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View Full Version : Shuttle Unleashes Intel Core i7-based Barebones XPC, The SX58H7


Jason Dunn
02-18-2009, 08:34 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/SX58H7.html' target='_blank'>http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/SX58H7.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Just when you think you've got it all in a PC platform. Shuttle gives you more! The Shuttle SX58H7 Pro Station packs amazing performance into a mini glossy aluminum enclosure to reach "work hard and play hard" goals of extreme gamers, demand enthusiasts and mainstream PC users."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1234971012.usr1.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>This is the Shuttle I've been waiting for. I've been wanting to build an Intel Core i7-based system since I saw the first monstrously awesome benchmarks for the Core i7 line of CPUs. I do quite a bit of video editing, and rendering out a final 720p or 1080p file takes forever, so I welcome any technology that will speed that process up. Four cores, each hyper-threaded? That's just...awesome. At any rate, I have limited space for my media editing computer, so I was looking to another Shuttle to replace this one. The SX58H7 features the Intel X58 Express Chipset, has a power supply fan that's 5cm bigger (which should mean better airflow and lower RPMs), supports ATI's CrossFireX or NVIDIA's SLI for dual video cards, and has four RAM slots - but you'd only want to fill up three of those in order to get maximum performance from triple-channel RAM. <MORE /></p><p>The only two down sides to this unit? The price for one. At $599, you're definitely paying a premium when you consider that this is a case, a motherboard, and a power supply - all three of which you could probably get for $400 or less. You're paying a premium for getting everything in this small package, but in our current economy, that might not fly. The second down-side for me personally is that I'll be going from having <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/31593/building-a-monster-media-machine-using-shuttle-s-sd39p2-xpc.html" target="_blank">three hard drives in my SD39P2</a> down to one hard drive. I really appreciate having the wicked-fast <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/31593/3/1/5" target="_blank">Raptor X</a> drive as my main hard drive, yet still having the security of knowing all my un-processed photos and videos are secure on a RAID 1 array with two 500 GB Western Digital RE2 drives. Having to give that up and go back to having only one hard drive would be frustrating...but probably something I'm willing to do given how badly I want a Core i7 system!</p>

Stinger
02-18-2009, 11:32 PM
Looks very hot, apart from the odd (errr... even? :)) number of RAM slots.

I'd be worried about the lack of room for HDDs too but thankfully it's got two eSATA ports.

Now, who wants to lend me $1000? ;)

follick
02-22-2009, 04:45 AM
The specs say it has 3 SATA onboard connectors. It also says by STORAGE INTERFACE that it has "(4) on board 3.0Gb/s bandwidth SATA (RAID 0,1,10,5)"

Why do you think it will only support one hard drive? Does it only have enough physical space for one hard drive?

I can't find any interior pictures, but previous SX series models have supported up to 3 hard drives.

Jason Dunn
02-25-2009, 12:39 AM
Why do you think it will only support one hard drive? Does it only have enough physical space for one hard drive?

The Hexus article said it only had space for one hard drive, but I can't find any mention of how many drives it can handle in the spec sheet - which is a pretty glaring oversight. I've emailed my PR contact at Shuttle and will share the answer here when I get it. I'd be thrilled it if supported three drives!

Jason Dunn
03-13-2009, 10:07 PM
Why do you think it will only support one hard drive? Does it only have enough physical space for one hard drive?

The official response from Shuttle is that it supports two hard drives, not three.

follick
03-15-2009, 01:09 AM
I could live with 2 hard drives, one would be hard.

Jason Dunn
03-15-2009, 01:11 AM
I could live with 2 hard drives, one would be hard.

I've grown really fond of having a 10,000 RPM Western Digital Raptor X drive as my programs/data drive, and having two 500 GB drives in a RAID1 array for redundancy for my raw photos and HD videos. It would be hard to adjust to two drives, but I could do it. :)