Article

The Shuttle SN41G2

One of the major obstacles that beginners face when wanting to build a computer from scratch has been the choice of parts and the knowledge of how they properly fit together. Let's face it, putting a computer together is not like building a Lego construction; almost every device uses a different type of connector and even the screws come in two flavors - standard and metric. And more to the point, which parts perform better and offer the features that won't leave you facing the hell that is obsolescence? Well, if this description sounds all too familiar to you, take heed - a liberator has arrived from Shuttle Inc.

Enter the The Shuttle XPC model SN41G2 is a computer that comes pre-built with all of the high-performance components that will keep you cutting-edge for awhile (hey, nothing lasts forever, especially in this industry). Key to this specific model is the NVIDIA nForce2 chipset, which offers support for the AMD Athlon XP processor, integrates the NVIDIA GeForce4 MX graphics, and provides a veritable cornucopia of performance enhancing features and key connectivity ports including FireWire and USB 2.0, both of which are being used by the ever growing number of popular portable storage devices and gadgets now flooding the market.

The sheer number ports packed into the Shuttle XPC is by far it's most prominent and desirable feature. And if you're unclear as to what exactly these ports are good for, check out the this scan taken directly off the Shuttle XPC. We think you'll agree that Shuttle has adequately included the connectivity support that typical consumers and even prosumers may need. Ports on the back of the Shuttle XPC include a PS/2 keyboard and mouse port, one serial port, two FireWire (1394) ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one Ethernet 10-100 LAN port, two VGA video ports supporting dual monitors, and one S-Video port that can be used to with any S-Video capable television.

Of course, ports that are supposed to be easily accessible placed on the back of a computer have always left us scratching our heads. Why on earth do designers always hide these ports in hard to reach areas? These days, even Dell is catching on, adding a few ports, mainly USB, to the front of the box, typically underneath a panel of some sort. Shuttle displays these ports in plain site on the front of the box as well as the back. Ports on the front of the Shuttle XPC include two USB 2.0 ports, one line-out headphone jack, a microphone jack, one FireWire (1394) port, and an optical audio SPDIF. The Shuttle XPC also has drive bays that support a single 5.25 inch drive for a CD or DVD drive and two 3.5 inch drive bays that can be used with both floppy and hard drive sized devices.

The Shuttle XPC comes packed in a nice small box with convenient handle. Inside are all of the components and accessories needed to build the Shuttle XPC except for the processor, memory, optical drive, floppy drive, and hard drive, all of which you will need to purchase or acquire separately. Below is a complete list of the features included inside the Shuttle XPC.

Shuttle XPCs ship with all of the essential accessories necessary to connect all of those components mentioned above that you'll need to buy separately. Clockwise from the top, the Shuttle XPC package includes a XPC color Installation Guide with step-by-step instructions on putting the Shuttle XPC together (yes, everything covered here is essentially covered in the booklet in both English and Chinese), the FN41 User's Manual with graphic illustrations of the motherboard, jumper settings, and BIOS settings, the CPU protection shim, two flexible front feet that can be used to prop the front of the Shuttle XPC up higher than the back, a bag of installation screws, a CD-ROM IDE ribbon cable, an ATA-100 ribbon cable, a floppy ribbon cable, and the installation CD-ROM containing the FN41 User's Manual in Adobe PDF format, the NVIDIA nForce chipset, VGA, and USB 2.0 driver (for WinXP), and an Award flashing utility for the firmware.

Selecting the Right Components

We chose the Western Digital Special Edition EIDE Hard Drive mainly because of price. However, one technical detail really clinched our decision in the end. This particular drive comes in many sizes, starting at 80GB, which is the size we purchased, running all the way up to 250GB in size. Currently, the 80GB drive is priced in the sweet spot in that it costs less per gigabyte than its larger brothers or drives from other manufacturers. The technical point that grabbed our attention was the 8MB buffer, which Western Digital claims is the largest available today in a 7200 RPM desktop EIDE hard drive. Of course, we put the drive through a gauntlet of benchmarks to see how well it performed and were quite shocked with the results. Let's just say this drive reaches new heights in speed unforeseen in this reviewer's lab.

