Shuttle Shuttle XPC Barebone System for Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64/FX CPU Model SN25P

• Reviewed by: emgdc

  Strengths: Modularity, easy set-up

  Weaknesses: SATA cables, 5.1 sound, IDE & Raid drivers, not completely silent, PCIe not widespread at the moment.

  Overall: This is the first PC I ever assembled. It is very easy to do, the instructions are very clear. It is very easy to add and remove pieces, due to the smart layout.Many people have trouble with the enclosed SATA cables. Mine were fine for 8 months, then they went wrong, and I had to replace them - I would recommend doing this from the beginning.Note that the NVIDIA drivers for IDE/RAID/hardware firewall are far from perfect. Go to the Nvidia site to download the latest ones.I use it as a HTPC (Home Theater PC), but I it find just a little bit to loud (though it's not awful). There's a pb with the external sound at the back, encountered by many users . I just tried it in stereo, and the sound is bad. However there's another stereo connector at the front, which deliver a very good sound quality, and there's an optical and coaxial digital outputs (I plan to connect those to an external amplifier).Beware that you can only fit PCIe (PCI express)cards, it won't accept regular PCI cards. You'll find plenty of graphic cards for the PCIe x16 port (there's no internal graphic capability on the motherboard), but for the other port, which is PCIe x1, the choice is prettu scarce at the moment.Don't get me wrong, I love it, but before buying it, be aware of its limitations !

• Reviewed by: dmitryliepinsh

  Strengths: It works very well for a while and is relatively quiet if you use Smart Fan BIOS setting.

  Weaknesses: Very unstable system if you use modern components such as 256MB videocards and powerful processors

  Overall: I have Shuttle XPC SN25P AMD Athlon 64(FX) Barebone System equipped it with AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor, Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PT 1GB DDR400 XMS3200, ATI Radeon X800 XL PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Video Card, Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160827AS 160GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer, Mitsumi MTM43WBLK 1.44MB 3.5in Internal Floppy Disk Drive and a CD/DVD drive.I am constantly having severe issues with this Shuttle XPC SN25P AMD Athlon 64(FX) Barebone System which has the aforementioned configuration. The system is highly unstable and can run virtually any application for several days or weeks and then suddenly crush after you open harmless MS Word or Excel program. Then Windows XP crashes more and more often and eventually you are not able to start Windows at all. The only way to get the computer back to normal state for a while is to remove the processor and then to put it back. Then the same problems reappear in several hours, days or weeks. My Shuttle XPC SN25P AMD Athlon 64(FX) Barebone System was once checked by Shuttle service and was found to be defectless. The rest of the components were checked by computer techs and they found no fault. I found out that the earlier BIOS version shipped in May 2005 with the barebone system had some problems. I downloaded the latest one available at Shuttle website but it did not help much. Also, clean Windows XP Pro installation did not help at all. Fans are working normally and processor and system temperatures are normal.The only component computer techs blamed for system instability was 350W power supply included in Shuttle barebone system. I was told that this power supply could not handle all the components and that I would need more powerful power supply (450W). However, Shuttle tech support denies such possibility in spite of the fact that it is relatively easy to calculate how much energy is going to be consumed by the system components. In addition, it is not possible to upgrade from 350W to 450W because the power supply used in Shuttle XPC SN25P AMD Athlon 64(FX) Barebone System is not a conventional one. Also, be careful if you purchase Shuttle XPC Barebone System from a reseller. Although it has 12 month warranty, you will not be able to send it back to Shuttle for money refund.

• Reviewed by: carepang

  Strengths: case is very slick and nicefits almost anywheredoes not weight that muchimproved air flow technology

  Weaknesses: bigger than usual shuttle systemspretty loudruns hot after 8+ hours

  Overall: overall this product is great. if you don't mind the noise it's all worth it. I use it for work and gaming so this system provided me with all i need. This chasis could be a little smaller like the previous ones but i guess that's what we get for having a bigger power supply.