XP Setup on a Shuttle SD30G2 computer

Posted at February 19, 2008

I recently purchased a Shuttle SD30G2 computer from NewEgg.com and built it up with a few extra parts. All in all, I spent less than $400 and got the following:

Intel Celeron dual core processor
500 gig sata hd
1 gig ddr2 ram
20x DVD burner

If I did a quick comparison with a typical computer from Dell that would have run me $749. I believe the main drawback of building your own computer is getting the software installed on it properly. Windows needs to recognize all the new hardware you’ve purchased, etc. which can be really difficult.

In the end, I went through the software installation process about 3 times on my new shuttle, mostly because of the SATA hard drive and XP not being too friendly with it. Here is a brief outline to all of you with a shuttle trying to install XP on it:

Partition the hard drive – I did a primary partition of 100 gig. This should get around any Sata issues you have. XP was seeing my 500 gig drive as 131 gigs no matter what I did.
Install OS – I opted for XP because (1) I already have a license so I didn’t have to buy any software (2) XP has a much better reputation than Vista
Install the LAN and VGA drivers from the Shuttle CD
Go to Microsoft.com and go to Support, then Updates. Run the program, install what they recommend, then reboot and do it over again. The 3rd time you run through it’ll finally install Service Pack 2, that’s what you really want.
Auto-update the USB drivers through your hardware manager
Install the Audio and Chipset drivers from the Shuttle CD
Partition the rest of the hard drive and format it. I partitioned another 300 gigs to a secondary drive. This allows me to put all my media (photos, music, movies, etc) and other files on it.
Done!

If you are mildly comfortable with computers are are thinking about buying a new one, consider building a new computer like the ones shuttle offers. If you already have a computer with XP then you have a license, the savings on the software side would allow you to buy more computer or save even more up front.