Comments on: Shuttle SD31P Notes http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/ by Mark Mayo Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:07:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: mark http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/#comment-324694 mark Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:08:55 +0000 http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/?p=377#comment-324694 Sorry Jonathon, but I can't help you. I've never done a flash that way and I no longer have my SD31P to try. Sorry Jonathon, but I can’t help you. I’ve never done a flash that way and I no longer have my SD31P to try.

]]> By: Jonathan http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/#comment-324691 Jonathan Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:51:58 +0000 http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/?p=377#comment-324691 hey good evening i was wondering if you could teach mo on how to flash the bios of the sd31p using a usb thumb drive. Thanks hey good evening i was wondering if you could teach mo on how to flash the bios of the sd31p using a usb thumb drive. Thanks

]]> By: mark http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/#comment-49192 mark Fri, 29 Dec 2006 22:24:28 +0000 http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/?p=377#comment-49192 A quick update: I've since put a Pentium D 920 (dual core 2.8GHz) and Nvidia 7600GT in this box, and it runs everything I’ve thrown at it quite well. With one exception: The PCI-e connected Broadcom gigabit ethernet chip (a “Netlink 5789″, in this case) doesn’t have a driver in Solaris 10 (any release, including the 11/06 “update 3″ release). The “bge” driver in OpenSolaris supports it just fine, though. You could probably use the driver from OpenSolaris in Solaris 10, but I didn’t try. I'm running OpenSolaris nevada b54 on it, which for the first time includes the native nvidia driver. The native nvidia driver brings the GPU fan down to 50% speed in 2D mode, which is a godsend since at 100% RPM the fan produces a lot of noise... A quick update: I’ve since put a Pentium D 920 (dual core 2.8GHz) and Nvidia 7600GT in this box, and it runs everything I’ve thrown at it quite well. With one exception: The PCI-e connected Broadcom gigabit ethernet chip (a “Netlink 5789″, in this case) doesn’t have a driver in Solaris 10 (any release, including the 11/06 “update 3″ release). The “bge” driver in OpenSolaris supports it just fine, though. You could probably use the driver from OpenSolaris in Solaris 10, but I didn’t try. I’m running OpenSolaris nevada b54 on it, which for the first time includes the native nvidia driver. The native nvidia driver brings the GPU fan down to 50% speed in 2D mode, which is a godsend since at 100% RPM the fan produces a lot of noise…

]]> By: Matt http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/#comment-10328 Matt Mon, 13 Mar 2006 08:59:30 +0000 http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/?p=377#comment-10328 Ray, Check out this link: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=95822 Not sure if you're in the UK or not, but they have a USA website too. On the RAM side i've gone with 2GB OCZ Gold, it's quality RAM which you can up a bit without worrying about it too much. DON'T go with CRUCIAL in the Shuttle's, i've read a lot of reports about people who have had a bad time with getting Crucial to work in their SFF's. COSAIR Ram is popular with Shuttle folk too. As far as HD is concerned, the Shuttle SD31P will support SATA-II drives, so i'd opt for them, WesterDigital, Segate, Maxtor, all make pretty good, fairly reliable drives, so it's down to personal choice. (Personally, i run with Maxtor, they seem to be relatively quick and reliable in my experience). If you want a turbo drive go with a Western Digital Raptor or similar, they spin very quick but come in smaller sizes. *Ammendment to my first post - i meant RAID0 not RAID1 obviously due to performance gain* I've put a matching black LG Dual Layer DVD writer in the SD31P and it flys, have got through over 100 DVDs using Nero 7 without one fault, it's a 16 Speed Drive so writes fast too. Good luck with your build! Ray,

Check out this link: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=95822

Not sure if you’re in the UK or not, but they have a USA website too.

On the RAM side i’ve gone with 2GB OCZ Gold, it’s quality RAM which you can up a bit without worrying about it too much. DON’T go with CRUCIAL in the Shuttle’s, i’ve read a lot of reports about people who have had a bad time with getting Crucial to work in their SFF’s. COSAIR Ram is popular with Shuttle folk too.

