2CPU.com » News » December 2003 » Shuttle SB75G2 XPC reviewed @ 2CPU.com

While it isn't a duallie, Shuttle was kind enough to send me their SB75G2 XPC for testing. Small Form Factor PCs are taking the enthusiast market by storm and I certainly didn't want to miss out on the fun.

The Small Form Factor (SFF) PC has transitioned from being somewhat of a novelty in its early days to a viable replacement for your regular, full-size desktop. Manufacturers have added the features that geeks require in their machines, most notably the AGP Slot. The cooling systems have also advanced to handle the faster processors available from both AMD and Intel while keeping overall noise output to a minimum.

Intel hooked me up with a 3.2GHz P4C, as I'll be writing another article looking at hyperthreading performance in the next week or so. As such, this review does include some impressive benchmarks. Our Opterons make their first appearance as well, going through the 32-bit Windows benchmarks as one of our comparative systems. If you're a fan of SFFs or are just interested in pretty graphs and Opteron performance, you may want to take a look.

[Ed - We're not dead, by the way. I'm making a concerted effort to give you some news everyday, and we do have some other reviews coming up. Hooz has Opterons and a couple of boards, and it looks like he'll be getting some 1MB L3 cache Xeons from Intel to play with as well. We're also continuing to make progress on acquiring barebones servers for review. It looks like Tyan will be providing us with one in the very near future.]

03/10/2003 09:01 AM: Shuttle SB52G2 Reviewed @ 2CPU.com by Jim
I'm sure most of you are familiar with Shuttle's line of XPCs. Up until now, they've really only had their hand in the enthusiast market with these compact and sexy machines. With today's launch of th...

04/25/2000 08:04 PM: Shuttle Hot 649A by dadmin
Shuttle is not the most well known motherboard manufacturer, but they have been around for some time and I've personally used several of their Pentium motherboards with good results. It seems they ha...

nater SMP Rower Posts: 1001 Joined: 2002-02-27

#25360 Posted on: 12/10/2003 07:50 PM Nice review (as always). I was thinking about building one for my main machine, as my others are too loud to have in my bedroom Paragon: Iwill MPX2 | 2x1600MP | 512MB | GF4 4200 | 475W | 15k SCSI | 480 gig Raid 5 Paradigm: Tiger MPX | 2x1700XP(TBred) | 512MB ECC DDR | GF2 GTS | 400W |

spikegifted I do what? Posts: 6131 Joined: 2000-07-24

#25361 Posted on: 12/10/2003 08:02 PM Another high quality review from the crew!! You guys are just talented. SMP is the 'bread and butter' of 2CPU.com, but to do a good review of an XPC, which is the opposite end of the hardware spectrum, means good research and good insight. Well done, folks! P.S. Now that Jim_ mentions it, I now remember Hooz was due to give us the skinnies on Opteron... I'm really looking forward to the review now! Also, are we going to see the 1M L3 Xeon facing off the Opteron? spikegifted.net "At the very beginning of the 19th century chemists generally thought that compounds from living organisms were too complicated in structure to be capable of artificial synthesis from non-living things, and that a 'vital force' or vitalism conferred the characteristics of living beings on this form of matter." Well, how wrong were they? So much for dogma...

Jim_ Administrator Posts: 3574 Joined: 2000-03-15

#25362 Posted on: 12/10/2003 08:09 PM Originally posted by spikegifted Also, are we going to see the 1M L3 Xeon facing off the Opteron? We wouldn't have it any other way. The delay has mainly been because we really didn't want to take a look at the Opteron with only Windows 32-bit benchmarks at our disposal. I did receive a copy of SuSE's AMD64 version of their distribution of Linux, which we could use but since Hooz and I are separated by many miles and given our schedules we haven't been able to finalize what tests we'd like to run in the 64-bit, NUMA environment. Right now, I'd really like to look at Apache/PHP/MySQL performance and maybe look at some compilation situations to see what the Opteron is capable of in its intended environment. An AMD64 version of Windows XP would certainly make our lives a lot easier... if it ever gets freaking released. [url="http://www.2cpu.com"][size=1]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one! [url="http://www.jimkirk.org"]jimkirk.org[/url] - Not a Myth any Longer. Just a Dad.[/size]

