RAM | Reseller Advocate Magazine: Issue 63

By Chris Angelini

WHEN IT COMES TO DROPPING A PC in someone's home theater, small form factor chassis seem to be the standard. Living spaces demand sexy technology. But office spaces settle for whatever's cheapest. More and more, though, I'm finding business owners willing to take a chance on small form factors. The rewards in both aesthetics and ROI have have them more than impressed.

Most recently, I worked with a small business to replace all of its aging desktops, which were chained together on a peer-to-peer network. The new systems were all small form factor designs, and we added an SBS 2003 server with a storage server attached for backup purposes. All of the organization's 17" CRTs were dumped in favor of 20" LCDs. Employees were amazed at just how much desk space was freed by the upgrade. Of course, a need for more speed prompted the change, but it turned out that the desktop makeovers were appreciated most. One of the few concerns expressed by my SMB customer was compromising horsepower in exchange for the more compact footprint of a small form. After a side-by-side specification comparison between my offering and a competing tier-one full-sized box, those worries were indisputably put to rest.

Still, small form factor machines are rare in the businesses I help service, especially compared to family and friends with diminutive machines in their living rooms. If you aren't already championing the benefits of smaller technology in your customer's workplace, the newest SFF-friendly hardware should be reason enough to get more involved in adding value through space consolidation and more efficient PC architecture.

It Starts With a Chassis

An SMB in need of extra help hires a new employee. When inventory starts dwindling, more is ordered. But short of moving, there's not much recourse when the office fills up. That's why the price per square foot of office space is such an important variable in leasing. Resellers who can counsel clients on how to cut back on square footage populated by technology simultaneously empower their customers with the latest features and conserve a scarce resource.

The first step in shrinking the size of your systems is to pick the right chassis. Shuttle is perhaps the most seasoned small form factor veteran, and its current product lineup does an excellent job of melding pizzazz with functionality. Consider its SD37P2. Based on an Intel 975X chipset, the flagship barebones supports the fastest processors available, including Intel's dual-core Core 2 Duo and quad-core Core 2 Extreme chips on 1066 MHz front-side buses. Customers are no longer forced to make concessions in the name of compact computing. The SD37P2 sports four memory slots capable of accommodating DDR2 modules at up to 667 MHz each.

Older SFF boxes really felt the space crunch when it came to expansion slots. Now, Shuttle expertly deploys two PCI Express x8 connectors, giving workstation customers the freedom to implement ATI's CrossFire multi-GPU rendering technology or a single graphics card and a high-power storage controller. Customers interested in wireless network connectivity even have access to Shuttle's own PN18 802.11b/g LAN kit, which connects to an onboard header. This preserves the expansion slots for more critical extras.

Because the SD37P2 employs the 975X chipset, which mates to Intel's ICH7-R southbridge, desktop functionality is plentiful. A Realtek HD Audio codec facilitates analog 7.1-channel output and digital in/out through S/PDIF connectors. Three internal SATA 3 Gbps ports accommodate as many hard drives, and an external eSATA plug lays a foundation for super-fast backup. Software-based RAID supports 0, 1, 5, and 10 modes too. Shuttle throws in a FireWire controller and Gigabit Ethernet, making the box a true enthusiast powerhouse.

The SD37P2 easily demonstrates the potential computing muscle contained even within a small form factor chassis. Without question, Shuttle works hard to maximize the technology supported by its boxes. The company's validation efforts to ensure that processors, memory, and motherboards work together are especially notable.

That all said, barebones or pre-built SFF systems may not be the lowest-priced or most flexible solution. Some resellers might prefer a blank slate—an empty chassis ready for customization. In that case, Antec offers a handful of reseller-friendly small form factor platforms well-suited to the channel. Its Minuet 300, for example, adheres to the microATX standard, making it easy to match the box with interesting combinations of hardware. The case comes with a 300W power supply that should be ample for any configuration, as well as its own variable-speed 80mm fan. Building business-class workstations around the Minuet is easy. The internals flip up, granting easy access to the motherboard tray. There's room for one 5.25" optical drive, one hard drive, and a floppy. Channel-friendly extras, such as a stand for upright positioning and a three-year warranty, endear the Minuet to resellers.

Choosing the Right SFF CPU

Packing performance into tight spaces requires a lot of finesse. In order to cool a Core 2 Extreme, Shuttle's SD37P2 requires a proprietary heatpipe and fan combination that transfers heat quickly and exhausts it from the SFF chassis. The SD37P2 is carefully qualified by Shuttle to ensure compatibility with CPUs such as the Core 2 Extreme. VARs choosing to build their own SFF platforms, though, have to pick the pieces that'll deliver a combination of stability and speed. That means considering both thermal output and horsepower.

Processors built on Intel's Core microarchitecture currently offer the best performance. They also dissipate relatively little heat versus older, NetBurst-based models or AMD's Athlon 64 family. The benefits of thermal efficiency in a SFF environment are obvious. Low heat output means fewer tech support troubles as you add fast hard drives and the latest DirectX 10 graphics cards. For VARs trying to minimize the physical footprints of their business desktops, Intel's relatively low-heat architecture is a real boon. And it happens to perform better than anything else out there.