The BTC CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive (model BCO1612IM) was on sale, which was its main selling point aside from the fact that it is a combination DVD-ROM reader and CD-R/RW recordable/rewritable drive. Since the Shuttle XPC has only a single 5.25 inch drive bay, we wanted a drive that could read both DVD-ROM and CD-ROM media and be able to record CD-ROMs as well. Unfortunately, DVD-R/RW recorders, which can do everything this drive can with the added ability to record DVD-ROM media, was just too much money at this time. Typically, these Combo drives top out at $100, but this drive was $30 off at the time, which made it very attractive. After doing a bit of online research, we learned that ZDNet gave this drive an Editor's Choice award. As for speed, the BTC Combo Drive has a 2 Megabyte (MB) buffer and can read DVD-ROM media at 12X speed (16MB per second), can read CD-ROM media at 40X speed (6 MB per second), can write CD-R media at 24X speed (3.5 MB per second), and can rewrite CD-RW media at 10X speed (1.5 MB per second).

Unfortunately, the person the box is being built for does not have a broadband Internet connection, so we needed to purchase a modem. We chose the Broadxent PCI 56K Fax Modem mainly because of price ($30 with a $10 rebate) and the fact it is a full hardware based modem. What do we mean by this? Some modems, often called Winmodems, do not contain the hardware that is necessary for handling compression and error control, relying instead on the processor to handle these chores. Of course, this will impact system performance and can also affect connection speed depending on the system hardware and operating system. We recommend looking at the package closely when buying a modem and to spend the extra few dollars to get a fully hardware based modem that can do compression and error control without the need of the processor's assistance. For example, this particular modem from Broadxent came in two flavors - one priced at $30 and another at $20. The lower-priced version was a Winmodem and stated so on the packaging. Otherwise, just make sure the modem you purchase supports the latest standards including V.92 and V.90 and you should be fine.

Equipping a Shuttle Box

The outside casing of the Shuttle XPC is easily removed via three thumbscrews located on the back of the unit. As you can see, all of the cables that are already inside the box have been connected for you. When building a system, the physical installation of the motherboard can take some time and can actually be quite frustrating, depending on the quality of the case being used. Typically, pre-built systems that come with the motherboard preinstalled contain features that are substandard, especially most systems that use an integrated video chip. With the Shuttle XPC, and specifically the Shuttle XPC model SN41G2, this is not the case. The integrated features of the NVIDIA nForce2 chipset are very competative and the ability to upgrade the integrated graphics to a full-featured video card is possible via the AGP 8x connector. This is one powerful little monster indeed.

A glimpse into the guts of the Shuttle XPC shows just how little space there is between components. The memory slots, conveniently painted blue, are tucked underneath the drive tray while the processor sits farther back on the board where a little more breathing room is available. One thing is for sure, a conventional processor heat sink and fan combination cooler could not have been considered in these tight confines.

Here we see the drive tray removed from the Shuttle XPC. This drive tray is where the CD/DVD optical drive, floppy drive, and hard drive are mounted (in that very order from top to bottom). Only two screws hold the drive tray in place, making its removal simple and convenient.

Shuttle's Heat Pipe and I.C.E. Technology

Since the drive tray literally sits on top of the processor, there is no room for a standard metal-finned heat sink or fan as is typically required and used in high performance desktop systems. Even if there were enough space to use a heat sink and fan combination, the constrained space of the form factor would prevent the proper airflow over the top of the heat sink resulting in a very hot and possibly fried processor. Instead, Shuttle has designed its own heat pipe technology that draws the generated heat off of the processor and pushes it out of the back of the box by way of an oversized fan.

