SHUTTLE SH67H3 PC Barebone System

IngredientsI7-2700 3.5 GHz IntelCorsair DDR3 16 GBSamsung 120 GB SSD, 240 GB SSD and a 500 GB Barracuda HHD.Installed everything last night with gloves on. Took about 20 minutues. First time for me to build a system. Processor just slips in and locks down. Cables easy to move around. You use the Shuttle cooler instead of the big fan Intel supplies. 16 gigs snapped in and I discovered the SSD can just sit under the bays for hard drives. So now room for 2 hard drives, Bluray optical and SSD.Boots in 12 seconds. Windows experience rating of 6.3 (because no video card)Putting all My Docs on 2nd HD and using SSD for programs. Win 7 used only 12 gigs for my install.Now with Office 2007 and a few other programs still just 15 gigs on the SSD. NiceI have an old Shuttle XP (10 years old) and just this summer the power supply died. So Shuttle does make good machines. I am hopeful this does the same. Runs quiet enough, some small fan hum but not much.So, totally nice, screams along with the i7.Hum, sweet.2 months later updateGreat system. Fan noise is a low hum but not problematic. What I like the most is the small footprint it has. Such a nice little box on my desk. Never is hot and the exhaust fan air is always cool. Boots in about 18 seconds now. I look at my old 4 core processor as being so slow now. And it was a good motherboard. An i7 plus an SSD is so great. I realize I could easily put another SSD in with 250 gigs and basically cover all my data on that. There would be space for 2 SSD's and one hard drive easily in this box. I run Skyrim on high rez and it comes out beautifully and that is with no video card. I have all the data files of Skyrim on the SSD and so it changes screens very fast. My other data files are on the HD. With a lot of mods in Skyrim plus the OS and Office I am still just using only 35 gigs of the 120 SSD.One year later updateStill works just wonderfully. I live in a hot place, temperatures upwards of 35 (100) and just swamp coolers for air conditioning. So the HDs was getting hot (about 44C sometimes) which is not so hot but I like my machine to be cooler. So I took the cover off and put a fan on top of the machine. Now temp is never above 38. As I am not in a temperate climate and without AC this is a good solution for me.Two years later with modificationsOk, I spent a long time researching what video cards can go into this machine as it is a small case.I finally bought a GTX 970 and I will explain what you have to do.You need: 500 Watt power supply and the video card.First step:BIOS You must upgrade your bios to after any 2012 version. When you boot, check the date, if it is 2012 you need to upgrade. You do that from the Shuttle site. When downloaded the newer version of BIOS I put it on a bootable USB (bootable to DOS). Boot up normally and hit F2 several times to enter BIOS. Check you can boot off of your CD drive, then USB and finally your C drive. Then save and reboot with the USB drive. You type "flash" once you get a DOS window prompt. It updates. You then have to reset the CMOS. There is a small hole on the back of the Shuttle that resets the CMOS. The Shuttle Site has instructions on where to find that or how to do it.Then if you are installing the GTX 970, it fits in easily enough but you have to take out the drive carriage (where all your drives are) It just lifts out after unplugging the cables. You need a 500 watt power supply which you had to install before hand.Then snap in the GTX (I snap it in 2 or 3 times to make sure any grease or such is rubbed off the pins). You put the two power cables into the GTX (you have to thread the power cables in a way to give you the maximum length). Then bend the cables flat so the drive carriage will fit back in. I had to do that several times to make sure it would fit. Then fit all the screws, and boot up normally.I did have a problem with it not booting but I just moved all the cables for the drives so they did not touch the video card and it booted fine after that. Little fussing around to get everything fitting in right.Now I have run several high video demanding games with the card and the SSD's heat up to 50 C fairly quickly. I am thinking of putting another fan into it (which I have not figured out just yet) to run more air through the case. If I am not running anything that demands a lot of video it is always at about 34 C. Which is fine.Ok, hope this helps people who want a bigger video card. I do think the GTX750i would work too but not for Witcher 3, which is why I did this upgrade.My machine has been excellent for more than 2 years. Happy Shuttle buyer.

