Ongoing Shuttle barebones SB86i vs ST61G4 (1 Viewer)

[Jupek]

Hi!

Would like ask if someone here have opinion about these two Shuttle barebones:

BTX model SB86i:
http://global.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SB86i.asp

ATX model ST61G4 (discontinued model I guess but I may have access to one):
http://global.shuttle.com/Product/barebone/brb_OverView.asp?B_id=28

I have read reviews about these and Shuttle own acoustic reports but all comments about real life situations would be welcome. I also know that term "quiet" is pretty hard to define and different people define that term differently. What I'm looking for is system for my livingroom to be primary source of media (TV, DVD, pictures etc).

Here are those reports I have read so far:

http://www.shuttle.com/share/fae/hq/faq/sff/other/ST61G4 Acoustic.htm
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article179-page1.html

http://www.shuttle.com/share/fae/hq/faq/sff/other/SB86i Acoustic.htm
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article230-page1.html

 

[no_rspect]

wow this has to be the slowest reply to a question ever..
I tried the SB86i
not as good as I would have liked and definately not as simple to work with as the SB61G2 i had before
I have since swapped to an SD36G5 and this is much much better.. and i would dare say better suited for the job...its not the G5M with the screen...doh!

 

[Jupek]

wow this has to be the slowest reply to a question ever..

Heh...got answer anyway...I was suprised. Thanks for your input.

What would you say about noise on that SB86i? I know it is relative issue and other people propably say that something is noisy and someone says that it is quiet.

But what I would like to know is if you for example sit on livingroom decent distance away from tv and Shuttle unit, watching tv and there is normal ambient noice from household (children, kitchen machines etc), can you hear the noise of the standard fans on these products or you have to tweak those?

 

[Eeyore]

I dont know about these specific shuttle cases, but i once owned a SB64G2 about a year ago.

It was ok when running without load but as soon as the machine got some work to do, it buzzed like mad. the problems were the very small PSU and the fact that only one fan cooled the whole case

the problem was made owrse by the fact i ran a WD Raptor disk. after i replaced it with a seagate PATA, it was better

I believe the newer shuttle have external PSUs which is great, no noise and if you replace the standard fan with a quiet one from any reputable dealer, you can cut the noise right down.

 

[James]

AS far as I know the only shuttle with an external PSU is the ST62k (Zen). I have one and its ok, but limiting with on-board video and one PCI slot.

Problem with the shuttle fan system, is at boot up it goes full speed for a few seconds before slowing down. This happens with standby too, but the time is shorter.

 

[Eeyore]

Dell's do that too (full speed fan at boot)