2004-08-04 - Tomshardware Guide: The smallest and quietest barebone in the test field

The smallest and quietest barebone in the test field is the Shuttle ZEN ST62K. Since there is no power supply in the interior, the dimensions of the ZEN could be reduced by many centimeters. Besides, the ST62K has no AGP slot. The external power supply even operates without an active fan, which gives the system a tremendous advantage. The barebone is virtually noiseless, with the exception of IDE hard disk access. The user can set different types of fan control in the BIOS of the ATI IGP-9100 based motherboard. This ranges from ultra quiet, in which the fan only runs slowly, to a smart mode, which is temperature dependent. The ZEN uses a combination of heatpipes and an 80mm fan to cool the system and the Pentium-4 CPU. (...) In addition to the VGA output, the ZEN can also work directly with any television with the S-Video connector (...) An AC97-compatible sound chip, which supports 5.1 surround sound, provides good sound. (...) The extensive range of accessories from Shuttle allows the ZEN to also be upgraded with a W-LAN module.

Pros: 
+ Small case; 
+ Quiet operation; 
+ Unusual design; 
+ Reset button for the BIOS; 
+ S-Video out; 
+ Easy installation of hardware; 
+ Edges ground down; 
+ Space-saving cable routing.

Brief Conclusion: The small unit from Shuttle is truly easy on your ears because even when the CPU is fully loaded, the XPC ZEN ST62K remains very quiet. The heatpipe fan system in the interior works very effectively without jacking up the noise level too much. Even with a 3.2 GHz Intel CPU, the ZEN ran for many days under a high CPU load, always in the same decibel range of approximately 47 dB(A). The external power supply also contributes a great deal to this quietness. Therefore, it is a barebone that is ideal for the living room, where each decibel less means more video enjoyment. (...)

Read the review: http://www20.tomshardware.com/howto/20040804/barebones-29.html