Close Encounters of the Small Kind
by Jarred Walton on December 8, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Living with a Small Form Factor
Once everything is assembled, the internal differences between computer systems tend to disappear. This is not intended as a formal review of either of these systems, so we'll dispense with the benchmarks. For typical use, any modern system is going to be plenty fast. Only stressful applications like games, video editing, or 3D rendering/modeling will really benefit from a change in components. On a regular basis, I use everything from a 1.13 GHz P3 up through an Athlon XP 2500+, Pentium 4 2.8C to 3.4E, and Athlon 64 3000+ to 3800+. Benchmarks will usually tell a story of one being faster than another in a variety of tests, but other than the old P3 system, all of them feel pretty much the same in day-to-day use. (Even the P3 is sufficient for surfing the web and office work, of course, provided that you have a little patience.)So what do I notice now that I've changed from a decent quality ATX case to a SFF case? For one, the SFF units are both quieter than my ATX case - not by a large margin, particularly when I use my fanbus to turn the RPMs down, but enough that you will notice the lack of noise. My old system actually had a Western Digital WD800JB drive in it, and I had never thought much about the noise that it was making. Moving it to the Shuttle eliminated a lot of the fan noise, and suddenly, the high-pitched whine of the hard drive could be heard clearly in my living room. It was annoying enough that I ended up ghosting the drive over to a Seagate model to eliminate the noise. How I managed to cope with the noise level of my old setup amazes me.
We have several recordings for those who want to compare the noise levels. These recordings were done with a Creative MuVo NX, so they don't have amazing fidelity, but they should give you a decent idea of the noise levels of various setups. First, we have the Antec 3700-BQE with all the fans at minimum RPM, and then, here they are at maximum RPM. I use the maximum RPM setting when overclocking the CPU and graphics card while running 3D games; at stock clock speeds, it is definitely not required. Also worth mentioning is that the CPU has the Zalman CNPS7000A cooler on it, which is regarded as one of the quietest CPU coolers. In contrast, we have the Shuttle and ASUS SFF units, measured at the same distance of 12 inches from the case. Both recordings are of the units powering on, and the process is the same on each. First, the fan spins up to full speed right after booting, and then it slows down to a more typical speed. During all of our testing, the fan RPMs noise never seemed to rise above the default level, so the initial two seconds is the only time that we really hear the fans. For those who are interested, here is the recording of the Shuttle case with my "loud" Western Digital drive - the difference is not as noticeable in the recordings as in person due to the low quality microphone, unfortunately.
Click to enlarge.
Beyond the noise factor, about the only thing noticeable is that my large case is no longer sitting on top of my desk. Instead, there is a smaller, sleeker-looking case sitting in its place. My cases, incidentally, are all sitting on top of desks. Anyone who has experienced the joys of a toddler can guess why - no sooner did my daughter start crawling and walking when the power buttons on my computers started calling her name. Many of you probably don't have that concern, but if you have to put a case up on top of a desk for whatever reason, SFFs are very nice to have. It has been a while since I lived in a cramped college dorm room, but if memory serves me correctly, that would also be an ideal situation to have a smaller case - especially when paired with a 17" LCD.
One last problem that I encountered after a few days bears mention. I needed to use my printer, and I hadn't bothered reconnecting it after the box swap for whatever reason. I have an older Laser printer that still works fine, but while it can use a USB connection, it has some problems. The printer is one of the first models to support a USB connection; if it isn't powered on when the system is booted, Windows won't see the USB device and you have to unplug the USB cable, power on the printer, and then plug it into a different USB port. It also tends to "disappear" and require the same steps to be repeated once every couple of days if I leave my computer running. However, the printer also supports an LPT connection that eliminates these problems, making that the preferred connection. I discovered to my dismay that the Shuttle box lacks an LPT port - it just hadn't occurred to me to look for one. After I configured these two units, I was very glad that the ASUS box included an LPT port. If you still use an older printer, you should probably pay attention to that detail; about half of the SFF units that I've seen opt not to include a parallel port.
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archcommus87 - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
Sounds good to me, looking forward to the review!My main issue is two expansion slots, does not allow for sound card and TV tuner.
