Shuttle XPC SG45H7 Barebones Mini PC LGA775 G45 DDR2 1PCI-E16 1PCI SATA HDMI Sound GBLAN 1394

Comment:
I had this for about a month. At first everything was ok. In the last week. I have been hearing a sound (most likely a fan dying) I checked to see if any fans were touching any wires and nope none were. But when started I touched the fan to see where the sound was coming from it was indeed was a fan.

Comment:
Runs stable, quiet, cool temps, easy installation, has all the connectors that I need. Their website has info on what cpu/memory hardware it works with.I used this for my firewall to replace my router or just as a quick spare sandbox for all purposes. Ran Prime in Windows7 and it worked fine then blasted the box with Windows 2003.When I plugged in my Ram sticks there was a green and amber light on LED1, LED2 on the mobo; The support at Shuttle assured me nothing was wrong.The top bay wasn't meant to have an enclosure but I was able to forcefully do it without affecting the outside look.My Setup:Core2 E8400; temps( idle: 33C, load: 46C, medium fan speed )Just using onboard videoKingston 2x2GB DDR-800 Value C5 ramAdonis 3.5" Bay SATA Trayless for 2.5" drivesUSB and PCI network cards This review was modfied by poster @ 10-12-09 05:20 PM

Comment:
This is the second Shuttle barebone kit I buy, and they have yet to disappoint me; in fact, I remember the first one to be a much bigger drag to assemble than this one has been.The case is very small, fits all the basics of a modern computer (dual/quad CPU, up to 16 GB of RAM, dual-slot video card, etc) and offers pretty much all the connectivity you'd ever need (save for SLI/Crossfire, and room for loads of expansion cards).Sturdy build, sleek and elegant design, quiet under normal load (however the fan can be noisy when under heavy load to cool down your CPU), the 300W SFC 80+ rated PSU can handle all the midrange stuff with easy, but may seriously limit what future video card you would like to upgrade to.A few things worth noting: adding any sort of PCIe card in the PCIe slot will deactivate the on-board video (Intel GMA 4500X with it's VGA and HDMI outputs); not worth worrying about if you add a better video card, but those wishing to use anything else may have a surprise. Also, the PSU comes with a single 6-pin PCIe connector, and given it's only 300W, trying to wiggle a second PCIe connector via an adaptor for a high-end (and power-hungry) video card may not be wise.Setup:Core 2 Duo E8400 w 3.0 GHz2 X 2 GB DDR2-800 RAMWD Black 7200 rpm 640 GBATI Radeon HD 3870 512 MB