While Shuttle didn't invent the idea of the heat pipe, it has managed to patent its own use of the technology and has branded it as Integrated Cooling Engine technology, which of course is an acronym called I.C.E. Shuttle I.C.E. actually borrows the concept from the heat pipe technology used in thin notebooks and other thermally constrained devices where fans are not a consideration. Whereas heat pipe technology was considered drastic up until recently, its use is becoming more accepted, especially with fully engineered computer cases like this one. As can be seen in the picture, liquid is cooled by the fan and then sent down to the processor where it flows over the top of the processor die, cooling it down. The heated liquid vaporizes and then rises back up through the heat pipe where it is drawn out of the case by the very same fan. Best of all, the fan is actually thermostat controlled; meaning the speed of the fan varies based on the cooling requirements of the heat pipe. We have found that it always throttles up to its highest speed when the Shuttle XPC is first turned on but quickly slows down to a quiet hum once the operating system boot process has begun.

To fully remove the heat pipe assembly, the fan must be removed first. This is accomplished by unscrewing and removing the four thumbscrews located on the back of the Shuttle XPC. Once these are removed, the four thumbscrews that mount the bottom of the heat pipe assembly to the motherboard need to be loosened and removed. We found that using a screwdriver helped here due to limited finger space.

Here we see both the fan and the heat pipe assembly removed from the Shuttle XPC. Notice how the bottom of the fan is cut away so that the top of the heat pipe assembly can fit easily inside. The top of the four heat pipes are surounded by and encased within stacked pieces of thin metal like blinds turned sideways. This creates more metal surface area in and around the heat pipes that the fan can bow across to further cool the liquid contained inside the pipes.

Installing the Processor and Memory

We chose the AMD Athlon XP 2600+ processor that supports a Front Side Bus speed of 333MHz. This higher bus speed of the 333MHz version of the AMD Athlon XP lines up well with the 400MHz DDR SDRAM memory we found for the system. While this may seem like Greek to you, don't be dismayed; these terms are more easily understood once you start researching your choices and are faced with the other at the store. Just keep in mind that the higher gigahertz speed of the processor the better it will perform. The same goes with memory. Just make sure to check the system specifications of the Shuttle XPC prior to purchase to make sure it can support the processor and memory speeds you are considering. The only reason we say this is because newer and faster processors seem to surface quicker than fascists to a book burning. You can view Shuttle's processor support lists although you will need to have Adobe Reader to view them.

You will notice that the AMD Athlon XP fits into the socket in only one direction. The anodized copper processor shim guarantees that the heat pipe doesn't accidentally short circuit the processor and it also better protects the processor from being crushed by the heat sink portion of the heat pipe when it is installed or removed. Various people claim these shims also reduce heat by 2-4 degrees, but we cannot substantiate that claim.

Inserting the processor is simple; just lift the brown arm on the side of the socket, insert the processor with the two gold corners facing the bottom of the socket as shown, and then push the arm down locking the processor in place. You will notice the white goop, which is actually thermal paste, on the processor die. Yes, the square in the middle of the processor is the actual CPU. The rest of the package consists of capacitors and the pins (located underneath the processor) that connect it to the motherboard. In the case of the AMD Athlon XP, the processor die is in a flip-chip package, meaning the processor die is exposed and can be easily crushed, so be careful when spreading the thermal paste and when tightening the heat pipe down on top of the die. The XPC Installation Guide visually shows how the thermal paste is applied although it says nothing about how it should be spread across the surface. We recommend placing your finger in a plastic sandwich baggie to spread it around since the thermal paste is toxic and hard to wash off. The secret is to apply it as thin as possible while still covering the die to the point that you cannot read the lettering on it. Basically, thermal paste is used to fill in the microscopic gaps, scratches, and inconsistencies of the die to better ensure even contact to the heat sink, or in this case, the heat pipe. Be careful though, too much paste can actually act as a heat insulator rather than a heat conductor.

The copper base is actually quite easy to put back into place if you're careful. Patience is the key here since you are placing a large metal covering directly over the top of an exposed, extremely fragile processor die. Gently place the assembly on top of the processor, aligning the four thumbscrews with the holes on either side of the processor socket. Tighten each, starting with one corner and then moving on to the opposite corner afterwards. This will ensure it is tightened evenly across the top of the processor die. Once the heat pipe assembly is in place, you will need to reinstall the fan by screwing in the four thumbscrews on the backside of the Shuttle XPC.