This is the third Shuttle system that I've built. I've used Shuttle computers exclusively as a primary desktop PC for approximately the last 10 years. They are quiet. They are compact. The first two machines gave me 4 to 5 years of reliable use.Unfortunately the latest build, the SH67H3, started experiencing BIOS problems after the first 6 months. Today, less than 9 months after purchasing, the motherboard gave out with no warning. The machine no longer boots to BIOS, and now I'm forced to purchase a new motherboard, case, and power supply. Needless to say, I am no longer purchasing Shuttle products.

I ordered this plus Corsair 8GB, Intel i5 2400, and Asus DVD drive. It all arrived even a bit early (but see below about the memory). It is a beautiful-looking box, and everything works very nicely and it is extremely quiet!I have not had any chance to check performance or the Windows Experience Index, but it FEELS fast. I'm running Ubuntu Linux 12.04.Just a few items that contributed to 4-* rather than 5-*1) The screws that came with it are not the right size to match up with either the DVD or the HDD that I had. It needs a smaller size (which I luckily had)2) The heat sink compound is pretty think and hard to spread evenly. Maybe it all is these days, but that is different from anything I have used earlier. Having only done this a few times it made me a bit nervous that I was getting good thermal contact.3) The documentation consists of only a single sheet of mostly pictures and diagrams. The enclosed CD/DVD had a manual (in different languages) but it was exactly the same sheet, not a more detailed text. Without anything more than pictures it was a bit more nerve-wracking to put the CPU in. In particular, there were three things that the diagram seemed to say I should remove (mylar cover of CPU socket, mylar cover on the ICE thermal connector, and something else on the socket). Unfortunately I could not really tell what was what from the diagram and I could only find 1 thing to remove. It turns out that there was one additional cover but it was in the accesories box and not actually on the socket where it was supposed to be.A couple additional cautions (which don't contribute to lowering the rating, but I wish I had known).1) The HDD space is for a 3.5" drive, not a 2". I was installing a disk from a laptop, and it works but does not physically fit well. I suspect it will not be a good thing to use forever since there is not much thermal contact with the case.2) One of the SATA cables was pre-installed and threaded to the back of the case. That was a bit mysterious until I realized that it actually was in a good position to plug into the DVD drive, and having it threaded through the case keeps it out of the way.3) The Amazon catalog page suggested "other who ordered this also got..." an Asus DVD drive, which seems fine, but also Corsair memory from a Marketplace vendor. I did not notice that it was not fulfilled by Amazon, until after I ordered it the expected delivery time was a week out rather than the normal Prime 2-day. I was pretty annoyed about this! I finally ordered the same memory from Amazon directly; it was not only less expensive but arrived in 2 days. (The marketplace version has not arrived yet and they refused to cancel it!). So use caution! Prime eligible no longer means it will be there in 2 days! (I'll review the actual items and or the vendor separately).September 1, 2012:Another couple of cautions:1) There is a very weird BIOS setting called EuP "Energy using Product" (well duh!). It is apparently a quick way to set up some energy saving functions, and when it is on, Wake On LAN can not be enabled. If disable EuP, you can enable WOL. Would be nice if it were a bit clearer what this particular function is for. The text for it says "Enable EuP function". Thanks.2) This particular CPU (the I5 2400) does not support hyperthreads. This is not Shuttle's fault; I should have checked the Intel web site more carefully. I looked to be sure it supported multiple cores and virtualization accelerations, but did not even notice the hyperthreads. Not a big deal for me, just a surprise.Oct 10, 2012:One thing that I never mentioned, and pretty small: The 'suspend' function works well, but there is no indication from the outside whether the system is off or in suspend. Usually systems flash the power light when it is suspended. I thought there might be a BIOS setting, but I could not find one.