Shuttle XH61 LGA 1155 Mini ITX Barebone System w/ HDMI + Intel Pentium G620 2.6GHz LGA 1155 Dual Core Desktop Processor $185 + Free Shipping

Quote from tp4tissue : Um... When you put this setup together, It's going to be just as messy inside, this is the nature of all compact builds.

no, it wont.

i own a few shuttle systems simliar to this and they provide cables of specific lengths for optical and sata drive. not to mention for this configuration vs a standard board + mATX chassis you buy off the shelf, you dont have to deal with things like an ATX power supply cable bundle, or stretching/routing front USB cables (since the board and case as designed as one) to fit.

edit: after looking at some images online, it appears they did use a ATX connector on the board. odd choice for a unit that comes with a DC power supply. some of their other systems are not like this. however you can tell the cables are custom length to fit, unlike what youd be dealing with attempting to route a standard board + random mATX chassis. this build will most certainly be neater and more compact.

Quote from AkumaX : Sandy Bridge is HD2000/HD3000. Ivy Bridge is HD2500/HD4000. Don't think this will ever get the upgrade to Ivy anyway. Also, if you want to Hackintosh, it's best to get an HD3000 chip (noted by model #'s in your post). Otherwise, the highest version of Hackintosh you could do would be Snow Leopard 10.6.3 (anything after won't work, you'll need HD3000 for 10.6.8 or Lion 10.7/Mountain Lion 10.8)

Good info. Thanks for the heads up. Repped.

I don't pay too much attention to integrated GPU. Yeah, the H61V will support Ivy, but not the H61.

Quote from dorkino : I just spent 30 minutes hooking up 3 different computers to my TV to stream a college football game from ESPN3. Ultimately, my desktop (specs in sig) won out as the only PC up to the task. I first tried a single-core Acer laptop w/ 8GB RAM and ATI 4200 graphics chipset that I had purchased 2 years ago. CPU hit 100% and video was horrible. Next was the Asus PC that I bought specifically for a HTPC a couple of years ago. It has a dual-core C2D chip in it. Nothing fancy or new, but 2 cores. Video was much better, but stuttered a lot when the camera zoomed out. Lesson learned: don't skimp on the CPU when considering an HTPC.

hate to say it, but the GPU, drivers, and video configuration (think tweaking xorg.conf) is much more important than the CPU for handling video. In a properly configured setup, the GPU does all of the heavy lifting when it comes to decoding and more importantly post processing.

the topic is coming up in this thread because different sandy bridge CPUs have different integrated graphics capabilities, and there is no expansion slot for adding your own card.

Quote from wiiwok : Good info. Thanks for the heads up. Repped. I don't pay too much attention to integrated GPU. Yeah, the H61V will support Ivy, but not the H61.

No problem. Thank YOU for saving me to post about the available HD3000 chips,

Also, the graphics in the Celeron G530 and Pentium G620 are called "HD Graphics" -- slighly crippled version of the HD2000 (sometimes referred to as HD1000). Still plenty enough, but not hackintoshable

This is a good deal if:

• You want a very, very small case
• Don't care about expansion slots (e.g., discrete graphics)
• Know the limitations (90W, Intel HD graphics, single 2.5" bay)

This is not a good deal if:

• You want USB 3.0, eSATA, SATA 6Gb/s or any other "high performance" capability
• You are concerned about replacing proprietary components, should they fail

Item Name	Price	Shipping
Shuttle XH61 Barebone [newegg.com]	$184.99	-
Intel Pentium G620 [newegg.com]	-	-

I just hastily grabbed some components for comparison, you can definitely find some better deals/parts.

Item Name	Price	Shipping
IN WIN BP655.200BL Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 200W Power Supply [newegg.com]	$49.99	$9.99
Intel Pentium G620 [newegg.com]	$63.99	-
GIGABYTE GA-H61N-USB3 Mini ITX Motherboard [newegg.com]	$79.99	-

The point I'm trying to get at is that you're sacrificing a lot of functionality/upgradability all for the sake of saving around $20. ($184.99 vs $203.96)

What I've scrapped together over the past year or two manages to come out at $291.79.

Item Name	Price	Shipping
Antec ISK 300-65 Mini-ITX Computer Case [newegg.com]	$32.99	-
Intel i5-2500K [newegg.com]	$149.99 [evga.com]	-
ASRock H67M-ITX Mini ITX Motherboard [newegg.com]	$81.97	$6.84
MSI R6570-MD1G/LP Radeon HD 6570 1GB Low Profile [newegg.com]	$19.99 (AR)	-
Delta ADP-135DB 135W Power Supply	$20	-

If only this supported 3D =/. Need a 3D htpc.