NOTE: Do not forget to plug the fan cord back into the motherboard or your Shuttle XPC will overheat and will shut off just seconds after it is turned on. We tested this, knowing full well that we could have fried the processor, and found that the Shuttle XPC properly detects the processor heat and shuts down before the unit and processor is damaged, so don't worry.

When purchasing memory, we lucked out and found 512MB of 400MHz DDR SDRAM memory on sale for only $55. We only later realized that it was a one-day sale or we would have gone back and snapped up more. Memory is very inexpensive these days and we recommend buying it now while it's still cheap. Unfortunately, nobody can accurately guess when this may change, much like pork bellies and other commodities, so take advantage of the prices while you still can. Also, it's better to buy brand name memory than not since the quality of the memory chips really do make a difference to the longevity of your computer.

A closer inspection of this picture will reveal two DIMM slots; one labeled as DIMM1 and the other as DIMM2. If only one piece of memory is to be used, it would need to be placed in the slot labeled DIMM1. Memory is easily installed by opening the two white jaw-like clamps located on either side of the bright blue memory slots and then aligning the memory with the groove, making sure to match the notch in the middle of the groove correctly with the notch in the memory. After you are sure it has been placed correctly, simply push down on both ends of the memory until the white clamps close. This will securely lock and hold the memory in place. Don't worry, the process is much easier than it sounds.

NOTE: Always touch a metal surface before handling memory to discharge any static electricity that may be built up on your body. The last thing you want to do is zap the memory when you grab it, destroying it in the process.

NOTE: Also, if you turn the Shuttle XPC on and nothing happens, check to see if the memory has been seated properly. If it's not, nothing will happen.

This picture shows how the memory looks once it is installed. These two DIMM slots accept only 184-pin DDR SDRAM memory and the Shuttle XPC can support 64MB up to 2GB of system memory. When purchasing memory, we recommend buying at least 256MB. When selecting memory, it's better to purchase larger sized memory in a single piece rather than in two pieces since this will leave you room to add more later. If installing Windows XP, this is the bare minimum as it has some very high memory requirements for an operating system. If installing Linux, you can probably get by with as little as 64MB of memory, but we recommend getting at least 128MB whatever you install, especially since it's so cheap (inexpensive).

NOTE: Those two blue and white connectors just above the memory are the ports where the hard drive and DVD/CD drives are connected.

Mounting the Optical, Floppy, and Hard Drives

The manual explains the installation of the drives in more detail. We think a simple picture like this suffices. As you can see, the CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive fits in the top of the drive bay. Just below it is the floppy drive (we chose black to better match the black accents on the Shuttle XPC box) and the hard drive is at the very bottom. Of course, drives need to be placed into the drive tray in the reverse order, starting with the hard drive at the bottom. Once placed, simply use the screws that are included with the drives to secure them in place.

NOTE: If using the screws that come with or with the Shuttle XPC, keep in mind there are two kinds; the thicker screw with larger threads is a standard screw while the thinner screw with smaller threads is a metric screw. Generally, hard drives use standard screws while floppy and optical DVD-ROM and CD-ROM drives us metric screws. If the screw you are using doesn't seem to fit, you may be using the wrong type. Do not force the issue - the threading in the thin metal bodies of these drives can be easily stripped.

One thing to keep in mind is the direction of the hard drive. Make sure the hard drive is installed such that the cable connectors are visible on the back of all the drives. This will make it easy when plugging in the Since the optical and floppy drives have lettering and slots on the front, this is not an issue. Hard drives, on the other hand, can easily be installed backwards. Even we veterans do this without thinking sometimes.

