'Budget' Shuttle Mod (SG31G2)

[SpaceFrog]

hey guys, thought I'd post this on here to tempt other fellow OCAUer's to do the same.

I've had this shuttle since April, and I've been working on it in stages. The story is I was waiting for the I7 shuttle since November last year. I finally decided I had waited long enough, I couldn't stand my crappy AGP 7800GS any longer.

So I thought I'd give shuttle a big F U, by not purchasing their flag ship model, but their cheapest model and mod the shit out of it!

The Shuttle XPC SG31G2

• Intel G31 Chipset with onboard video
• 1X PCI-E 16X
• 1X PCI
• 3 SATA ports
• 1 IDE port
• 4 rear USB, 2 front USB
• 2X3.5" & 1X5.25" bays
• Gigabit LAN
• HD audio sound
• Firewire

All can be had from $294 (best price on staticice, I paid $380 back in April)

Original Specs

• Intel e5200 @ 3.3ghz
• 4gb Dual Channel DDR2 1066 Kingston HyperX
• 1TB WD Green HDD (spare hdd I had floating around)
• inno3D GTX 260
• Pioneer IDE Burner (from old system)
• Shuttle PC60 300W PSU (stock is 250W)

The original build cost me around $1000 (because I had a couple of the parts already)

The main modification was to cut the chasis & the panel to allow a dual slot video card to fit. Also note the SG31G2 comes with an 'ELAN POWER' 250W PSU. So I ordered a Shuttle PC60 300W PSU to handle the GTX 260.


So after a couple of months I had a couple of issues with it.

1. The overclock came with a hefty price. When overclocked it doesn't start first time when power has been removed, i.e. unplug pc, take it to lan, and watch it not start. What I need is a software overclocking tool, that way it boots safely into windows, and then gets overclocked. So currenty I'm running the CPU stock, which is fine for games, bad for encoding
   
2. The 1tb Green drive was S L O W ! ! I've been using RAID in my gaming PC's since 2001. I love getting into games before all my mates at lans, installing games faster, and having no lag when people are leeching off me.

It is now running windows 7 on a G Skill Falcon 128gb SSD drive & I've upgraded to a GTX 285. And it flies. loads up windows in like 20 seconds. It's just a shame that I can't put all my games on a 128gb Drive. I've just prioritised FPS games for the SSD. I figure there's no advantage in loading an RTS game before other players.

Current Specs

• E5200 @ stock speeds
• 4gb Dual Channel DDR2 1066 Kingston HyperX
• 128GB G Skill Falcon SSD (OS drive)
• 1TB WD Green HDD (Games drive)
• 1.5TB WD Green HDD (leech drive)
• inno3D GTX 285
• Pioneer IDE Burner
• Shuttle PC60 300W PSU

3 Hard drives and a full sized optical drive!!

PROS
cheaper than buying a SP45H7
looks cool
Better cooling as video card gets fresh air and vents it straight out the back
have access to PCI slot

CONS
no raid
only 3 sata ports
no e sata
voids warranty slightly...
Overclocking ability

Possible future upgrades

• RAID (PCI RAID card would probably suck, might use windows striping on native sata ports)
• Quad Core CPU.
• PCI e-sata card

So if you want a compact gaming machine for cheap (and have access to a dremel) get an SG31G2 !!
__________________________________________________ _____________________________________________

2012 Update - The SG31G2 has been retired from active duty. I've decided to update this post with another mod and the final specs.

In 2010 I further modified the chasis to allow a 500W shuttle power supply to fit.


I removed the 2.5" bay cover in an attempt to increase airflow.
CPU was updated to a Q9400 Core2Quad (was able to overclock to 3.3, until I replaced the flat cmos battery... and then it refused to overclock)

Final specs August 2012

Q9400 @ 2.66Ghz Stock
4gb DDR2 RAM
EVGA GTX 580 OC Edition
500W Shuttle PSU
480gb Sandisk SSD
2TB WD HDD
Pioneer IDE DVD Burner

What a beast! I just saw the original post date was September 2009. I'm pretty sure I started it in April of that year. So it's lasted almost 3.5 years!

Alas, the stock CPU speed and the price of DDR2 RAM pushed me towards a new shuttle... a boring fat shuttle which required no mods.

[Copie]

Good work mate, looks pretty awesome dude.

Ive actually just ordered a Lian Li Cube with a few other bits for a dedicated Lan box as my main machine is too heavy for me to lift haha

[Trog Star]

Originally Posted by Copie

Good work mate, looks pretty awesome dude.

Ive actually just ordered a Lian Li Cube with a few other bits for a dedicated Lan box as my main machine is too heavy for me to lift haha

so you orderd a lian li cube?
intresting logic......

[silverbullet]

Originally Posted by Trog Star

so you orderd a lian li cube?
intresting logic......

He means one of these Matx ones in the link below

http://www.pccasegear.com/lian-li-ca...-black-p-11691

[Trog Star]

ahhh, that makes more sence

[silverbullet]

Originally Posted by Trog Star

ahhh, that makes more sence

You were thinking of the one thats similar in size to the Mountain Mods one aye? pretty sure it can hold two mobo's that one, hmmmmm.

[the Fan-Man]

nice work with the shuttle, id love to build one, its on my list of things to do before i die, right next to "overclock a gtx295 to death"

ummm im not 101% sure that a shuttle PC60/300 will cope with an OC 5200 and 285. you may be running into issues there, remembering the 300w is max, s it would produce about 285W nominal or so, in an extreme case the max continuous would be 250W. and keep in mind, if the 285 draws about... 150W or 126W (not totally sure) are you certain that 150W is enough for the mobo, ram hdd and cpu ect..?

what id do is get a 1U server powersupply, which should fit in the shuttle, id know because im using a shuttle 250W in my server to replace the EMACS 250 that crapped itself.

atm i have a CM460 which is having issues with an e8500 and 9800GT (but that is with a water pump)

anywho

goodluck!

tFM

[dead_man]

nice work spacefrog, ill have to have a look at the next lan,

seems everyone is building cubes atm. iv got mine on my desk using the aerocool case which i got from MSY

awsome case for the price

[SpaceFrog]

Originally Posted by the Fan-Man

nice work with the shuttle, id love to build one, its on my list of things to do before i die, right next to "overclock a gtx295 to death"

ummm im not 101% sure that a shuttle PC60/300 will cope with an OC 5200 and 285. you may be running into issues there, remembering the 300w is max, s it would produce about 285W nominal or so, in an extreme case the max continuous would be 250W. and keep in mind, if the 285 draws about... 150W or 126W (not totally sure) are you certain that 150W is enough for the mobo, ram hdd and cpu ect..?

what id do is get a 1U server powersupply, which should fit in the shuttle, id know because im using a shuttle 250W in my server to replace the EMACS 250 that crapped itself.

atm i have a CM460 which is having issues with an e8500 and 9800GT (but that is with a water pump)

anywho

goodluck!

tFM

Yeah I'm aware of the power supply issues... that was one reason I went down the SSD route instead of a vraptor.
It's been running sweet for a couple of months...
If I run into power issues, I'll probably end up ditching the optical drive, and put in a Thermaltake 450W VGA PSU. They're about $115 or so. Should work out to be cheaper than a high wattage server PSU.