I completed the assembly of my Shuttle SN95G5 mini-PC over the weekend :DFor those who haven't seen these SFF (Small Form Factor) systems, check out:http://www.shuttle.com/Specs for my new system:Shuttle SN95G5 case w/240W power supplyAthlon64 3500+ CPU2x256MB=512MB Twinmos-Winbond dual-channel PC3200 RAMGeCube Radeon X800XT 256MBSB Audigy2 soundcard160GB Maxtor DiamondMax9 7200RPM/8MB cache (primary)120GB Western Digital 120JB 7200RPM/8MB cache (secondary)Samsung DVD+/-RW (black, stealthed)Assembly was fairly easy considering the small size of the case but I did run into some problems:-The Audigy2 card would *just* barely fit between the drive bay, case frame, CPU cooling unit and motherboard components. It was a tight fit but I feel I need this card for the superior DAC quality and low latency in my music software. The built-in audio is probably good enough for most.-When I received my DVD Writer today I had to literally take the whole system apart again to reach to the drive bay and be able to install the drive. The whole operation took well over 1 hour instead of the normal 5 minutes for installing an optical drive. It also resulted in additional cable-clutter since I needed to use 4-pin power splitters and bigger IDE cables with connectors for two devices each (the Shuttle-supplied ones only come with 1 IDE header per cable).On a more positive note, the ICE (Integrated Cooling Engine), the CPU cooling setup used on this system is brilliant. It manages to be extremely efficent while still being very quiet. It does this by using heatpipes to combine the CPU fan and system ventilation/exhaust fan into one unit. This results in any heat generated by CPU immediately being exhausted through the rear vents of the case. This is a great advantage over normal CPU coolers which just feature a heatsink with a fan strapped on top. Those systems typically cause CPU heat to get trapped in the area around the heatsink, CPU fan only circulating the already heated air unless you have 2-3 exhaust fans spinning at full RPM.When using the automatic setting, CPU temp is automatically kept below about 50C by automatic adjustment of the fan. Fan speed never reached over 1600RPM even though I have two harddrives which add significantly to system heat.A 92mm fan spinning at 1600RPM is nearly silent. In fact, the loudest thing in the case when running games is actually the videocard fan.I haven't had time to really use the system much because I have a calculus exam in one week and an exam in vector algebra in two weeks :-lol I did install FS9 and ran it briefly however. Generally it's almost but not quite twice as fast as the old system (AthlonXP 2.2GHz, 9700 Pro). In a worst-case scenario I set up over Seattle, the old system pushed 13 FPS, the new one 22. The CPU also scored over twice as high in the RealStorm realtime-raytracing benchmark. The 3DMark '05 score was 5523p vs "20somethig" for the old system.If you're not interested in overclocking (while CPU runs nice and cool, chipset and videocard run a little hot for overclocking), and don't need to use more than 1 PCI slot+1 AGP, then I really recommend these systems over traditional, bulky and ugly "beige boxes". The system really looks nice with its stealthed drives, black brushed-metal and chrome finish and blue power LED. I always thought Macs look really good but this little box almost looks even better :)On the other hand, if you're the kind of computer user who uses all 5-6 PCI slots, 2 PCI-e slots for Nvidia SLI, and have 4 harddrives in RAID and 2 optical drives, and finally overclock your 3 GHz CPU to 4.5GHz with watercooling, then I think you're better served with a full-ATX tower :) Ie. there are limits to what kind of equipment you can cram into this box but that limit is set high enough for the vast majority of users.

Whilst that all sound very impressive I would just question whether a 240W PSU is going to be able to support all that on a prolonged basis- that is to say in the cases of running FS for several hours.It would be intereseting if you could post the PSU specs (Voltages/amps per rail)Certainly sounds ideal from the space- saving point of view.Dave

The specs for the PSU is 16A on the 12V and 3.3V rails, 19A on the 5V rail. The PSU is quite efficent considering its low wattage rating and the system itself draws less power than bigger ones.I actually searched some SFF forums and at one point, Shuttle addressed the issue. Shuttle themselves have actually tested the PSU in a system with an AthlonFX CPU and X800XT Platinum Edition so they basically guarantee it will work :)

Double post. I hate my ISP :-lol

As for PSU it

"You can

That certainly seems a quite efficient PSU. I only questioned it as the stated 240W seems low in comparison to many. However - as you say - the system demands are lower .Good luck with your new toy.Dave

Yeah but the watt numbers really don