As far as HD is concerned, the Shuttle SD31P will support SATA-II drives, so i’d opt for them, WesterDigital, Segate, Maxtor, all make pretty good, fairly reliable drives, so it’s down to personal choice. (Personally, i run with Maxtor, they seem to be relatively quick and reliable in my experience). If you want a turbo drive go with a Western Digital Raptor or similar, they spin very quick but come in smaller sizes. *Ammendment to my first post - i meant RAID0 not RAID1 obviously due to performance gain*

I’ve put a matching black LG Dual Layer DVD writer in the SD31P and it flys, have got through over 100 DVDs using Nero 7 without one fault, it’s a 16 Speed Drive so writes fast too.

Good luck with your build!

]]> By: mark http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/#comment-10310 mark Fri, 10 Mar 2006 22:12:30 +0000 http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/?p=377#comment-10310 Hi Ray. First of all I'd recommend you vist http://www.sfftech.com The forums there are full of useful info, advice, success and failure stories. As I mentioned in my post, I'm very happy with the 6600GT Zalman VF700 combo in my SD31P. A 6800GS with the Zalman cooler would be a nice option as well in your price range. The stock cooling on any of these cards will be quite sufficient from a pure cooling perspective, but you'll probably want to cut down on fan noise and that's where the Zalman cooler comes in. It's really quite easy to install, so i wouldn't worry about that too much. Otherwise find a geek in your area who can help you out. The shop you're buying from probably has guys working there who can help, for example. I wouldn't bother with the built in RAID1. Just get an external drive, run a backup every week and then put the drive somewhere else away from the system. That saves you against theft, electrical malfunction, etc. If you need the performance, RAID0 is of course a boost, but you have to balance that with the fact that you've just doubled your chances of a drive failure taking out the filesystem... The external drive backup is a no-brainer IMHO. For specific brand recommendations and stuff check out sfftech. I think the various drive and DVD-RW manufacturers are fairly even in terms of quality and speed these days. Some people prefer one, or are loyal to a brand, but in my experience they all have good manufacturing runs and bad ones. So it's a bit of a crap shoot when you buy. Obviously sticking with a brand that carries a decent warranty and buying from a shop that's not a hassle to do a return through should be important to you. Just in case something isn't working. Have fun with it! Hi Ray. First of all I’d recommend you vist http://www.sfftech.com

The forums there are full of useful info, advice, success and failure stories.

As I mentioned in my post, I’m very happy with the 6600GT Zalman VF700 combo in my SD31P. A 6800GS with the Zalman cooler would be a nice option as well in your price range. The stock cooling on any of these cards will be quite sufficient from a pure cooling perspective, but you’ll probably want to cut down on fan noise and that’s where the Zalman cooler comes in. It’s really quite easy to install, so i wouldn’t worry about that too much. Otherwise find a geek in your area who can help you out. The shop you’re buying from probably has guys working there who can help, for example.

I wouldn’t bother with the built in RAID1. Just get an external drive, run a backup every week and then put the drive somewhere else away from the system. That saves you against theft, electrical malfunction, etc. If you need the performance, RAID0 is of course a boost, but you have to balance that with the fact that you’ve just doubled your chances of a drive failure taking out the filesystem… The external drive backup is a no-brainer IMHO.

For specific brand recommendations and stuff check out sfftech. I think the various drive and DVD-RW manufacturers are fairly even in terms of quality and speed these days. Some people prefer one, or are loyal to a brand, but in my experience they all have good manufacturing runs and bad ones. So it’s a bit of a crap shoot when you buy. Obviously sticking with a brand that carries a decent warranty and buying from a shop that’s not a hassle to do a return through should be important to you. Just in case something isn’t working.

Have fun with it!

