Review by When the hardware in my old 800MHz desktop decided to start failing it placed me in a situation where I was on the market to buy a new desktop PC. At the same time, Half Life 2 was just released so I couldn't settle for anything smaller then a system capable of playing this demanding game.
I am not going to go into great details in this review. Other sites have done a fantastic job on this. For hardware and technical specs, see this review from SFFTech.com.
As far as I can tell, Shuttle doesn't ship to Canada so I wasn't able to get a pre built system. They do however provide barebone systems through Canadian Resellers. This will get you started with just the case and mainboard. It's then up to you to fill in the missing parts.
If you are not big on expanding, the Shuttle system didn't cost too much more then a regular desktop. With all the components the same, the price difference is only in the case, power and mainboard. The shuttle box I bought was $400 CND. I would estimate a full tower ranging from $250 CND and up.
Some quick points to start off. I'm not sure if my VGA monitor plug is larger then others but with the AGP video card in place, I can't screw down the right side of the case because the monitor cable covers it.
The front of the case looks great with everything hidden behind flip down doors. One thing to note when picking out a CD or DVD drive. If the front of the drive has a lip that hangs down below the bottom of the tray, it will catch on the Shuttle case door when closing. I also found the flip down door for the 3.5 bay hard to press in.
The AGP card sits on the left side of the case and the cards fan lines up perfectly with the case's mesh of air intake holes. On the opposite side, similar results with the CPU fan.
Expanding is limited. You have available 1 AGP, 1 PCI, 2 RAM slots, 1 large drive bay, 1 small drive bay accessible from front and 1 small drive bay not accessible from front.
Overall, the system is relatively quiet. It's not as quiet as my ThinkPad (when fans are on) but it's much better then the system I replaced. However at startup, the fans are really loud for a few seconds. Loud enough to laugh at.
You need to install drivers for the network so when installing Windows and you want to connect to a domain, you will be required to finish the install and then go back to connect to the domain later.
The overall size is great and worth the extra dollars. For an idea of how small it is relative to other items, here is a picture of the Shuttle box sitting on my desk next to a Thinkpad, Apple 20" Display and a 19" CRT monitor.
For a detailed review and all kinds of photos inside and out, check out the review from SFFTech.
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