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A major trend in
the technology industry is miniaturization. It's no
longer good enough to be the fastest or more technologically
advanced anymore. These days everything from cell
phones to MP3 players to digital cameras, are showing up on
retail shelves in increasingly smaller packages. So,
it should come as no real surprise that PC manufacturers
would also follow suit. That's where Shuttle comes in.
Sure, other companies such as IWILL and Soyo have produced
small cube-like PCs, but no other company has capitalized on
this trend like Shuttle. In fact, where we
historically mostly covered Shuttle Motherboard products for
you here at HotHardware, we are now almost exclusively being
sent their latest XPC Mini PC products in their place.
The XPC line of
systems has become a major showpiece for Shuttle, yet they
always seemed to be slightly behind the curve when it came
to the motherboard technology. It's hard enough to
design such a compact unit and even harder to stay on top
off all of the changes that have been taking place on the
chipset side of things. With the SB61G2, Shuttle has
created a unit that is both small and features one of the
most anticipated chipsets available for the Pentium 4, the
Intel 865G, formerly known as the Springdale. The
i865G variant is somewhat of a necessity in that it is the
only motherboard version, Springdale or Canterwood, that
features on-board graphics by way of its integrated Intel
Extreme Graphics 2 engine. While previous Intel
graphics solutions have not been known to knock anyone's
socks off, Dual DDR channels on the i865G should provide
much needed bandwidth to pick up its performance. With
a new graphics core, Dual DDR, not to mention SATA and
200MHz FSB P4 support, the Springdale chipset should bring
some major improvements to the Shuttle XPC line. Will
it be enough to sway over the masses towards this tiny
format? Let's check on the specifications of the
SB61G2 for an in-depth look.
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Specifications & Features of the Shuttle SB61G2 |
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A
box filled with goodies! |
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CLICK ANY
IMAGE FOR AN ENLARGED VIEW
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Chassis
Dimensions
Form
Factor
Material
Extension Bays
Front
Panel
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2 x
USB 2.0 ports
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1 x
Mini Firewire port
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1 x
Mic-In port
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1 x
Line-In port
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1 x
Headphones port
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1 x
Power-On button
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1 x
Reset button
Back Panel
Power
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Dimension: 82(W) x 43(H) x 190(D) mm (Max)
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Input: 110 / 230V AC
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Output: 200W(PFC)
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EMI
Certified: FCC, CE, BSMI
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Safety Certified: UL, TUV, CB
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Power Cord: Depends on specific region demand
Accessories
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1 x
FB61 Mainboard User manual
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1 x
XPC Installation Guide
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1 x
Manual/Utilities/Drivers CD-ROM
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1 x
I.C.E Technology thermal module
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1 x
FDD Cable
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1 x
HDD Cable
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1 x
SATA Cable
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1 x
CD-ROM Cable (rounded)
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1 x
7pin Mini DIN to RCA Cable
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1 x
Power cord
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1 x
Serial ATA Power Cable
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2 x
Flexible Front Feet
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Silicon-based Thermal Grease
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Twin
Adhesive
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2 x
Cable ties
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Screws
CPU Support
Chipsets
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Intel 865G North Bridge
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ICH5
South Bridge
Memory
On-board
VGA
On-board
Audio
IDE interface
Serial
ATA interface
IEEE 1394a (Firewire)
Ethernet
Expansion Slots
On board connectors and headers
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3 x
fan connectors
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1 x
ATX main power connector
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1 x
ATX 12V power connector
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1 x
5-pin USB2.0 header
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1 x
Parallel Port header
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1 x
CD-In header
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1 x
SPDIF_Out/In header
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1 x
IR header
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1 x
Wireless Keyboard and mouse headers
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1 x
Front Panel connector
Extra
Feature
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The Bundle:
The bundle was
as complete a set as we have seen. After removing the
chassis and rummaging through the box, we found two manuals,
one for the chassis and one for the motherboard. The
drivers and utilities are all found on one CD. Both
IDE and SATA cables are included since both types of drives
are natively supported.
The hard drive and floppy cables are shorter than what is
typically included, which prevents excessive cabling from
cluttering up the interior of the case. The CD-ROM IDE
cable shown in the picture above is "rounded" to further
reduce clutter along with the optimal routing instructions
found in the manual. An optional piece that was
provided for our review was the Bluetooth USB Module.
In this box, there were three relatively small pieces: a key
to unlock the front plate of the XPC, a daughterboard, and
the Bluetooth dongle. Also included were an
instruction sheet and driver CD. The installation of
the daughterboard and dongle were a snap, as shown in the
last two pictures. Specifically made for the SB61G2
chassis, the daughterboard screws into two openings in the
interior of the case near the power cables, while the dongle
simply clips onto the front of the unit, once the faceplate
is removed. Once a cable is installed from the
daughterboard to a USB header on the motherboard, the
unit is assembled back together and the drivers are
installed, all you need to do is start beaming information
from a PDA or Bluetooth-compatible cell-phone and you are in
business.
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