In concert with Intel?s recent launch of their Grantsdale 915G chipset, Shuttle has announced their latest XPC, the SB81P. Representing Shuttle?s 5^th generation XPC case design, the SB81P is the culmination of all that Shuttle has learned over the past several years since their first SFF system debuted in 2001.

Featuring a radically different approach to thermal cooling, along with a completely re-designed case, you?ll soon see that the P-style XPC chassis gives any desktop tower system a run for its money in terms of both expandability and thermodynamics.

The SB81P sports Intel?s brand new Grantsdale 915G chipset, featuring support for the LGA775 form factor Pentium 4, PCI Express expandability, Intel?s Media Graphics Accelerator integrated video solution, and 8 channel audio courtesy the ICH6-R Southbridge. Couple this with a brand new 350 Watt SilentX power supply, triple 3.5" drive bays, an integrated media card reader, stealthed front panel, and screwless drive installation, and you?ve got a system packed to the rim with new features. But wait, there?s more. Dual channel DDR400, support for up to four Serial-ATA devices as well as RAID 0/1/0+1, a re-designed ICE Cooling System, and Gigabit Ethernet just to name a few?

As you?re beginning to see, the SB81P is a complete re-design, from the inside out, and is a hint of what?s to come from Shuttle and other SFF manufacturers over the next year. It?s hard to decide where to even begin the review, as so much is new with the SB81P. Questions abound from case design, to chipset, to processor, to integrated video and audio, etc? Let?s take it slow and begin with the overall system specifications.

Processor	Intel Pentium 4 LGA775 533/800MHz FSB with HT
Chipset	Intel i915G Grantsdale + ICH6R
Memory	2 x 184 pin DDR SDRAM up to 2GB at DDR400
Audio	Intel High Definition Audio + Realtek ALC880
LAN	Broadcom 5751 PCI-E 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
PSU	Shuttle SilentX 350W 110/230V AC
Dimensions:	320mm(L) x 210mm(W) x 220mm(H)
Parallel ATA	One UDMA-100 Dual Channel PATA Port
Serial ATA	Intel Storage Matrix Technology - Four UDMA-150 Serial-ATA Ports with RAID 0/1
On-Board Video	Intel Media Graphics Accelerator (MGA900)
PCI	1 x 33MHz
PCI Express	1 x PCI-E X16
Other Internal Headers	1 x Floppy Disk 4 x Fan 1 x CD-In 1 x Mini CD-In 1 x Aux In 1 x Parallel Port 1 x USB 2.0

Front Panel Connections

2 x USB 2.0 1 x Firewire 1394a (6-Pin) 1 x Mic In 1 x Headphone Out 1 x Power Button/LED 1 x IDE Activity LED 1 x Reset Button

Rear Panel Connections

2 x USB 2.0 1 x Firewire 1394a (6-pin) 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x Audio Front Out 1 x Audio Rear Out 1 x Audio Center/Bass Out 1 x Audio Side Out 1 x SPDIF Input 1 x SPDIF Output 1 x Coaxial Audio Output 1 x Audio Line In 1 x RJ45 LAN 1 x Serial (9-Pin) 1 x VGA 15-pin DSUB 1 x Clear CMOS Button

You?ll notice a few new items have shown up in the SB81P?s accessory kit, shown below.

Notice the plethora of mounting brackets in the image above. These are part of the "screwless drive installation" system which allows you to actually install up to three internal hard-drives, an optical drive, and an optional floppy drive without the use of any screws, screwdrivers, or really any tools for that matter. We?ll take a closer look at this later on. In addition to the mounting brackets, you?ll find a single Serial-ATA cable (don?t worry, the others are pre-installed), a floppy cable, floppy power converter, power cable, case feet, and the typical array of Shuttle manuals and driver disks. Fortunately, the SB81P is the first XPC to ship with a RAID manual, in this case, the ICH6-R RAID manual courtesy Intel and Shuttle. It provides detailed instructions on how to install Windows XP on a RAID system, convert from standalone to RAID configurations, and an overview of the RAID subsystem in general.

With so much to see, let?s begin by taking a closer look at the SB81P?s external case design?

 

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• External Design (1 of 11)
• External Design Cont?d (2 of 11)
• Internal Design (3 of 11)
• Internal Design - Drive Bays (4 of 11)
• Thermodynamics and Cooling (5 of 11)
• Chipset (6 of 11)
• Bios (7 of 11)
• Testbench Setup (8 of 11)
• Benchmarks & Overclocking (9 of 11)
• Benchmark Comparisons (10 of 11)
• Conclusion (11 of 11)