As mentioned in the introduction (where I listed the hardware and software I used for this hands-on project), we need to ensure that our hardware is set-up and working before moving on.
To recap, here is the list of hardware used:
Shuttle SN68SG2 Socket AM2 Barebone - NVIDIA 7025, Audio, Video, PCI Express, Gigabit LAN, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA, 250 Watt Power Supply.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Processor ADA4200CUBOX - 2.20GHz, 1MB Cache, 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) FSB, Windsor, Dual-Core, Retail, Socket AM2, Processor with Fan.
Kingston 1024MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory (2 of these for 2GB).
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, Browser Problems - Creating a Linux Based Virtual Box - Part 1 of 2 16MB, SATA-300, OEM.
DVD burner: LG GSA H55N Super-Multi Disk Drive 20×20×12
Putting the actual pieces together was very straight forward (use the guide that comes with the Shuttle package). However, I did make one mistake in ordering the hardware…
The Shuttle SN68SG2 comes with it’s own heat sink and cooling system. The metal fins are inserted right behind the fan of the power supply, so that the outbound air blows over the fins and draws heat away from the CPU.
(I thought that was an innovative design idea when building such a small-footprint unit). As such, I did not need to order the retail version of the CPU (there’s no use or place, for the fan). Instead, I should have ordered the OEM version of the CPU (without the fan).
Also, after following the instructions that come with the shuttle unit, you may wish to flash the BIOS. I found that I was able to reboot the system with no problem, but whenever I powered it down and then back up (cold start), the PC always tries to boot off the network (until I use the ctrl-alt-del combo to restart it), the shuttle site indicated the fix was BIOS related.
It’s probably better to flash the BIOS prior to moving forward (if you’re even interested in fixing this issue). You can fix it with Shuttle’s Flash Utility (awdflash) and the new BIOS (bin file) here: http://global.shuttle.com/download03.jsp?PI=647. Flashing the BIOS is not in the scope of this post, but one guide that gives you the basics of flashing is here: http://howflow.com/tricks/flash_your_award_bios_with_linux. Please remember that Read the full post…