Throughout the last year Shuttle has brought us great value priced products that pack quite a punch such as the AK31 v2.0 and AV40-R. It seems with the success with those products Shuttle is on a roll of releasing award winning products that gain immediate public acceptance. This time around instead of another motherboard, Shuttle has released a barebones system based around their incredibly small FV24 all in one motherboard.

 

For those of you who don?t remember the FV24 motherboard, we reviewed it a while back here. At the time of the review, the FV24 was the smallest motherboard available. Till this day, not many motherboards with the exception of one or two can match the FV24 in size. The board features pretty much every component you can name integrated on the board, this is the reason why Shuttle chose to utilize it in their latest barebones. We?ll talk more about the FV24 later, let?s check out the barebones.

 

The Case

Differentiating itself from any other barebones available on the market, the SV24 uses an aluminum case. Being made out of aluminum, the case is very light and doesn?t require an effort to move around. Because of the very small nature of the SV24, there are only one 3.5 inch and one 5.25 inch drive bays. Like most OEM systems available on the market, the SV24 features 2 USB ports up front for easy access and usability of USB devices. Taking a hint from accessory makers such as FrontX, Shuttle has included a front audio output and microphone jack so you can easily connect your headset or headphones without having to reach around back. Shuttle also uses thumbscrews so opening up the case for maintenance is much simpler and don?t require the use of tools.

 

Let?s take a peak inside?

 

On the inside, the frame of the SV24 is also made out of aluminum, unlike some cases that just use aluminum side panels. The power supply inside the SV24 is 145 watts and might seem puny and insufficient to the PC enthusiast, but from an OEM standpoint and power requirements of Socket 370 processors, 145 watts is plenty. For cooling you get a single 60MM fan for exhaust in back and air holes in front. Due to the small size of the case, everything inside is cramped in, thus making it impossible to install better cooling, this isn?t exactly a negative point, since it is an OEM barebones system, and the lesser the cooling components, the quieter the system runs.

 

The hard drive tray for the SV24 uses thumb screws for ease of installation. The tray fits a normal 3.5inch hard drive and slides into the cutout in the case which lies directly above the CPU fan. This is a bad idea if you intend on running a high speed processor such as the P3 1 GHz since the hard drive would block the exhaust of the CPU fan making the CPU run a tad warm.

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