My old computer was a Shuttle SN45G XPC that I used from 2004-2006 before I replaced it last year with my current Athlon X2-based system. I outfitted the SN45G with a AMD Athlon 2500+ (Barton), 1 GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro and a 200 GB HDD. It served me well, but started to show its age, especially in this era of dual-core and multi-core systems. I have since retired it to the green pastures of my parents’ home (where I am for the summer), where it peacefully serves the duties of Internet browsing, e-mail, and video, though it is capable of much more.
Recently though, the 200 W custom-sized PSU powering the rig died after an untimely power outage – contractors working in this new neighbourhood apparently severed a line while doing some construction work. It seemed weird to me that a mere power-outage could cause the power supply to die, so I wondered if it was because of the UPS it was plugged into, which failed to provide battery backup. The UPS was an older Belkin model that has also since failed, leading me to believe that it could have negatively affected the PSU. Though, it’s more likely that the PSU was already in poor condition, and that the power outage was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.
Autopsy
Strangely, when I took the failed PSU out to test it, it worked fine – when just powering up a single fan. (I used this well-known “trick” to power up an ATX PSU without the motherboard) It seems as though some components within have failed, limitings its ability to support a larger load like that of a computer system. In any event, I had to order a replacement power supply, so I obtained a 250 W model from Netlink Computers. (The Shuttle PC40) Offering 50 W more of power, it’s substantially larger than the older PSU, as you can see below, and it’s also heavier. Generally, heavier equals better quality when it comes to power supplies.
The 250 W also features SATA power connectors, though I’ll not need them for this system. Overall, it was an uneventful replacement, as the PSU fit just right within the tight confines of the SN45G case.
HI – came accross your blog while searching for ‘Shuttle XPC PSU Replacement’ as I am looking to do the same thing with my faithful Shuttle. I’t still got the original 200W PSU in from 2003, but I had to replace the graphics card yesterday, and although it’s working fine at the moment, the new AGP card recommends a 300W or greater PSU.
I suspect I am lucky – I am running a single WD ‘Green’ drive (WD10EACS), which therefore has low power consumption, and am getting away with the 200W unit, but I don’t know if this will last.
Anyway – thanks for the info on your site – hopefully will keep the Shuttle alive and well for a while to come.
Alex.
Glad to see this article was of help!
Good Article.
Just one comment to add.
The PSU in most Shuttle’s is not quite so custom. Perhaps not as common as ATX, but the size and form factor are a Standard. Often refered to as Flex ATX 1U or 1U Flex ATX. Produced by a number of manufacturers the quality does vary some what, from the low end Achme one that often comes with Shuttle to say a good quality long life replacement such as Seventeam’s ST-220FUB. This one stands out from the crowd as it has a Sunon Maglev cooling fan which has a very high MTBF (50,000hours) and is know to be very reliabile.
@Mike
Thanks for the info!
I had the same system with the AMD 25000+ oc’d at 3200+. My wife took over it back in 2002. And it’s been running ever since. But now she wants windows 7 and is up to me to upgrade it for her. I went ahead and installed it on that micro rig but laggs were available as well. Anyways I installed a mini-itx mobo with an Intel chip and pci-x video card with some small modifications done to the case. The 250 watts power supply was not enough juice for the vid card since my research fail when I realized that it needed 400watts PSU in order to operate some graphs! So, hmmm? I wonder if a rack-mount server PSU will work on this case, since they’re shaped the same? Success was the approach to this little beast of wifey PC. The server PSU landed on the side of the Shuttle XPC case like it belonged there LOL, with little moifications done to the case and PSU cables. Hope this will enlighten you even more ๐