First Look: Shuttle KPC

[rui-no-onna]

This sounds really promising. Great for server type applications or for closed office environments. It's easy enough to plug in an external USB optical drive (which I already have) should the need arise. I might pick one up for XAMPP. For use as a regular PC, though, the lack of an optical drive is likely a problem. The design would have been great for an HTPC even without an optical drive (I rip all my DVDs to HDD, anyway), but not having a PCI Express x16 slot killed that part.

Shuttle KPC Barebone: $100
Intel Celeron 420: $45
1GB (1x1GB or 2x512MB): $25
Western Digital WD5000AACS 500GB: $100

Total: $270

I'd say that's a pretty decent price for a low power sff server. It would be nice if Shuttle would also make the OS available for download for those who buy just the barebones.

I like the white case with coffee... I wonder if the Shuttle KPC makes coffee, too...

 

[sjg0]

K guys, i have a question and i don't really care if it has been already asked because it is late where im at and i just want to sleep, but anyway, how would that kpc work out as a small personal home server? im interested in it mainly to set up a home theater streaming thing, a personal CS:S server, and a linux ssh shell server. I figure those basic tasks cant be too demanding, considering my home network is currently running 2x 700MHz 10-year old E-machine DNS servers, i figure this basic stuff the KPC can handle (I think). Also, if i get two of them to replace the e-machines, will i see any kind of speed benefit across the network (right now dl/ul is ok, but it seems like there is some latency in actually connecting to sites).

Any feedback is much appreciated.

Thx

 

[wpns]

Should work fine as a small personal home server, though I'm not sure what "speed benefit across the network" is. you can put a low-end Celeron in it or a high-end Core 2 Duo, and up to 2G memory, so it's pretty much up to you how powerful it'll be. Even the lowest-end configuration will be much better than your 10YO E-machines.

Mine's on order, due in Thursday, guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend! 8*)

 

[wpns]

/*
CPU cooling is quite reasonable actually ... they use custom-made heatpipe coolers placing the radiator of the heatsink right on the back surface of the case with an exhaust fan controlled by the motherboard depending on temperature.
*/

Umm, my KPC came without that fancy heat-pipe/fan assembly, has anyone who has actually done a hands-on gotten that piece? Yes, you can use the Intel fan that comes with the CPU, but that's going to be a lot noisier and less efficient than the usual Shuttle cooler. Either mine's missing something, or this cost reduction thing has gone too far.

 

[wpns]

Just confirmed with Shuttle that you are supposed to use the original Intel fan, and it doesn't come with the fancy Shuttle heat-pipe/fan assembly, nor is that available as an addon.

Sigh.

 

[brianhammond]

Yeah, I just got one of these and the fan will not stop running!

It also seems that the BIOS is too old to recognize USB-HDD as a boot device option.

Ugh, my ears are bleeding.

I have had no success in configuring ACPI in Foresight Linux to turn the damn fan off. The BIOS setting for smart mode (or any setting) is ignored.

This is really quite annoying. The system temperature is 46 C and the CPU temperature is 36 C. I'm no expert but isn't this rather normal? Why would the fan be stuck at 3K RPM?

 

[wpns]

It really needs some BIOS work, it won't boot from a USB thumb-drive.

[Some of the below may be limitations in the various Linux distributions, I don't know and don't really care]

It won't get past the bootloader on FreeNAS when booting from a USB CR-ROM, it won't bring up the network interface under FreeNAS when loaded from a PATA CD-ROM.

It won't load TrixBox 2.2.6 properly.

Loads Ubuntu 7.1 and WinXPhome SP2 OK from a USB CD-ROM.

OK box for low-end servers (though you can do better if small size isn't a constraint), but for a personal home machine it's pretty limited. By the time you add an optical drive, a USB hub (you'll use up the 4 on the back real quick)2 more wall-warts for the above, and all the interconnect cabling, you're closing in on the price of a Shuttle XPC, which is a far better machine.

I suspect I've bought my first and last one together in one box.

I hate to think I'm going to run XP on it, but I was hoping for a file server, and that's trivial to configure.