]]> By: Ray http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/#comment-10301 Ray Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:17:56 +0000 http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/?p=377#comment-10301 I'm pondering getting a SD31P. I have a P4 D820 which I got with an Intel D945PSN mobo combo. I paid $200 for the combo, brand new, from a friend who got the offer through his employer: BestBuy. Anyways, I’d much rather have a SFF PC than a tower beast, and figure I can get around $100 for the D945PSN, which will go toward periph’s. Is it worth the money, or should I just be happy with what I have and build a PC from there? For SFF's, as far as periph’s, I have some questions, which I’m hoping to get some feedback on. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the shuttles, and this page seems to have some experienced and knowledgeable enthusiasts. Graphics I’m undecided on a video card, which is probably the biggest piece of advice I need. This PC will be running some games (Doom 3, Unreal Tournament, Tiger Woods...). Other than that, I most likely won’t be doing any intense graphics processing or video editing…but you never know what new hobby you’ll pick up in the future, right? So, I’ll probably get a middle of the line graphics card, somewhere in the $150-$250 price range (to be safe and conservative). I’ve read that the 6600GT and 6800GT run pretty hot and will probably require a cooler, which I’ve never installed, but it doesn’t seem difficult. Residing in a SFF, cooling is big issue. Any thoughts? Memory I’m going to go w/ 2GB of DDR2 667, but which brand should I get? Do I go with expensive RAM such as Crucial, or do I play it conservative? From what I understand, this isn’t an area to fiddle-dick around…most people are going with name brand chips. Storage As far as hard drives, I’m undecided what kind of setup (and brand) would be the best for my case. The onboard RAID is an amazing feature that should most likely be utilized. I like the idea of a RAID 0 for performance. But will I even be doing intense enough reading/writing to take advantage of a Raid 0? What constitutes so? Or do I go with a RAID 1 for the fault tolerance? I do have a lot of important data that I want to keep backed up (MP3’s, pictures, documents, etc). Would I be better off just buying an external Fire-wire HD and frequently back up? What make/model of HD’s should I go with. What’s the best Fire-Wire drive for the money? Decisions, decisions. CD-ROM I’m obviously getting a DVD-RW, but which brand? What do you guys use? Sorry for being a noob and a mooch, but this is my first time working with a SFF, and I want to do it right the first time. I really appreciate the time and thought you put into your responses. Thanks guys! -Ray I’m pondering getting a SD31P. I have a P4 D820 which I got with an Intel D945PSN mobo combo. I paid $200 for the combo, brand new, from a friend who got the offer through his employer: BestBuy. Anyways, I’d much rather have a SFF PC than a tower beast, and figure I can get around $100 for the D945PSN, which will go toward periph’s. Is it worth the money, or should I just be happy with what I have and build a PC from there? For SFF’s, as far as periph’s, I have some questions, which I’m hoping to get some feedback on. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the shuttles, and this page seems to have some experienced and knowledgeable enthusiasts.

Graphics
I’m undecided on a video card, which is probably the biggest piece of advice I need. This PC will be running some games (Doom 3, Unreal Tournament, Tiger Woods…). Other than that, I most likely won’t be doing any intense graphics processing or video editing…but you never know what new hobby you’ll pick up in the future, right? So, I’ll probably get a middle of the line graphics card, somewhere in the $150-$250 price range (to be safe and conservative). I’ve read that the 6600GT and 6800GT run pretty hot and will probably require a cooler, which I’ve never installed, but it doesn’t seem difficult. Residing in a SFF, cooling is big issue. Any thoughts?

Memory
I’m going to go w/ 2GB of DDR2 667, but which brand should I get? Do I go with expensive RAM such as Crucial, or do I play it conservative? From what I understand, this isn’t an area to fiddle-dick around…most people are going with name brand chips.

Storage
As far as hard drives, I’m undecided what kind of setup (and brand) would be the best for my case. The onboard RAID is an amazing feature that should most likely be utilized. I like the idea of a RAID 0 for performance. But will I even be doing intense enough reading/writing to take advantage of a Raid 0? What constitutes so? Or do I go with a RAID 1 for the fault tolerance? I do have a lot of important data that I want to keep backed up (MP3’s, pictures, documents, etc). Would I be better off just buying an external Fire-wire HD and frequently back up? What make/model of HD’s should I go with. What’s the best Fire-Wire drive for the money? Decisions, decisions.