jhaislet "Let's Roll" Posts: 3248 Joined: 2002-06-25

#25363 Posted on: 12/10/2003 08:23 PM I'll agree, very nice review! I've come to the conclusion that my folks will be getting one of the shuttle pc's during their next upgrade cycle. Maybe I could talk them into it while I'm home at Christmas...humm I can't wait until the 1M L3 Xeon & Opteron bloodbath!!! Mini-ITX Systems: AOpen MP965-DR Core2Duo Mobility T7500 4MB L2, 4GB DDR2 (Vista MCE)| MSI Industrial 945GM2 Celeron M 430 | Intel Little Valley 2 (Firewall) | Via EPIA EN-1500 (Firewall)|

AniMill Render Gardener Posts: 53 Joined: 2001-06-09

#25364 Posted on: 12/10/2003 09:05 PM I've had 8 of the 75s for a couple weeks now enhancing my RenderFarm. I love them but have a few gripes: I wish they had the on-board video and the tiny fan inside the power supply is very annoying - especially when you have 8 of them on-line. When it's time for me to add more machines to the Farm, I'd go with the SB62G2 instead. It's quieter and, interestingly enough, it renders faster then the 75s. Plus it's got the video on-board making setup faster. Don't get me wrong, the 75 ROCKS! I just wish it had the video and wonder why it's slower than the 62. Never the less, Shuttles are now our primary contractor workstations. Now only if we can get Shuttle to make a FireWire2 based RAID enclosure out of their SFF cases.... Curtis Sponsler Creative Director | President - AniMill Offices in Ocoee,FL & Burbank, CA

BiffStroganoffsky I play a tech on internet Posts: 1412 Joined: 2000-08-24

#25365 Posted on: 12/10/2003 11:45 PM Ugg. Formatting of page 3 is a bit off in Mozilla. The linkage for the next page is at the top of the page and not the bottom.

Jim_ Administrator Posts: 3574 Joined: 2000-03-15

#25366 Posted on: 12/11/2003 12:05 AM Originally posted by BiffStroganoffsky Ugg. Formatting of page 3 is a bit off in Mozilla. The linkage for the next page is at the top of the page and not the bottom. Fixed it. Apparently Mozilla didn't like a stray div class statement of mine. Sorry about that. [url="http://www.2cpu.com"][size=1]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one! [url="http://www.jimkirk.org"]jimkirk.org[/url] - Not a Myth any Longer. Just a Dad.[/size]

Chicken is good Registered User Posts: 752 Joined: 2002-04-01

#25367 Posted on: 12/11/2003 04:21 AM i just built one and they are SWEET took me like 30 min to build it windows 2k3 is installign right now

Hooz Administrator Posts: 2388 Joined: 2000-03-29

#25368 Posted on: 12/11/2003 04:50 AM The shiny new Xeons arrived today (3.2ghz, 1mb cache). They were shipped right from Costa Rica... Hot off the presses [size=1][url="http://www.2cpu.com"]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one! Are you folding? [url="http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=3074"]2CPU.com Folding@Home Team[/url] [url="http://www.heatware.com/eval.php?id=19979"]My Heatware[/url][/size]

Jim_ Administrator Posts: 3574 Joined: 2000-03-15

#25369 Posted on: 12/11/2003 04:55 AM Originally posted by Hooz The shiny new Xeons arrived today (3.2ghz, 1mb cache). They were shipped right from Costa Rica... Hot off the presses I'm jealoussssssss. :cool: [url="http://www.2cpu.com"][size=1]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one! [url="http://www.jimkirk.org"]jimkirk.org[/url] - Not a Myth any Longer. Just a Dad.[/size]

JohNEE <font color="#E22000"><b>News Monkey</b></font> Posts: 363 Joined: 2000-05-10

#25370 Posted on: 12/11/2003 05:19 AM The shiny new Xeons arrived today (3.2ghz, 1mb cache). They were shipped right from Costa Rica... Hot off the presses Now, if Win64 were released about... now... I really couldn't imagine a more perfect 2cpu pre-christmas review! Either way it's shaping up mighty fine! /me emails his mate Bill G to get his finger out of his a**e and ship a copy of Win64 to 2cpu J. The Toaster Dual PIII 800E, T100, Win2k, 512MB Crucial, 2940U2W + 2x 18.4 Gb 10k II's, GF2 Ultra, TBSC, Pioneer DVD-ROM, Plextor 24/10/40A, 3com NIC - in a modded Aopen HX08.

