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Would a Shuttle Be Ok?

J

jfnirvana292

[H]ard|Gawd
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My dad owns a lumber company and has a computer POS set up. The current computer is a mid tower...and its old and slow. The midtower takes up too much room, and i was thinking of building a shuttle system for him... but here's my question..

Since its a POS, it has to be very reliable and have good up time. (ie it cant crash, etc). So how reliable are those baby ATX motherboards? Thanks
 
hehehe... they aren't baby atx... there is no such thing. it's actually called mini-itx.

they are rather good but as falliable to problems as most computers. what sort of work does he do at the lumber company? you don't need the same system specs for a payroll system as you do for 3d cad...
 
starhawk said:
hehehe... they aren't baby atx... there is no such thing. it's actually called mini-itx.

they are rather good but as falliable to problems as most computers. what sort of work does he do at the lumber company? you don't need the same system specs for a payroll system as you do for 3d cad...
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Its a point of sale setup...

basically it keeps track of his inventory, and has a interface for selling... that kind of deal. It just can't go down for too long, or waiting customers will get angry :)
 
hmmm... those can be really tricky.

i would recommend a custom setup designed with something industrial... they cost a phenomenal amount ($6k or so for a setup that would be outperformed by a 2yr. old lappy) but they are durable and reliable as all get out.
 
starhawk said:
hmmm... those can be really tricky.

i would recommend a custom setup designed with something industrial... they cost a phenomenal amount ($6k or so for a setup that would be outperformed by a 2yr. old lappy) but they are durable and reliable as all get out.
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Yeah, those are out of budget. Just as long as the mini itx systems aren't unusually unreliable, then it will be ok.
 
no... they aren't even close. but i would recommend something based on a mobile cpu. they may seem a little slower, but they really have the same amount of juice, and they take less power and more of a beating.

notebook hdd's are good for a similar reason.
 
starhawk said:
no... they aren't even close. but i would recommend something based on a mobile cpu. they may seem a little slower, but they really have the same amount of juice, and they take less power and more of a beating.

notebook hdd's are good for a similar reason.
Click to expand...


Hmm ill look into that...thanks. Is there anything else i should look for, watch out for in building a shuttle system? Are the FIC ones ok?
 
I think its hard to qualify whether or not mATX are as stable as ATX; however, I think its common knowledge that you're more likely to run into problems with a mATX (ie shuttle) system as opposed to an ATX system. Now, these problems are usually software problems (ie drivers; sn95g5 had NIC driver problems, visit sudhian); but if it comes to the point where it is hardware; RMA is always there for you.
 
Honestly I would say just buy the bottom of the line dell server and run a cheap RAID setup so that in the event one HD dies your dad doesnt lose all customer info. Having a warranty and restore discs is always nice, especially when it comes to running a business. I would personally shy away from a custom built shuttle solution for what he needs.

To avoid being flamed, I do actually own a shuttle and like it very much, but I dont see this as an ideal application of one.
 
i'm going to be using my shuttle for a similar use (once it returns from rma :mad: defective mem module)

dorms here are about the same size as a large walk-in closet so i have a really tiny desk. rather than make sacrifices in computing power and go with a lappy, i chose a small form factor system because i knew it would be a good compromise.

and... um... Optik? most small form factor computers are actually not micro-atx, but are mini-itx or flex-atx.

mini-itx: 17cm x 17cm (~7.5"x7.5")
flex-atx: too small to really be a matx board but too big for mini-itx
micro-atx: 9.6"x9.6"
full atx: 12"x9.6"
eatx/xatx: 12"x13"
 
How about a compaq or a emachine or something.. There very reliable and cheap.
 
there is a reason i call them compukes and emachanicalbreakdowns.

and emachines' tech support thinks that winxp is 64 bit :LOL: what a bunch of idiots.
 
Hello,
The Shuttle XPC boards are not mini ITX, as a matter of fact they aren't any standard, they are proprietary to Shuttle.

For a business application like that you don't need alot of speed/power. Shuttle XPC's are fine, you just don't want to ride the bleeding edge when you require reliability/stability. One of the older, more mature XPC's using Intel P4's or AMD Athlon XP processors and Intel or VIA chipsets will be your best bet. These products will have had time to get all the kinks worked out and should make for a very stable system.

However, for the money, and for your particular application, you really can't go wrong with a ~$499-$699 Dell system. They aren't near as small, but very quiet, reliable, affordable etc... Plug it in and go. There low dog nowadays is a P4 2.8 533 based system. Plenty fast for a 'cash register.' Upgrade the mem to at least 512mb (1Gb is noticeably better than 512 in Win XP, anyone tells you different is lying.), and put XP Pro on there for added security features and you will be set.
 
snaggletto said:
Hello,
The Shuttle XPC boards are not mini ITX, as a matter of fact they aren't any standard, they are proprietary to Shuttle.

For a business application like that you don't need alot of speed/power. Shuttle XPC's are fine, you just don't want to ride the bleeding edge when you require reliability/stability. One of the older, more mature XPC's using Intel P4's or AMD Athlon XP processors and Intel or VIA chipsets will be your best bet. These products will have had time to get all the kinks worked out and should make for a very stable system.

However, for the money, and for your particular application, you really can't go wrong with a ~$499-$699 Dell system. They aren't near as small, but very quiet, reliable, affordable etc... Plug it in and go. There low dog nowadays is a P4 2.8 533 based system. Plenty fast for a 'cash register.' Upgrade the mem to at least 512mb (1Gb is noticeably better than 512 in Win XP, anyone tells you different is lying.), and put XP Pro on there for added security features and you will be set.
Click to expand...

Just for the reason of needing to save space, the shuttle would be the best bet.. Plus, the inexpensive dells are slow.. we have another computer that is a Dell 1.8ghz, and its slow as hell.. the one we use for the POS station is a Athlon 600mhz machine, and it beats the crap out of the Dell 1.8.. its sad.
 
Oh and another question, would you guys reccomend XP pro over home for stability? Is it worth the extra 40-50 bucks?
 
I know I am a newbie here, but thought I could give some insight on this matter.
POS software is known to be about 5 years behind in technology. I would contact the software company and make sure their products run on XP. (and yes, go with XP-Pro over home if you can).
Another big issue with POS software seems to be the use of legacy ports (parallel and serial), sometimes needing 3 printers (receipt, barcode and report) and 3 com ports (modem, barcode scanner, scale, customer display, etc.).
I would recommend a system with plenty of room for expansion, and check to see what pieces of equipment are currently being used and how they plug in prior to building the system.
POS Databases can get very large; I would recommend a removable HD or a network HD for backups. (Make sure they are storing the backups in a fire-proof safe or off-site.)
I used to work in the POS business. You can PM or email me if you have other questions and I will try my best to answer.
 
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