CD-ROM
I’m obviously getting a DVD-RW, but which brand? What do you guys use?

Sorry for being a noob and a mooch, but this is my first time working with a SFF, and I want to do it right the first time. I really appreciate the time and thought you put into your responses. Thanks guys!

-Ray

]]> By: Matt http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/#comment-10193 Matt Thu, 02 Mar 2006 22:46:26 +0000 http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/?p=377#comment-10193 Hi have one of these SD31P's and i must say it's the best piece of kit i've ever used. I have loaded it up with a Pentium D 830, 2GB of OCZ Gold Edition RAM, an XFX NVIDIA 7800GTX (yes you read it right, a 7800GTX - the long one!). You have to remove the air flow vent to get the 7800GTX in, but on Shuttle's website they say that it's fine to do so and wont affect cooling, and it hasn't. The system is QUIET! and i mean really quiet. You can make it sound like a hair dryer by cranking all the fans to full, and that makes the CPU & System etc drop to the 20's something's (degrees celcius). I hardly ever hear the 7800GTX, and i've actually had the lid off to check i had installed it properly it was that quiet! To put it into perspective, the noise of the harddrive (a Maxtor 250GB 7200rpm SATA) is by far the noisest part (except when the DVDRW spins up)). The HD is currently the bottle neck and i'm going to be replacing it with two 300GB SATA300 drives at least in RAID1 (yes, this little beast has RAID 0, 1 built in too!). (You can put a total of 3 harddrives in). I have got the DDR2 memory running at 667MHZ, but remember you have to up the voltage to get this to work (well i did with the OCZ, otherwise it stayed at 533) I have clocked the CPU to 3.31GHz (bear in mind it's a 3.0GHz chip). Havent had to adjust the fan speed (which is still set to ultralow) and the chip is still running about 39-40 (celcius). The CPU never tops about 48 and the system temp never tops about 58 and that's the hottest part. Running XP and testing Vista (Build 5308) on this is just great, there are never any glitches, and the system runs smooth... 3D Games like Doom3 and Call of Duty 2 look and run amazing, i'm running them at 1600x1200 and it's fluid, no jumps or glitches, (i'm not sure about frame rates, cause i'm really not that sad! it looks good, runs flawlessly and Doom3 still manages to scare the crap out of me so that's good enough!) The on board audio is a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live 24! so you have all the bells and whistles which go with that, it's a much nicer move than the RealTek solution, which is often built on boards these days. The 7800GTX is a single slot card, which leaves the PCIEx1 slot available, not many cards for this new slot yet, but i have seen a few starting to come out slowly. Build quality of this is outstanding, all the plastics are strong, black (no beige on the inside) and the stealth doors have a nice quality feel to them. The SD/CF card slots are also in a well positioned place. On the back, there's 4 USB2's, Firewire and an External Sata (ESATA) port for adding additonal storage. Overall this machine is a proper little powerhouse, it has managed to cope, with ease, anything i through at it... i did see some glitching with Doom 3 when AntiAliaisng was set to x16, but that is for proper gamers to worry about. I use this for multimedia, graphics, gaming, etc etc, highly recommended. If you havent bought one yet, get one now! i got most of the bits from Ebuyer, as those guys seem to be the cheapest on the net for PC parts...hope this has been useful. M. Hi have one of these SD31P’s and i must say it’s the best piece of kit i’ve ever used.
I have loaded it up with a Pentium D 830, 2GB of OCZ Gold Edition RAM, an XFX NVIDIA 7800GTX (yes you read it right, a 7800GTX - the long one!). You have to remove the air flow vent to get the 7800GTX in, but on Shuttle’s website they say that it’s fine to do so and wont affect cooling, and it hasn’t.
The system is QUIET! and i mean really quiet. You can make it sound like a hair dryer by cranking all the fans to full, and that makes the CPU & System etc drop to the 20’s something’s (degrees celcius).
I hardly ever hear the 7800GTX, and i’ve actually had the lid off to check i had installed it properly it was that quiet! To put it into perspective, the noise of the harddrive (a Maxtor 250GB 7200rpm SATA) is by far the noisest part (except when the DVDRW spins up)). The HD is currently the bottle neck and i’m going to be replacing it with two 300GB SATA300 drives at least in RAID1 (yes, this little beast has RAID 0, 1 built in too!). (You can put a total of 3 harddrives in).
I have got the DDR2 memory running at 667MHZ, but remember you have to up the voltage to get this to work (well i did with the OCZ, otherwise it stayed at 533)
I have clocked the CPU to 3.31GHz (bear in mind it’s a 3.0GHz chip). Havent had to adjust the fan speed (which is still set to ultralow) and the chip is still running about 39-40 (celcius). The CPU never tops about 48 and the system temp never tops about 58 and that’s the hottest part.
Running XP and testing Vista (Build 5308) on this is just great, there are never any glitches, and the system runs smooth… 3D Games like Doom3 and Call of Duty 2 look and run amazing, i’m running them at 1600×1200 and it’s fluid, no jumps or glitches, (i’m not sure about frame rates, cause i’m really not that sad! it looks good, runs flawlessly and Doom3 still manages to scare the crap out of me so that’s good enough!)
The on board audio is a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live 24! so you have all the bells and whistles which go with that, it’s a much nicer move than the RealTek solution, which is often built on boards these days. The 7800GTX is a single slot card, which leaves the PCIEx1 slot available, not many cards for this new slot yet, but i have seen a few starting to come out slowly.
Build quality of this is outstanding, all the plastics are strong, black (no beige on the inside) and the stealth doors have a nice quality feel to them. The SD/CF card slots are also in a well positioned place. On the back, there’s 4 USB2’s, Firewire and an External Sata (ESATA) port for adding additonal storage.
Overall this machine is a proper little powerhouse, it has managed to cope, with ease, anything i through at it… i did see some glitching with Doom 3 when AntiAliaisng was set to x16, but that is for proper gamers to worry about. I use this for multimedia, graphics, gaming, etc etc, highly recommended. If you havent bought one yet, get one now! i got most of the bits from Ebuyer, as those guys seem to be the cheapest on the net for PC parts…hope this has been useful. M.

