- Scythe Kozuti CPU cooler:
40 mm height – fits in the case just like it would have been designed specifically for this purpose. BUT: No place left for Slim CD drive. Will not fit in anymore. Who needs CDs nowadays anyhow…
When installing it, just be sure to align the fins along the path of the air flow (from left to right).

The results are very good indeed:
Standard (box) cooler: After 30 mins of full load (CPU + GPU = 52W TDP) and at “smart cooling”: 71°C system temperature, 86°C CPU package temperature – fans spin at 1700 rpm (pretty audible)
Kozuti cooler + system fans (out of the box – just without the stock CPU cooler) at “ultra-low” setting for both fan speeds and again after 30 min full load: 68°C system temperature, 77°C CPU package temperature and ~ 1550 fan spin speeds (still audible but much better).
I also put foam rubber (~ 4 mm thick) next to the system fans to enhance air flow out of the XH61V (slim piece at the back and broad piece at the fron blocking of all unnecessary openings there). This makes the air flow a little bit more efficient.

The only thing still bothering me was the audible fan when there is no CPU load and the system was actually cool at 50°C system and 40°C CPU (stock BIOS setting at “ultra-low”: ~ 1400 … 1500 rpm). So I fired up SpeedFan 4.49 (well-known fan speed control software). To control fan speeds with SpeedFan you have to enable following: Configure -> Advanced -> Chip ‘IT8728F’ -> PWM1 and PWM2 mode both “software controlled” (and obviously ‘remember it’) . PWM1 is the CPU and PWM2 the system cooling fan.

Now everything runs at 0% PWM as long as temperatures are below 55°C (system) and 65°C (CPU) which translates to 1100 rpm CPU and 1000 rpm system fan speed. I.e. in idle case or low-load software the XH61V is nearly not audible anymore. It gets audible when temperatures increase to appr. 65°C (system) and 75°C (CPU) – which is only the case for playing heavy games etc. In normal ‘office’ and ‘internet’ modes, the system keeps nearly inaudible. Perfect HTPC.

Hands down: I LOVE IT.

Hope that helps some of you. BR!

Have fun when this Shuttle POS dies in a year for no reason like so many other models. But don’t think about complaining on the Shuttle forums.. your posts/threads will be deleted and if you say anything negative about the company, you’ll get banned too. Pathetic fuckers.

Plus, both this model and the previous one use the H61 chipset. This one is Ivy Bridge compatible, the old one isn’t. You know what that translates into for me? “Nah.. we’re not gonna give you a BIOS update to support Ivy Bridge CPUs like every normal motherboard manufacturer does.. instead, we bring out a new model with the exact same chipset so you can pay through your nose and buy the exact same thing you’ve already got if you want to use Ivy instead of Sandy”

The above would certainly fit into Shuttle’s shitty little beancounter business model..