Shuttles

[Sufficient]

My suitemate has a really small computer, and he says they're called "shuttles." I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with these ... perhaps building them ... pros and cons of getting one of these ... any transportation issues etc.

Also what's the price difference with shuttles and regular pcs?

[Necromotic]

SUFFICIENT. PLAY THE DAMN GAME YOU ASS.

[Mr. Peanuts]

well when i was at work experience at a comuter builds store, they had small PC cases

I built 1 of these and to be honest, there are no cons, just pros from a user's POV...

However from a builder's POV its slightly annoying to put everything in place as it can get a bit cramped, and the wiring is even more complicated

Theyre small, easier carriage and transportation
They cost just as much as normal ones, possibly less...
Theyre exactly like normal PCs, just smaller

Theyre quite rare really, there may be some kind of hidden con with them, as they are a rarity

EDIT: conc, am i going on about the right one here? or is there some kind of really mini ones?

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

There's really quite a few things you could be talking about, Peanuts.

First, let's clear it up as to what he's talking about. This is a Shuttle:

Or some variant thereof.

We have at least two of these out at the office--a couple of the research scientists like them because they're small and portable. They take them home with them when needed.

Now, seeing as how I'm the one who's had to build/maintain these things, there are both pros and cons.

The pros mainly deal with it's size, period. However, the cons deal with it's size as well. there's documented issues with expandability--if you use a beefy video card with it, sometimes the heatsink/fan combos are too big. Heavy modification is sometimes necessary depending on what you're putting into it. The rule of thumb is that if you're okay with what you can put into it (one, maybe two half-length expansion cards), then you're the prime buying public. If you want expansion opportunity, this isn't your best bet.

If you're looking for tiny machines, check out the Cappucino PC I put together for an eyetracking project I was working on:


Ahhh, a 1.3 GHz machine in a 6" x 6" x 2.5" package. There's small for ya. (Yes, I know you can go smaller.)

[Sufficient]

Well these are what I'm sorta talking about just to clarify ... http://us.shuttle.com/product_mini.asp ... supposedly the company "Shuttle" is the #1 producer of these and the original company that came out with them. I am leaning towards building one of these after looking at my friend's shuttle. He says it's awesome that he's able to carry his entire computer around when he goes back to Taiwan. Plus they even have carrying cases for these things.

Anyone else have experiences with these shoebox computers (that's what I like calling them now =P)?

[Sufficient]

Conc ... are the costs greater for the Shuttles-sized PCs compared to normal sized and even supermini sized?

And considering I don't plan on adding a superduper gfx card or playing many games on my comp, would the Shuttle type comp be fine? All I need is a bit of ram 512 meg - 1 gig, a CDR/RW burner (maybe DVD player), whatever standard Intel builtin gfx thing, decent sound quality (whatever standard builtin sound thing), at least 80 gig hard drive ... and I think that's it.

Conc ... do you also know anything about portable storage units. My suitemate also has this portable hard drive that looks like a shuttle. I dunno what connection he uses firewire or usb or whatever. But yeah, he has a 120 gig portable harddrive he uses to backup his comp and store movies music etc ... how much would, let's say 80 gig portable hd go for?

One more quick question ... do you think 17 in flatscreen monitor prices will go down a lot within a yr ... perhaps to 200-250 for a quality monitor?

[Mr. Peanuts]

well nah lol, that wasnt what i was talking about, they were slightly taller, basically a normal tower pc but smaller.

however at my work experience, they had this PC called the Mega PC, its basically a PC within a Hi-Fi system, and as the player / PC functions are separate, theres no lag on your PC and its quite like the one in those pics there, heres the pic of it at my work exp. place:

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

Personally, I think they're a little overpriced, but you're going to be paying a little bit more for a form factor that isn't necessarily the norm.

Generally, if you're building the thing, you'll pay anywhere from $160 - $400 for the case/motherboard alone (no CPU/no HD/no video card). So the costs are maybe a little higher, but not exclusively high. (Afterthought: check and make sure how many DIMM slots the motherboard can handle. I think it's 2, but if it's only one, moving from 512 MB to 1 G RAM may be pretty expensive.)

Portable HDs have become a lot more widely used in the past few years as disk prices have been steadily falling and capacities doubling every few months. I use one on a daily basis, and I can tell you that, like anything else, there are pros and cons. The pros are obvious--being able to grab 80+G from one place and move it to another as fast as you can travel there is a godsend in a lot of situations. They're super easy to use.

On the other hand, I also have to service portable HDs that other people around the office use. The problems with portable drives (the same with the Shuttle cases, in fact) is that once you put something in a "portable" case/form-factor, most people think that you can kick field goals with the thing. Now, yes, unless the computer/disk is ON, normal movement shouldn't be too big of a deal. But the problem comes in where people don't understand that it's still a piece of equipment that was never meant to be picked up/moved around a lot. Dropping it will cause problems, yes. Shaking it up and down will cause problems, yes. Your kid lighting it on fire will cause problems, yes (<-- actual question someone had here).

Portable HDs will go for whatever you want to pay for one. The low end of store-bought HDs (80G) will go for around $130-$150. You can now even go up to 1TB for a little over $1000. If you have an old HD, you can even grab an enclosure for it and turn it into a portable drive for less.

Hmmm, the monitor thing is a good question. Seeing as how I bought my flatscreens for around $800 a piece a little over a year ago, and now they're going for around $500, would think that it's going to be a fairly linear price drop. At least for a little while. I'd say you have a pretty good chance at a $250 17" LCD in a year's time, but that'll probably be the least they go for.

[Mr. Peanuts]

wow, a fucking terabyte of space... amazing.

well the one in the pic i posted just above was going for 300 pounds, and also I was told that it is easily upgradable, you can also fit your own gfx card instead of its standard onboard gfx

[wadi]

If you don't need 80gbs, or have the money for a portable HD, and want to eschew floppies all together, check out a USB jump drive is 32/64/128mg flavors. They're plug n play without any drivers on all Windows ME or later OSes, and they'll run you 50+ or less from any reputable vender. Try to get one with USB 2.0 if you can, since it's backwards compatible and pretty much blazing fast.

As prices keep falling, they'll probably replace floppy drives all together.

[bloodzombie]

I don't know why you guys hang all over conc's balls. You assume he knows shit just because he works on the forum. So he built a giant 6-foot computer.. big fucking deal. I could build a giant computer too if I was a huge lanky fuck, that doesn't mean you should sit in it all day waiting for him to stick his dick through the pre-drilled glory hole.

He doesn't know shit, his answer to every fucking question is "re-install windows". I fixed more computers last wednesday than he fixed every day of his whole damn life up until, but not including last wednesday.

have fun with your big gay 6 foot computer


ps. check out our new website that conc made... spaceshipgame.com

[Mr. Peanuts]

oh, the shame.