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Ever since our initial
introduction to
the first mini barebones PC from
Shuttle, we
were
intrigued not only with its ground breaking design, but with the prospects of future "mini"
machines as well. The
SV24 was the first in a rapidly
growing line of mini barebones systems to be released by
Shuttle, each bringing new features and improvements to
the previous design. The Pentium III based unit wasn't the
most powerful system in the market, but it offered such
features as USB, FireWire, onboard Ethernet, and
TV-Out, making it very rich in features. The system was truly an exciting piece to work
with, giving us a glimpse of something had not seen before. Today we have
one of the latest additions to Shuttle's mini PC product line, the
SS40G XPC Mini Barebones System. With a hot new look
and new features not seen in previous
models, the SS40G is poised to steal the show once again.
Up until the release of the
Pentium 4 based SS51G, all of Shuttle's mini barebones units lacked an AGP
slot. This was a common complaint with some folks who
wanted more power than the onboard graphics
could offer. To make things interesting, we thought we would get our hands on a PCI graphics card and see how well an improved graphics
solution would affect the SS40G's performance. So we contacted the
folks at Visiontek
and they were kind enough to provide us with a brand new GeForce 4 MX420.
The MX420 is a cost effective 64MB PCI video card that
should have a positive effect on the systems overall
performance. Naturally, this card is not going to compare to any of the AGP video cards we've reviewed in the
recent past,
however, it is going to allow us the option to give the
graphics on the SS40G a little boost. So let's take a
look at what each component has to offer, then we'll get
busy to see how well these two units complemented each
other in the benchmarking arena.
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Specifications / Features of the Shuttle SS40G XPC Mini
Barebones System |
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Err...Maybe Size
Doesn't Matter?!? |
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CPU
AMD Socket A 462
Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron with 200/266MHz FSB
Support AMD XP processors up to 2200+
Support AMD Morgan/Duron processor up to 1.3GHz+
Form Factor
Flex ATX
Memory
2 x 184pin DDR DIMMs
200/266 SDRAM
crucial
Mushkin
OCZ
Corsair
Geil
Chipset
SiS740 North Bridge
SiS961 South Bridge
Expansion Capability
PCI Slot x 2
USB port x 4
IEEE1394 port x2
5.25? Reserved Bay x 1
3.5? Reserved Bay x 2
(Two HDs or Single Floppy + Single HD)
Case
Aluminum chassis 200(w) x 181(h) x 280(d) mm
Front Panel
2 x USB ports
1 x 1394 ports
1 x Mic-In
1 x Speaker-Out
Power-On
Reset
1 x 3.5? bay
1 x 5.25? bay |
Back Panel Ports and Connectors
2 x PCI slot panel
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x VGA port
2 x Serial Port
2 x 1394 ports
1 x Composite connector
2 x USB ports
1 x RJ45 port
1 x line-in connector
1 x line-out connector
1 x Center/Bass connector
Audio
CMI 8738
5.1 Channel Hardware Audio
Audio Driver
Onboard
Realtek 8100B
10/100Mb Fast Ethernet LAN
Support Wake on LAN, Boot to LAN, PXE 2.0
LAN driver
IDE interface
2 x UltraDMA/100 IDE
Channels Master from SiS961
80-pin Cable Backward Compatible Legacy ATAPI
Devices
ATAPI IDE CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, and LS-120 Supports
Accessory
CPU Cooler
SS40 Install Guide
FS40 User manual
FS40 CD-ROM Disk:
SIS IDE Driver
SIS AGP driver
cCMEDIA Audio driver
CMEDIA Audio Utility
ITE Smart Guardian Utility
User manuals in PDF format
Accessory Box |
The SS40G
comes with a complete collection of items to complement
an equally complete mini barebones system. Not
only does the unit come with the necessary cabling and
software to get it up and running, but Shuttle also opted
to put one of the PCI slots to good use by adding a USB
2.0 expansion card to the package. The complete
feature set of the Shuttle SS40G makes for an excellent
start to a system laden with potential.
Before we go
any further, let's take a quick moment to inspect the Visiontek Xtasy GeForce4
MX420...
