Shuttle XPC?

ola

ola

Newbie
Hi,

Has anyone here tried one of these Shuttle mini-PCs like e.g. this one?

I think they would make a great portable rig as well as a studio DAW, as they are not crippled in the same sense as laptops when it comes to performance and the precense of a PCI slot for your pro(sumer) soundcard.

The early models were apparently quite noisy but has anyone tried the newer ones? Are they quiet enough to be useful? Any other studio related concerns when it comes to these little shoeboxes?

/Ola
 
ola said:
Hi,

Has anyone here tried one of these Shuttle mini-PCs like e.g. this one?

I think they would make a great portable rig as well as a studio DAW, as they are not crippled in the same sense as laptops when it comes to performance and the precense of a PCI slot for your pro(sumer) soundcard.

The early models were apparently quite noisy but has anyone tried the newer ones? Are they quiet enough to be useful? Any other studio related concerns when it comes to these little shoeboxes?

/Ola
Click to expand...

I usually stay away from onboard video cards that make use of shared system memory. All that does is take that much more RAM away from your DAW apps to support video operations.
 
That's true of course but RAM is pretty cheap and already 768MB should be enough, even if some is used by the video.

Any other considerations?
 
I saw one of those a few weeks back and asked the repair tech at a local shop about them and he didn't like them. Many of them come back for repair. They actually use many of the same types of components as laptops. They may even use the same mobos. I told him I was curious about using one for audio and he didn't seem to optimistic about it.

I was thinking about trying a rack mounted server as a daw. You can get them anywhere from 1-4 space rack sizes with real mobos and a few card slots for well under $1000. Then you can stick it in a SKB case with a rack mounted soundcard and preamps. Maybe use firewire and a MOTU interface or something.
 
They don't use the same mobos as laptops although they may of course use similar components. I read in the latest review from Tom's Hardware Guide that they're still very noisy. Far more than a regular, decently built, midi tower. That alone renders them useless for me. Too bad though, I really like the concept of such small, "real" PCs.
 
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