What about one of these babies?

[Michael Quayle]

Can any of you guys see any potential problems with using one of these for an audio machine:
http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=163

I know they use custom boards, but the chipset is an nForce 2. I know they are limited with regard to PCI slots, but I have a firewire audio interface. Not much room for expansion, but I could stick a 200 gig drive in there. The dimensions just seem too tempting, plus it looks so damn cute.
Can any of you see any potential pitfalls that I'm not noticing here, before I start thinking of sticking this under my arm and taking it from project to project much more easily than before?

[raindog]

Only negative I see is that you may wake up hungover one morning and try and stick bread in the top http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

Seriously though you would only be saving a yourself a couple of KGs in weight as all the real weight is in the monitor. You are trading off expandibility for a little bit more portability. Plus I think only 2 ram slots.
ciao

[Sugarbaker]

It mentioned that the case only uses a 200w power supply. This could cause problems if you add a bunch of devices that are powered by the computer. If you like the small casing, you might check out Alienware, as they can get you a small case (Looks almost identical to this one) with more options and better equipment.

Stephen

[This message has been edited by Sugarbaker (edited 02-27-2003).]

[Bops2000]

I had thought about shuttles but they looked funny and the specs were 'vague' maybe a puter for 'gigs' ?

[garrigus]

Hi Michael,

Actually, I know a number of people who are using the Shuttle computers for audio and they really like them. Mainly because they use a special cooling system, which makes them extremely quiet in the studio. I recently ordered my next system and I'm having it built around the Shuttle bare-bones system. Definitely looking forward to it.

As for limitations, there really aren't any if you use it strictly as an audio PC. It has room for two hard drives, and one CDR drive. Also room for one PCI card, which is all you need for your sound card. And for MIDI, you can just get a USB-based interface. That's pretty much all you need.

Best regards,
Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of Cakewalk, Sound Forge and Sound Forge 6, SONAR and SONAR 2 Power! books; Publisher of DigiFreq. Win a free copy of Wave Art's Power Couple effects plug-in bundle and learn more cool music technology tips and techniques by getting a FREE subscription to DigiFreq... go to: http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/

[Bops2000]

wow! Scott G
Thanks for the book "cakewalk power" - An appreciative fan.