I’m looking for a computer to take to college next year that I can bring back and forth from school to home. I don’t want a laptop because of the price and the ease with which it can be stolen. Instead, I’m checking out cube computer cases (examples: http://www.directron.com/slim.html ).
Pros:
more room around my desk with a smaller case
transportable
it looks cool!
Cons:
not as much capacity for stuff
I would also expect problems with heat in such a small case
How reliable are these cases and would it be possible to install two hard drives?
Look at the shuttle cases. I’ve recently bought one, and am happy with it. I’ve installed 2 harddrives and 1 cd rom drive in it.
They are not really cases, but barebone systems, cases and motherboard are sold together.
Most cube cases I’ve seen can accomodate one 5.25" drive and two 3.5" drive. That usually means one optical drive (CD, DVD or combo), one FDD and one HDD, but you could lose the FDD and have two HDDs (as lexen apparently did).
I seriously considered getting one but I decided against it because one 5.25" drive is very limiting. I’d need a combo drive (CD-R and DVD-ROM), and eventually want to get a DVD-R or DVD+R drive.
Gotta admit, I have had an eye on them myself
What are the disadvantages of shuttle format systems?
Ok, the expandibility is somewhat limited, but that is something one knows going in. How about heating and cooling options, do those little beasts not run hella hot?
Shuttle has a special heat pipe cooling system. This is to minimize space, but it is rather loud. My system doesn’t run too hot (around 50°C), with an Athlon 2000+, 2 HDD and a geforce4 4200. The faster the cpu, the hotter it gets, the faster the fans have to run, the louder the system gets. I wouldn’t recommend it to use in a very silent place (bedroom, living room).
