Preferred Shoebox

Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Jan 17, 2002
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Does anyone have any strong feelings one way or the other about any variety of Shoebox computer? Shuttle? Aopen?
Has anyone tried the small "cube" cases that accept a standard u-ATX board?

Am I going to be able to get away with a midrange gaming card (X800GT) in one of those things?
 
Groltz do you have any serious heat issues with your Shuttle? Any concerns about the PSU? That machine is pretty well maxed out; I guess if there's no heat problem, it's a testament to the Shuttle design.

Coug, that Aspire cube-thing is supposed to be nice except for the included PSU and really crummy handle. I certainly like the idea of buying a shoebox that can actually take standard, upgradeable parts.
 
Mercutio said:
Groltz do you have any serious heat issues with your Shuttle? Any concerns about the PSU?
Click to expand...

None on both counts, Merc.

No cooling problems, and that's with a Raptor in there for a HD.

The PSU pushes that 4800+ X2 at 100% utilization (2 instances of FAH) 24/7 and has never given a single problem.
 
The PSU in the Aspire is 420W. I'm pretty sure it is superior to what's in any other cube. I'll tell you more when I'll receive it (the order is placed, but it's unfortunately back-ordered so I don't know when I'm going to receive it).
 
CougTek said:
Get the µ-ATX motherboard of your choice and put it inside an Aspire X-Qpack.

I have ordered one without the side windows and I'm waiting the mailman to ring at my door.
Click to expand...
I finally received it and it isn't that small. It probably has more than half the volume of my Antec Sonata II. I haven't started to transfer my µ-ATX board into it because it is still too cold. I should do this later today.
 
It took me around an hour an a half to transfer my system from my old enclosure to the X-Qpack, but I took my time. I encountered no major difficulty. It felt quite flimsy, but when everything's fixed and screwed, it isn't all that bad. The enclosure is very light. The PSU too, which isn't such a good new in itself. But everything works and it isn't too noisy. That's what important.

A full-size ATX PSU would fit in (but reversed, so those with dual fans would suck air front the top - i.e not much air at all) if you don't put an optical drive in the top 5¼ bay. After an hour of folding@home, the temp of the HDD is 25C and the top of the PSU is 32C.
 
The reviews of the Q-pack at Newegg suggest that the Aspire PSU a really terrible unit. That pretty much matches my experience with Aspire PSUs.
 
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