JarredWalton - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
You'll have to pardon a few errors and omissions on my part. As I stated in the article, this is my first time using such a system. Combo floppy/flash drives are a possibility, as are external devices. There are *numerous* add-on parts available for the Shuttle XPC line, including WiFi and LPT. The main point that you simply can't fit as much stuff in a SFF case as you can in an ATX case still stands, but you have to take that point with the general tone of my article: you don't *NEED* to have that much stuff inside your case - at least, most of us don't.The upcoming SFF roundup will try to address such concerns as the integrated audio solutions, heat output, noise output (measured with an actual dB SPL device), case temperatures, upgradeability and optional components, etc.; and of course, price will also play a role. This was a first look/first encounter article and not a formal review. This is more of a "why should *anyone* consider an SFF in the first place" article. In two words: noise, size.
Comments in this thread are certainly noted and I will do my best to take them into account in the formal reviews. Thanks!
darkrequiem - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
Contrary to the author's statement, you CAN have a flash card reader, floppy, LPT, wireless, etc. in the Shuttle system. I have an SN45GV2, and I bought Shuttle's 802.11G module, which uses a USB header on the motherboard, and I got a Mitsumi floppy drive, flash card reader combo drive that uses the external 3.5" bay, and the card reader connects to the motherboard's other USB header. The motherboard has a header for an LPT port, and Shuttle sells a ribbon cable to connect it to a punch-out on the back of the case. This leaves me room for my NEC 2510A DVD burner, a 120GB ATA133 Maxtor drive, a Radeon 9800Pro 256MB AGP card, and a currently free PCI slot that will eventually be home to an ATI HDTV Wonder. For the curious, I'm running an Athlon XP 3200+ and 1GB of Corsair TwinX DDR400 with 2-2-2-5 timings.Phantronius - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
#31Depends on peoples need. In my case, I use my Audigy 2 as onboard sound for the Shuttles still takes up to many CPU cycles.
You cannot use any other PSU except Shuttles mini PSU and no other party makes PSU's that will fit inside shuttles case. You COULD hook up an ATX PSU to the outside, but then its gonna look like hell. Shuttles do not need large PSU's as you can only put in so much into them.
Floppies are only really needed for BIOS flashing , RAID installations and other applications, again, it boils down to users needs.
If you need pics of the inside of the SN95G go here and look at the pictures to the left
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...
archcommus87 - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
Thing is with Shuttles, since there are only two slots in the back, and since we'd all have AGP or PCI-E video cards, we can only have one PCI card. Many of us have a TV tuner. So...what to do with sound? Must you use an onboard solution?How cramped is it inside exactly? I'm sure some pics will help with that when the review comes around.
Can you use any PSU? Of course not. Can you buy ones individually that are the right size?
And, back to the floppy drive issue, you can use a jump drive for transferring small files from place to place, and a bootable CD for Memtest. What about flashing BIOSes? Can that be done without a floppy? And, if so, do we need our floppies at all?
nostriluu - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
Jarred, thanks for your comment. Anandtech is a pretty influential site, perhaps they could pick up a serious green edge before we are drowning in all the hardware you made us buy. ;) Lessee.. performance in games, databases, heat, noise, and company environmental committment, yes I think that works. Difficult at first but leading edge.
JarredWalton - Thursday, December 9, 2004 - link
My personal take is that most people that buy a SFF are going to get rid of the entire system when they're ready to upgrade rather than just replacing components. In fact, I think a lot more people do that with ATX systems than most frequent upgraders think. About the only time I swap motherboards within a case is when a motherboard dies an early death; otherwise, I'm more likely to just buy a new case and sell the existing system. Granted, SFF cases cost a lot more than an ATX case, but when you really look at what's included it isn't such a terrible price to pay.As far as heat is concerned, we will be attempting to address that in our SFF roundup by including a more modern graphics card and running some system stress tests. I've played quite a few games and have not noticed any heat issues yet, but when paired with a 6800 GT or X800 Pro (or faster) graphics card, it may cause the fans to run at a higher RPM.
Nostriluu, the environment certainly can use some protection. I can assure you, however, that my introduction had nothing to do with clearing a guilty conscience. It was just an itroductory paragraph - when you're experiencing writer's block and trying to get an article written, you never know what will come out. :)
Andyvan - Thursday, December 9, 2004 - link
Note that micro-ATX based SFF have 1 AGP and 3 PCI slots.-- Andyvan
archcommus87 - Thursday, December 9, 2004 - link
Also, with an SFF, how likely are you to be able to buy a new mainboard but keep the current case if you ever want to upgrade?And how much of an issue is heat really when gaming?
archcommus87 - Thursday, December 9, 2004 - link
Bootable ISO CD images. Sounds good, but is it as convenient as a floppy? What about flashing a BIOS?Who here doesn't have one?