I have been waiting for a reasonably powerful HTPC for while, this one comes very close to what I need but I have to pass because there is no option for fast storage access such as eSATA or USB3. This makes it difficult to expand it storage using external disks.

I also dislike the mouse, keyboard and VGA ports from the old days.

Just chimed into say I bought 5 of these for our company last week.

They're replacing the much more expensive optiplex systems we've been using and with an SSD they FLY. I got in on the free SSD deal and purchased the same chip included here. 4GB of Kingston RAM (we're running 32-bit Windows because of some legacy software, so anything else is a waste)

These are running Win 7, Office Pro 2010, and a rather heavy AS400 emulator. They run circles around the Core i3 Optiplex 390s we bought a few months ago with non-SSDs.

WEI on the system is 4.6, but the graphics are holding it back. Everything else on the box is 5.7+.

Notes:

1) VERY quiet. Not as quiet as the fan-less Atom systems obviously, but no more than a new Xbox 360.

2) Beautifully designed. Setup is dead simple and because we're not putting optical drives in (what's the point?) there is ample space. The SATA cables are quite short and the heat sync has a cool spiral design. Applying paste and mounting the chip was very easy.

3) These are very well built little boxes. Quite dense for such a small machine.

4) Win7 install of a fast flash drive to the SSD took FIVE MINUTES. This is a new company record.

5) Obviously I can't say anything about reliability, but I have no qualms about ordering more as they are well built and incredibly cheap. And honestly, at this price I can buy three of them for a similarly spec'd Core i3 Optiplex + 3-year on-site warranty.


PS although it lacks ESATA, there is a "hot swap" SATA option in the bios. I used it to clone out the first machine to the other 4. Not elegant, but it gets the job done.

Quote from cconklin1 : Boy, I sure need some links for THIS statement! Would love to see your justification fore THIS post!

You sound doubful my friend, let me enlighten you.

The integrated video in the celeron doesn't have clear video support, but the integrated video in the i3 and up do. There may be one or two models of i series that don't...I haven't scrutinized all 87 models and every once in a while they clip something off of a cpu to prove one point or other.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/...neral.html

"Picture-perfect

Intel Clear Video HD Technology vastly improves video playback, delivering cleaner, sharper images, more natural, accurate, and vivid colors, and a clear and stable video picture. Intel Clear Video HD Technology on the new 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor lets you view images as they were meant to be seen. Loud and clear and big as life.

How it works

Intel Clear Video HD Technology integrates a wide range of image-processing technologies, including:

Advanced video technologies that remove jitter and create crisper visuals
Total color control, along with adaptive contrast and skin-tone enhancements that create vivid, rich colors on the display
Intelligent color space mapping that helps ensure that colors are presented the way they were meant to be seen when you are watching video, browsing the Web, or using your PC applications"

Im new to this, what else do I have to buy to be able to use this? gonna be used as an htpc. Thanks

No SPDIF ? That kills it for me. I don't know why they didn't add that - many nettops have it in some form - weird they would leave it out.

Quote from sklar : You sound doubful my friend, let me enlighten you. The integrated video in the celeron doesn't have clear video support, but the integrated video in the i3 and up do. There may be one or two models of i series that don't...I haven't scrutinized all 87 models and every once in a while they clip something off of a cpu to prove one point or other. http://www.intel.com/content/www/...neral.html "Picture-perfect Intel Clear Video HD Technology vastly improves video playback, delivering cleaner, sharper images, more natural, accurate, and vivid colors, and a clear and stable video picture. Intel Clear Video HD Technology on the new 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor lets you view images as they were meant to be seen. Loud and clear and big as life. How it works Intel Clear Video HD Technology integrates a wide range of image-processing technologies, including: Advanced video technologies that remove jitter and create crisper visuals Total color control, along with adaptive contrast and skin-tone enhancements that create vivid, rich colors on the display Intelligent color space mapping that helps ensure that colors are presented the way they were meant to be seen when you are watching video, browsing the Web, or using your PC applications" Of course, this box doesn't have a video output for the integrated celeron video, so you'd need an outboard gpu anyhow. But if you planned to use the free cpu in another machine that you planned as an htpc...the g series integrated isn't the best selection.

Doesn't the HDMI output on this use the intergrated video of the Celeron? If not then this is not worth it.

Quote from yazyazoo : Doesn't the HDMI output on this use the intergrated video of the Celeron? If not then this is not worth it.

My bad, I was posting about another similar item that required a separate video card. This wont even let you put one in, so you're stuck with the integrated video and the hdmi or vga ports.

Which means if you're using this for an htpc, you might consider an upgrade from the g series celeron to an i3.