Conclusion
Finally, we were able to review a Pentium 4 SFF system
sporting the latest chipset that showcases the true
power of these miniature systems. Previously tested
Pentium 4 SFF systems were only equipped with older
chipset platforms such as the SiS 651 and Intel 845G,
which do constrain the system performance to a certain
extent compared with current chipset platforms.
As we unveiled the performance in our results section
using the same processor frequency but utilizing the
newer 800MHz PSB and DDR400 dual-channel memory in
contrast to older systems based on the 533MHZ PSB
and DDR 266/333, the Shuttle XPC SB61G2 outscored
the Intel 845G platform by 12% in office productivity
and content creation tasks. The margin grew to over
20% in our SPECViewPerf benchmark simulating professional
rendering application tests. Gaming scores improved
anywhere from 50% to 100% thanks to the new Intel
Extreme Graphics 2 core in the 845G chipset. However
do note that the gaming results are still a far cry
from what a GeForce4 MX 440 can achieve and as such,
the built-in graphics is still not a viable 3D gaming
solution.
In terms of system design and features, the Shuttle
XPC was outstanding and we grew to enjoy it even
more after being immersed in a wider variety of
SFF systems recently. The XPC series promoted easy
system building due to an ingenious system design,
efficient heat removal from the CPU via Shuttle’s
I.C.E. heat-pipe system and has good overall ventilation.
Furthermore, the Shuttle motherboard’s AGP slot
positioning allows long AGP graphics card to be
installed effortlessly- this is still unique to
Shuttle at the time of publishing.
The Shuttle XPC SB61G2 would make a good modern
SFF system for the enthusiasts but it comes at quite
a cost. Shuttle XPC systems are known to be among
the more expensive SFF systems around. Although
it is somewhat justified by all its qualities, it
is still a little on the high side. Furthermore,
no software or utilities were bundled with the barebone
system. In light of this, the Shuttle XPC SB61G2
missed our perfect rating and but still landed itself
comfortable with 4.5 Stars – an excellent rating
that would still do the folks at Shuttle very proud.
What else we'd like to see : dual monitor vga out
and TV out , also a remote would be great too !
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