]]> By: mark http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/#comment-10014 mark Mon, 06 Feb 2006 05:31:48 +0000 http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/?p=377#comment-10014 Drive bays seem fine to me. I have a photo of the exterior here: http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/01/new-hardware/ The inside of the optical drive bay door is black, so match it up with a black drive and it looks quite attractive. Overall the distinguishing feature of the "P" chassis is without a doubt the completely isolated cooling channel for the CPU. Getting the hot CPU exhaust straight out the side without blowing it through the case is quite ingenious. Drive bays seem fine to me. I have a photo of the exterior here:

http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/01/new-hardware/

The inside of the optical drive bay door is black, so match it up with a black drive and it looks quite attractive. Overall the distinguishing feature of the “P” chassis is without a doubt the completely isolated cooling channel for the CPU. Getting the hot CPU exhaust straight out the side without blowing it through the case is quite ingenious.

]]> By: Jeremy http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/archives/2005/10/14/shuttle-sd31p-notes/#comment-10013 Jeremy Mon, 06 Feb 2006 04:40:04 +0000 http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/?p=377#comment-10013 Thanks for posting this review. I'm looking at that exact case and while I'll probably opt for a different video card, the fitting of a Zalman GPU cooler is a priority - and an issue which prompted me to return the lovely SB83G5M. How pleased are you with the construction of the "stealth" drive bays? On the SB83G5M I was disappointed with the fact that they were unpainted beige-ish plastic, which completely ruined the image of quality and design of the exterior facade. Thanks for posting this review. I’m looking at that exact case and while I’ll probably opt for a different video card, the fitting of a Zalman GPU cooler is a priority - and an issue which prompted me to return the lovely SB83G5M.

How pleased are you with the construction of the “stealth” drive bays? On the SB83G5M I was disappointed with the fact that they were unpainted beige-ish plastic, which completely ruined the image of quality and design of the exterior facade.

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