Introduction

Shuttle has once again established themselves as the SFF leader with the release of their latest XPC, the SB75G2. The SB75G2 sports the Intel i875P chipset, representing the first production SFF system based on Intel?s premier Pentium-4 chipset architecture. The system comes loaded with advanced features, all packed into the popular Shuttle G2 series XPC case.

Complete with PAT support, dual channel DDR400, gigabit Ethernet, Serial-ATA RAID, and even a meshed case cover, the SB75G2 defines top-of-the-line for current Pentium-4 based SFF systems.

Shuttle has been building up to the SB75 for months now. With 4 XPC?s already supporting flavors of the Intel i865 chipset, it was only a matter of time before they engineered an i875P solution. So what does the i875P buy you?

Those familiar with Intel chipsets know that the 865 (Springdale) and the 875 (Canterwood) are pretty much the same with the exception of PAT (Performance Acceleration Technology). PAT aims to increase overall system performance by using faster timings within the Northbridge chip. What may be a surprise, however, is that the 865 and 875 Northbridges are actually identical. Now Intel is famous for sorting out their CPU?s based on performance, labeling those that will perform faster as “higher clock speed”. It seems they may have taken a similar track with their latest Northbridge, pulling out the “best of the bunch” and labeling those as Canterwood.

So does PAT really make a difference? You can make that judgment for yourself later on during our benchmarking.

For now, with over a dozen Shuttle XPC?s currently on the market, is this the right box for you? Is it time to upgrade from that SS51, SB51, or SN45? Or is this the system of choice for you big old beige box fans looking to finally take the leap into the 21^st century with a small form factor system? Hopefully we can help you make that decision?

But before we go into the details, let?s begin with the SB75G2?s overall system specifications:

Processor	Intel Pentium 4 / Celeron 478-pin Northwood and Prescott
Chipset	Intel i875P + ICH5-R
Memory	2 x 184 pin DDR SDRAM up to 2GB at PC3200 (ECC Optional)
Audio	Realtek ALC650 AC?97 5.1 Channel Audio Controller
LAN	Broadcom 5788 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
PSU	220W 110/230V AC
Dimensions:	300mm(L) x 200mm(W) x 185mm(H)
Parallel ATA	Two UDMA-100 Dual Channel PATA Ports
Serial ATA	Two UDMA-150 SATA Ports + Intel 82801ER SATA RAID 0/1/0+1
On-Board Video	None
PCI	1 x 33MHz
AGP	1 x AGP 4X/8X
Other Internal Headers	1 x Floppy Disk 1 x Parallel Port 1 x IrDA 1 x WKMC 3 x Fan 1 x CD-In

Connections are as follows:

Front Panel Connections

2 x USB 2.0 1 x Firewire 1394a (4-Pin) 1 x Mic In 1 x Line Out 1 x Headphone Out 1 x Power Button 1 x Reset Button 1 x Power LED 1 x IDE Activity LED

Rear Panel Connections

4 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 RJ45 LAN 2 x Serial Port (9-pin) 1 x SPDIF In 1 x SPDIF Out 1 x PCI Slot 1 x AGP Slot

Shuttle has included the standard line up of accessories, including a single SATA cable. You?ll need to provide a second on your own if you want to implement SATA RAID.

We?ll start from the outside and work our way in… On to case externals?

SB65 / SB75 Shootout

SB65 / SB75 Shootout

There?s been a lot of discussion about the differences between the Intel i865 and i875 chipsets. The bottom line is that they are both based on identical Northbridges, but the i875 runs at a higher internal clock rate and supports PAT. PAT, or Performance Acceleration Technology from Intel, is supposed to show an appreciable performance benefit. Let?s see if the SB75 with PAT trumps the SB65 in CPU testing.

A barely noticeable difference. Perhaps memory performance will show us a different story.

Here we see an appreciable performance benefit with the SB75, around 5% across all FSB?s. Sandra results show a similar story.

Again, a noticeable performance benefit to the SB75, but nothing to write home about.

Armed with our new fangled professional noise meter, we aimed to provide you with some noise measurements for this review, and compare the SB75G2?s noise levels to a couple other common Shuttle XPC?s. See the "Testbench Setup" page of this review for an understanding of how these measurements were taken. Here?s the data.

As you can see, the legacy Shuttle SS51 with its total of 2 internal fans is significantly quieter than the SB65, which is also quieter than the SB75. And remember that since "dB" is measured on a logarithmic scale, an increase in "dB" levels isn?t a 1-to-1 comparison. Meaning that even though a measurement of 61 for the SB75 is only 2dB higher than the SB65 at 59dB, the difference is significant on a logarithmic scale.

These results are expected. The SS51 has two internal fans, the SB65 has three, and the SB75 has four including the Northbridge, ICE fan, and 2 PSU fans.

So what?s the bottom line conclusion?

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• External Design (1 of 8)
• Internal Design (2 of 8)
• Cooling, DDR, and Chipset (3 of 8)
• Bios (4 of 8)
• Testbench Setup (5 of 8)
• Benchmarks and Overclocking (6 of 8)
• SB65 / SB75 Shootout (7 of 8)
• Conclusion (8 of 8)