Of the models available, pay special attention to Intel's Core 2 Duo E6600. Although the mid-range CPU operates at an uninspiring 2.4 GHz, its two cores are fed by a 4MB L2 cache. And even if the E6600 can't boast the highest clock speed in Intel's armada, it isn't far off from the flagship. Better yet, Intel prices the E6600 just above $300, well below similar Core 2 chips.

AMD recently started transitioning its manufacturing from 90nm to 65nm, as well, simultaneously announcing several new dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processors. The model most comparable to Intel's Core 2 Duo E6600, rated as a 5000+ EE, also happens to be the fastest 65nm chip AMD currently offers. The 65nm parts are all designated with that EE suffix, which stands for Energy Efficient. However, the reduction in heat moving from 90nm to 65nm manufacturing is subtle at best and still a fair bit higher than any Core 2 Duo.

Small Form Factor Graphics

Video cards keep getting larger as they sport more memory, better power regulation, and companion chips designed to shoulder video processing and display output. Meanwhile, the smallest form factors tend to be most stylish. That doesn't mean your customers have to settle on integrated graphics. Plenty of slim boxes purposely make room for add-in cards. Shuttle's aforementioned SD37P2 even goes so far as to make dual-card rendering a very real option.

Because there are no standards defining the dimensions of either graphics cards or cases, there's no way to guarantee all cards based on one chipset from NVIDIA fit into microATX chassis, for example. Resellers must approach small form factor graphics on an almost case-by-case basis. Some vendors occasionally publish a compatibility list, naming the specific models tested to fit in its cases. Others won't, leaving VARs to test fitment, including how well data and power cabling fits with the primary components, through trial and error." There aren't very many small business customers who've needed high-end 3D capabilities. More commonly, they're looking for graphics that won't slow to a crawl when windows get dragged around, will operate without stability problems, and, more recently, will support some of the display features introduced by Windows Vista. Fortunately, plenty of graphics cards meet all of those criteria and are almost guaranteed to fit within the confines of a small form factor box.

Workstations destined to a life of low-impact graphics don't need flashy dual-slot video cards. Instead, check out an affordable mainstream board, which is more likely to occupy very little space and fit into a majority of small form factor machines. Something along the lines of NVIDIA's GeForce 7100 GS should do the trick, enabling multiple display outputs and moderate 3D performance at a price tag under $100. You can even build entry-level 3D workstations using cards like ATI's FireGL V3400. Though it vertically occupies a full-sized expansion slot, the V3400 is barely longer than one PCI Express x16 connector and doesn't need auxiliary power.

More condensed platforms don't even give you the freedom of a standard expansion slot, limiting upgradeability to a handful of half-height openings. Options abound if you know where to look. XFX sells a number of mid-range desktop cards, such as its GeForce 7300 and 6600 series, that ship with full-slot brackets yet are compatible with a special low-profile adapter kit. The cards come with anywhere from 64MB of memory to 256MB, and all support dual displays.

Some financial and enterprise markets are more exacting about display hardware. Customers looking into low-profile form factors and outputting to two DVI displays need more than just a converted desktop card. Enter PNY's Quadro NVS 285. The NVS sports a graphics processor with integrated TMDS transmitters and a single DMS-59 connector used to output separate digital signals at up to 1920x1200 each. PNY sells three different versions of the card. Two fit into PCI Express x16 slots with either 128MB or 64MB of memory and the third populates a PCI Express x1 slot. If your customer needs more than two display outputs, you can drop two NVS 285 boards into the same low-profile box to drive four monitors.

Maximizing SFF Storage

The one real shortcoming of smaller cases is the lack of space inside. Wish for a stylish little chassis with the power of a full-size desktop, but don't be surprised when there isn't room for a graphics card, storage controller, discrete sound card, and collection of hard drives. Because most SFF packages feature one or two internal 3.5" drive bays, you'll want to make the most of the space you're given.

In PCs with just one space available for hard drives, compensate for the lack of scalability by using large hard drives. Also address the loss of RAID-based data redundancy by bundling comparably sized backup drives. By running scheduled backups after-hours on a daily basis, any loss of information that might result from a failed hard drive will be limited to one day's worth of work or less.

One way around the space constraints inherent to SFF systems would be to install a high-end storage controller and tie it to an external JBOD. The capacity possibilities would be limitless, even if adding another enclosure complicates deployment.

Making SFF a Business

Differentiating whitebox PCs isn't an easy task. But every single customer of mine who has expressed a desire to miniaturize the role of technology in his business has enjoyed the shift from full-sized towers to small form factor machines.

A great way to start building attractive SFF machines is to partner with a company like Shuttle, which builds chassis, installs its own proprietary motherboard, and includes a power supply. More adventurous system builders can start from scratch with a standardized shell from Antec or AOpen. In either case, a good supply of SFF-friendly processors, graphics cards, and hard drives makes it easy to add value through smaller form factors.