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Recently my mother began doing some work from home and she and my father were running into constant gripe sessions about using the computer. So, after a little soul (and walltet) searching, I decided that the best course of action was to pass down the Slimline PC I had been using as a server to her and replace (and upgrade) the server. The slimline was at the end of its upgrade cycle and had topped out at a Socket 478 3.4 GHz P4. It was cute and small and more than enough for the web surfing and writing my other would be doing.

So the question became… what to replace my trusty little WinXP server with and, considering we really don’t have much money left after catzilla the diabetic ate all our money, how do I do it cheaply?

Off to Newegg I went. I was looking for something with the following attributes:

• Small Footprint, the smaller the better
• Socket 775 Motherboard inside or available for the case.
• SATA
• On board Video and LAN
• Pair of dual channel DDR2 RAM slots.
• Pair of Internal 3.5” bays
• On Board IDE so I could use my old CD Rom Drive to get my OS on there
• Looks decent… yeah, I’m not looking at it, but when I am I want it to be presentable.

A little digging and a little research I came up with the Shuttle K45. It was decently reviewed… cheap ($99) and definitely fit everything I wanted. It was not the newest option available, but it was perfect for what I needed. Of course, Newegg shipped it super-fast, along with the RAM (2GB GEIL Black Dragon 667) and processor (Pentium E2180). I already had a pair of older 130GB hard drives I was using, an old DVD-ROM to load the thing and all the extra stuff I’d need, so I was ready to roll.

Or so I thought. The very first problem I ran into was one I’d read about and was prepared for should it arise: power. The Shuttle K45 has a dinky little 100W Power supply. I could attach either my DVD or my primary hard drive… but not both. So I found a little gem of a 200W Flex ATX power supply at PowerOn and had it sent on it’s way. I began the load using a 450W power supply I had laying around and just routed the cables into the case for the time being. A ghetto solution, but it worked. I had everything loaded up in a short couple hours and began the process of transferring the backup of my server (on my gaming PC) back to it’s new home. I started the copy and went to bed.

When I woke up for work the next morning, I ran into the second problem. Everything had transferred fine and the system was humming along… it was also hot as hell. The hard drives were running hot, the one mounted on top warmer than the bottom by 5 degrees C. Both of them were well over the temps I like and were cresting 60 Degrees C under load. Motherboard temps were also reading warm and the CPU was hotter than I like as well.

I knew having the newer power supply in the case would give me an exhaust fan, which the case did not come with, but the system was just plain hot, and most of the blame came from those old hard drives. They worked absolutely fine, but they were just not made for tight spaces like this. So back to Newegg I went (you can almost hear the bat man scene change music)! I did a little digging around and picked up two new additions, a WD Caviar 7200, which had gotten good reviews and is often used inside DVRs, and a 92mm exhaust fan to fit the grate at the back. I rigged a 80mm fan for the time being and kept a close eye on the server until the new goodies arrived.

The new toys came in; quickly as usual for Newegg, and the reinstall went even more smoothly. The new PSU was mounted, as was the new exhaust fan and Hard drive. Internal temps dropped, under load, by about 20 degrees C through the entire case. The thing is quiet, has more space than I had before and is now the computer I’d wanted form the start. The load was smooth and the thing is a really fast little web surfer. I’ve noticed a decided snappiness to the access of files from the old server and aside from the internal lights it’s hard to tell if the thing is on.

So, what the cost of our little adventure in upgrading and downsizing? Really not much… less than I paid for the old server when I built it a few years ago.

• Shuttle K45 – $99
• 2GB GEIL Black Dragon – $70
• E2180 – $69
• Power Supply $49
• Hard Drive $57
• Fan $8

Total: $352 and imminently cooler and better than any of the cheapo eMachine type PCs (I’m glaring at you, Dell) you could pick up. I’ve even got upgrade points, as both the processor and the RAM are not the best the little motherboard can handle. Heck, the thing even has a PCI slot. I don’t know what I’ll use the little bastard for since everything I needed was on board, but I’ve got it.

So, short version of the story: the Shuttle K45 is a great little case with one major flaw that a little extra cash can solve: inadequate power supply. It’s not a gaming rig, to be sure, and if you needed a CD/DVD it would have to be external, but for us it fit the bill perfectly. The heat problem I experienced were due to using older components not designed for tight spaces, though the inclusion of an exhaust fan is something I’d recommend. The manual, by the way, is useless and is pretty much a geek poster. Anyway, add in a wireless keyboard and mouse and you have a great little hide-away computer that also happens to be more than enough to surf the net and do things like write and work on.

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