Ok, this part can be tricky. Optical drives and hard drives must be properly configured as either a Master or a Slave. Since the Shuttle XPC only has room for one drive per channel, this is easy; make the hard drive a Master and the optical drive a Master and use seperate cables to connect them to the Primary and Secondary IDE Channels. If you were installing multiple drives to the same cable, the drive that would be placed at the end of the cable is always the Master while the drive placed inside on the second connector would be the Slave. Use the Jumpers on the drives to set these properly and read the instructions that come with the drives for clarification on that particular device because some are different. One such example is the hard drive where it may need to be set as a Master Single Drive for proper functioning as a standalone drive.

For optical drives it is easy - simply refer to this picture. The jumper on the top is aligned under the letters MA for Master and the one on the bottom is aligned under the letters SA for Slave. Almost all optical drives use this configuration.

You will need to align the drives properly in the drive bay so they will fit flush with the front of the case when you place them in the Shuttle XPC. We recommend using the drive covers, which you need to remove prior to fitting the drives into the drive tray, as guides. Don't worry, if you do this wrong, you will understand the problem and it only takes a few minutes of moving screws to correct a drive misalignment. You are not done yet - the cables need to be installed next.

Connecting the Cables

Thankfully, Shuttle makes the entire process of connecting data and power cables much easier by providing a detailed walkthrough of its own in the XPC Installation Guide (as pictured here). This actually saves us, and you, another dozen pictures or so. Here is an especially detailed section shows the connection of cabling to the various devices. If you click on this picture and view the larger version, you will notice that the two different types of screws we explained above are shown here as well.

The floppy connector is actually tucked underneath the power supply. Connecting this up can be tricky, but again, all his covered in detail in the manual.

Cable Spaghetti anyone? While this mess looks bad, it really isn't. Before placing the drive tray back in the Shuttle XPC, we recommend connecting the cables first. Trust us. Getting your fingers inside the case with the drive tray in place is near impossible.

As you can see here, all of the cables are properly connected and the drive tray is ready for reinsertion back into the Shuttle XPC. But before you do this, make sure those cables are tucked away neatly to better ensure airflow for the fan. This is the time to use those origami skills you learned in the Scouts.

Inserting PCI and AGP Cards

So, if you have a PCI modem or any other type of PCI card, this is the time to install it. The same goes for an AGP video card, which fits into the darker brown AGP slot located next to the lighter tan PCI slot. Since the Shuttle XPC is smaller than most machines, it doesn't have near as many PCI slots. Of course, since networking, audio, FireWire, USB, and even video are already built into the Shuttle XPC, those additional slots are unneeded.

To gain access to the slots, the screws that hold down metal piece keeping the card slats (those metal thingamajigs that cover the empty slots) in place must first be removed. After this, the card can be placed in its proper PCI or AGP slot. Once this is done, lower the metal piece down and put the screws are put back into place. This method, while a little cumbersome, actually holds the cards in place better than other methods we've seen in cases.

Here is the PCI modem card in all its installed glory. We could just weep...

And here is the back of the Shuttle XPC after the PCI modem has been installed. As you can see, the telephone jacks are clearly visible and are ready for some low-bandwidth goodness (if one can actually consider a slow phone connection as goodness).

All Done!

Voila! The Shuttle XPC is now complete and ready for the installation of your favorite operating system. Remember, if the machine turns off frequently shortly after it is powered on for what seems like no reason at all, it is most likely because the fan was not plugged back into the motherboard. Check that first and then check proper seating of the memory module(s).

Don't forget to install the NVIDIA nForce2 drivers on the Shuttle Installation CD or your networking and audio will not work properly and your video resolution will look like poop.

If you're still hurting for goodies, check out the various accessories offered by Shuttle. The XPC Bag is not as silly as it seems, especially if your Shuttle XPC has been built for gaming. We can't think of a better way to transport one XPC back and forth to LAN parties. A Parallel port printer cable is available for non-USB printers, a Card Reader that supports numerous flash memory types, and a Wireless LAN Module (802.11b) is available with a very cool looking antennae.

So what are you waiting for? build your own today! Class dismissed.