BiffStroganoffsky I play a tech on internet Posts: 1412 Joined: 2000-08-24

#25371 Posted on: 12/11/2003 06:44 AM Originally posted by Jim_ Fixed it. Apparently Mozilla didn't like a stray div class statement of mine. Sorry about that. No problemo. Gracias.

Valnar Registered User Posts: 233 Joined: 2001-11-29

#25372 Posted on: 12/11/2003 08:16 AM I'm buying a SB65G2 for wife at Christmas. High WAF. It'll have an older P4 2.26Ghz CPU so it should run nice and quiet. Faster than her current dually P850! -Robert

jhaislet "Let's Roll" Posts: 3248 Joined: 2002-06-25

#25373 Posted on: 12/11/2003 08:40 AM Originally posted by JohNEE Now, if Win64 were released about... now... I really couldn't imagine a more perfect 2cpu pre-christmas review! Either way it's shaping up mighty fine! /me emails his mate Bill G to get his finger out of his a**e and ship a copy of Win64 to 2cpu J. I wonder if they'll be shipping it out with the January Action Pack Quarterly Updates? Mini-ITX Systems: AOpen MP965-DR Core2Duo Mobility T7500 4MB L2, 4GB DDR2 (Vista MCE)| MSI Industrial 945GM2 Celeron M 430 | Intel Little Valley 2 (Firewall) | Via EPIA EN-1500 (Firewall)|

Rikimaru Moderator Posts: 1681 Joined: 2001-02-05

#25374 Posted on: 12/11/2003 10:43 AM Nice review Jim. Mostly Harmless

Chicken is good Registered User Posts: 752 Joined: 2002-04-01

#25375 Posted on: 12/11/2003 09:36 PM Originally posted by jhaislet I wonder if they'll be shipping it out with the January Action Pack Quarterly Updates? omgomgomgomg that'll be sweeet

ayt999 Registered User Posts: 3026 Joined: 2002-10-28

#25376 Posted on: 12/14/2003 02:02 AM the [url=www.hardocp.com][H][/url] linked to this article earlier today... nice exposure I guess. SETI@home|folding@home|RC5|find-a-drug|DPAD|ZetaGrid|climateprediction.net| communityTSC|BOINC|Predictor@home|seventeen or bust|ECC2-109

JCLW Registered User Posts: 570 Joined: 2001-01-23

#25377 Posted on: 12/15/2003 04:34 AM I installed a SB65G2 on a boat for the summer to run electronic charting software. In it is a P4 2.4C, ATI 9200 (for TV out), WD 80gb, 48x Sony CDROM, 1gb of ram, and a dual serial port PCI card for interfacing with navigation electronics. Software is Win XP Pro, MaxSea charting software, and WeatherFax 2000. Two LCD screen are used, one at the chart table (where the computer is located), and the other in the wheelhouse (courtesy of a Belkin Cat5 KVM extender and a 50' Cat5e cable. Apart from a bit of trouble getting the computer to recognize the WD drive when I was installing XP, it's been great. We've had the boat rolling & pitching over 35 degrees in any dimension, and exposed it to ambient temperatures from -20C to +40C and it hasn't had any problems what-so-ever. I've been really amazed at the Belkin Cat5 extender as well. It runs the wheelhouse LCD at 1280x1024 @ 75hz (the LCD seems to like 75hz better then 60hz) as well as a trackball down a 50' network cable running beside tons of other AC and DC cables without any noticible loss of image quality. - JW Will Vista run on my TRS-80?

2CPU.com » News » December 2003 » Shuttle SB75G2 XPC reviewed @ 2CPU.com