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Specifications / Features of the
Visiontek Xstasy GeForce4 420 |
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Functional... |
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Specifications
? Controller:
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
? Bus Type AGP
? Memory 64MB SDR
? Core Clock 250MHz
? Memory Clock 166MHz memory
? RAMDAC 350MHz RAMDAC
? API Support Direct-X®, Open GL ICD®
for Windows
? Connectors VGA, S-Video
(VGA only on PCI version)
? 1 Billion texel fill rate
? 31 Million vertices/sec setup
? 2.7GB/second memory bandwidth
System Requirements
? 250W power
supply or greater
? IBM PC or 100% Compatible
? 266 MHz or higher CPU (AMD K6-2
or Intel Pentium II or higher)
? AGP 2.0 Compliant Socket
? CD ROM drive
? Windows 95 OSR2, 98, ME,
NT 4.0, 2000, XP
? 64MB of RAM
? 256-bit Graphics
Accelerator
? VGA and S-Video
? 1 Billion Texels/sec. Fill Rate
? 350MHz RAMDAC processor
? Lifetime Warranty
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Features at a Glance
? AGP 4x
compatible with fast writes
? 256-bit 3D and 2D graphics accelerator
? NVIDIA nView? display technologies
? Lightspeed Memory Architecture? II
? Integrated 350MHz DACs
? Accuview Antialiasing?
? High Definition Video Processing Engine
? MX memory Crossbar
? Integrated TV encoder
Package Contains
? Geforce4 MX
420? Graphics Accelerator
? Installation Guide
? Installation CD
* Install Guide .pdf
* Demos
* Adobe Acrobat Reader?
* NVIDIA® Unified Driver Architecture
? Cyberlink PowerDVD?
Lightspeed Memory
Architecture? II
Accuview? Antialiasing Engine
Integrated TV Encoder
Video Processing Engine
Available in Both AGP and PCI
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Visiontek Xtasy GeForce4 MX420 is a fairly basic video
card that should offer a marked improvement over the
standard onboard graphics of the SS40G. We felt
that a lot of potential users of the SS40G might want to
give the graphics power of the mini system a boost and
the Xstasy MX420 fit the bill. At a cost of
around $70, this video card is the perfect candidate
for Shuttle's mini system.
The package of the MX420 was nothing too extravagant,
with the video card, installation CD and a copy of Cyberlink's PowerDVD XP being the sum of the bundle.
Nonetheless, the card brings enough to the table that it
should have some positive effects on certain aspects of
the SS40G's performance.
So let's
take a look and see what makes the SS40G tick, then
we'll get going and see the PCI card's effect on the benchmarks.
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The
BIOS & Setup of the
Shuttle SS40G XPC Mini
Barebones System |
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Just The Basics... |
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Since the SS40G
is not geared toward the performance market, the BIOS of the
system lacked a number of the key features often seen with
other hardware. The BIOS was as basic a BIOS as we've seen,
although
the system does provide some adjustments worth looking at.
To start off, the system memory CAS latency can be adjusted
to
2T, 2.5T or 3T. The Frequency/Voltage Control screen
provides options for adjusting the CPU
Host/SDRAM/PCI Clock ratio, DIMM/PCI clock and Spread
Spectrum. The PC Health Status window
allows for monitoring of the system's key voltages and
temperatures as well as a safety in case the system fan
fails.
Rather
than wanting to point out what features are available with the BIOS
of the SS40G, we found ourselves more focused on what
features are not equipped in the BIOS of the system.
The SS40G doesn't have any voltage adjustments, nor does it
have any overclocking settings either. The system had
no Multiplier setting and the Bus speed could not be
increased beyond 133MHz. If one thing is for certain,
the Shuttle SS40G was not designed with overclocking in
mind. While this wasn't all too surprising to see, we
were a little disappointed. With so many integrated
items included on the system, it makes sense that there was
no option to increase the bus speed beyond 133MHz. The
chances of a system like this becoming unstable with even
the slightest increase in bus speed is quite high.
However, with the ability to unlock an Athlon processor's
multiplier being so commonplace these days, we feel that
there is little excuse for not including a multiplier
setting in the BIOS.
Since the processor is isolated when adjusting the
multiplier, the chances of gaining a little extra horsepower
are much better than with an increase in bus speed.
Overall, although rather basic, the BIOS of the SS40G comes
with the settings required to configure the system
optimally.
Next we'll take a closer look at
the SS40G's physical characteristics and see what Shuttle
has brought to us this time around.
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