Shuttle's SV24: Our smallest desktop PC

First Impressions

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Cheap cases usually give themselves away immediately. As the aluminum shell came off this case, it was apparent that this was a well thought out design. The power supply sits in the front, behind the front case holes from which air is sucked into the case. The fan blows out the top/back, pulling front air across the entire motherboard. The single internal 3.5" bay sits below the fan.

This machine was set up in record time. None of the LED jumpers needed to be connected, nor the power supply, nor any fans. This thing was ready to go. In fact, everything sort of fell into place. Even the provided IDE cable was shorter than normal to keep it from cramping the already little volume within this case.

As expected, there is very little room to fit one's fingers while putting things together. We chose to use VIA's C3 CPU, which allowed us to forgo the CPU fan. A Pentium III would have required a low-profile heatsink/fan. This, we hope, will help deal with the relatively restricted air flow this case will receive sitting in the entertainment center.

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