The Ever-Changing XP Shuttle
You ever have that thing happen? You know. When you upgrade to a certain piece of hardware, only for it to immediately be replaced by something better that just...fell into your lap? This has happened to me numerous times. (It's also how I was an iPhone 7 owner for like, a week before the 8 came out.)
This kinda happened with the ultimate 98 build: I had plans to move it to an Athlon XP 3200+ system after VCF West last year, but due to a very last minute acquisition the whole works got upended and instead it transitioned over to a P4 Northwood-based system right before West was due to happen.
And now we're here: The Windows XP Shuttle. The one that started it all, actually. It was my first Shuttle machine, acquired from Zhinu after he decided he was done trying to figure out what was wrong with it. It was a weird amalgamation of parts, an older chassis paired with the motherboard from an SS30G2. I managed to get it somewhat working, but alas, the gremlins would come back and take this machine out for good.
Later in 2025, I figured out that the XP Shuttle was suffering from board flex damage, as it would no longer reliably power up if the board was fully mounted to the chassis. If I unscrewed the CPU heatsink, it would power up fine. Screwed down? Nothing but power cycling. I did rule out any sort of shorting (by covering the whole interior in kapton tape). The board was just...toast. Given this looked like it had been a Fry's return at some point, I could only guess.
As a temporary measure, I snatched the (dead due to needing a recap) board out of my newly-acquired Tricaster Pro 2 (which is itself based on the Shuttle SG31G2) and made use of it as the "temporary" XP Shuttle. This board could thankfully make use of much newer CPUs (Penryn-based Core 2 Duos and Quads) so I was finally able to break out of the CPU bottleneck the SS30 was seemingly stuck in.
It was around this time that I mentioned needing to find another Shuttle board so that I could return the Tricaster's board to it and get that machine fully up and running. As if on cue, an awesome fellow (RevisionY2K) hopped on ebay, and found an era appropriate Shuttle board for around $40. He offered to buy it and just let me get him back for it, which was much appreciated.
This was a departure of a board: It was one out of an SA76G2, which was the AMD equivalent to the SG31, and could take anything from later Athlon 64s up to earlier quad core Phenom IIs. However, there was a small problem: The CPU was in a completely different location, which meant none of the coolers I had for these Shuttles would work. Shuttle at some point shifted the CPU location more toward the front of the machine.
Unfortunately, this meant I would need a subtly different XPC frame (one with the forward position CPU cooler mount holes) in addition to the aforementioned cooler. Luck was fortunately on my side here, as I did in fact have a frame that would work with this board! The one originally belonging to the Tricaster.
As for the cooler, I kept my ears to the ground on eBay, and...after enough time, one for an intel model popped up, but the screws looked like they were in the right position...
It was cheap enough, so I rolled the dice, and...it fit! Awesome. We can get this show on the road. After a bunch of wrenching (and a second rolling-of-the-dice on eBay to get a Phenom II X4 945 from China), I had it: My perfect Windows XP Shuttle build.
As such, it was given a fun name. Quadraxis. Because quad core, ha, get it? Also Metroid Prime 2 is cool.
Little did I know, a fateful trip to ewaste and then eBay would upend this whole thing.
I went to ewaste to sell some things and meet up with people and maybe poke around. I didn't find much, but I decided to make one final tour around the place and saw something familiar: A Shuttle frame sitting at the bottom of a pile of Dell towers, with a motherboard in it. I wasted no time, dug it out, and grabbed it. Thinking that maybe with some extra parts, I could build this into something.
Unfortunately, this frame and board were from the "modern" line of Shuttle XPCs: A wee bit bigger and taller, enough to make them completely incompatible with previous XPC chassis parts. Feck.
I didn't want to put this to waste, so...I hopped on eBay, as one does.
This was a mistake. Because in sorting low to high to try and find people selling only the chassis components, there sat one very low priced complete system: An SH61R4, and it was only $40.
"For parts or repair only", because as the description said, this came from a shop, and the guy didn't know how to wipe the drive. Photos of it powered on and sitting at a login prompt.
I pop a quick look at Shuttle's site. Oh, this is new. At least relative to the usual fare around here. This is Sandy Bridge-based (with Ivy Bridge compatibility bolted on in a BIOS update). But most importantly: It had Windows XP drivers. FECK.
Yeah, screw it. This project is going to plaid. We're building an XP machine to challenge god. Paired up with a GTX 750Ti that I also got at ewaste (that needed repairs and bodges from physical damage, which I'm pleased to report were successful), this is really pushing the limits of what's acceptable for Windows XP.
However given I've done the very same thing for my 98 builds (which are both late Northwood P4s with video cards that are more appropriate for an XP build), it isn't exactly out of character.
This piece has gone on for long enough (I didn't think it'd get this long!) but I am pleased to report the seller packed the SH61R4 just fine, it got here safely (though they didn't put the case cover back on correctly) and is sitting next to me, happily running XP.
Given I have too much stuff as it is, the previous XP build is probably going to end up at VCF West's consignment this year if I don't find an interested party to buy it for effectively what I've put into it money wise. It's still a great system! But redundant with this new development.
