hold on a sec, I have just found a CIR jumper. Should that work with the CIR model instead. Does the mainboard need to recognise specific protocols like RC6?
 
Will do... :)

Excuse the poor quality of these two photos but this is the bay I am talking about where the sata hdd bays sit on top. The other shows a pic of me shining an led torch through the smoky plastic.

DSC06975.jpg


DSC06979.jpg


Reckon it could be a goer?
 
SimonMaltby said:
I think most shuttles have the CIR header and you should fine there is a enable/disable in the bios for it. No idea on how it all works, its on my list of things to get hold of to try, so please let me know how you get on, at the moment i'm using an external USB IR and would love to get it internal.
Click to expand...

Just to update you on this Simon. I have had a reply from CoHaus about the receiver. I think I can discuss them as they don't seem to sell anything that competes with OcUK.


many thanks for your request.

We took a look in the manual of the Shuttle SX38P2 Pro and found the following configuration of the CIR-Header:

SX38P2ProCIRHeader.jpg


The configuration of the pin of this header does not match to the connector of our CIR-receiver.
Our CIR-receiver is designed for the CIR-header of Intel mainboards. This header has 7 pins. The pin-configuration looks like in this picture:

CIRReceiverPinOuts.jpg


That’s why we don’t know, if the CIR-receiver would work on your mainboard, even if you would reconfigure the connector to fit with your header.

If you would like to take the risk, please let us know.

The answers of your questions:
1. During the next week we await a new charge of CIR-receivers. This charge has longer connection-cables for the receivers. Sadly we don’t know, how they will be – we have to figure out after arriving of the delivery.
2. The receiver works like a normal IR-receiver. That’s why you also can use smoky glass for covering. Sadly we can’t say, how strong the level of the darkness could be.

With best regards,
Click to expand...

I don't think that is going to work out unless I start playing around with pinouts and really not sure I am confident enough for that.

They do however do an internal USB RC6 IR receiver which is this one. Now I need to fit a card read and am looking at this one but it has a 10pin header on it so needs an internal USB to itself. If I do that I only have one spare that is currently being used by a 4pin connector from the front USB slots on the Shuttle. I am therefore considering using a 10pin to 2x5pin internal splitter cable that should let me connect the front USB 4pin and the USB RC6 IR 4pin to the spare 10pin socket at the front of the mainboard. I have emailed them to see if they think this is viable.

Will keep you updated as it would really top off my Shuttle to be able to use my Harmony 900 and have it all nicely hidden away inside the case.
 
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