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?

 

Conclusion

Conclusion

So is it time to jump on the Intel bandwagon and upgrade to the Grantsdale chipset, the new LGA775 form factor CPU, and a PCI Express video card? Should you fork over the big bucks for a P4 Extreme Edition processor, or suffer through the lackluster performance of the lower priced Prescott?

In terms of really recommending and evaluating the SB81P, it?s prudent to divide up our recommendations into two camps. The first has to do with the Grantsdale chipset, LGA775 form factor CPU, and associated features such as PCI Express and the new ICH6R Southbridge. In this area, it?s hard to compete feature wise with the SB81P, as it?s the only SFF on the market today to feature Intel?s latest chipset. Powered by the 915G chipset, and with support for gigabit LAN, Intel?s Storage Matrix Technology with Serial-ATA RAID 0/1, dual-channel DDR400, 8 channel audio, Intel?s Media Graphics Accelerator, and the latest Hyperthreading LGA775 form factor Pentium 4 CPU?s, this box certainly packs a punch. You can?t complain that Intel left much out of this chipset.

However, realistically, with a lack of PCI Express video solutions on the market today, and the higher prices of Prescott and Extreme Edition CPU?s, it?s going to be hard for systems like the SB81P to go mainstream in the short-term. This isn?t really Shuttle?s problem so much as Intel?s in general. They just haven?t yet provided a compelling performance benefit to their Prescott CPUs, and without Northwood-based LGA775 processors, you?re going to upgrade simply for the chipset versus the CPU. Top this off with the fact that a Prescott CPU upgrade could actually lower your performance compared to an equivalent Northwood Pentium 4, and there?s little incentive to make the move.

All that said, however, the other side of the coin is the SB81P in general. Its aesthetics, design, and overall re-engineering represents a true re-design, almost the evolution of small form factor computing. The P-style case chassis is loaded with fantastic features, and an impressive showing of cool and quiet performance. Featuring triple 3.5" drive bays, screwless drive installation, a completely re-designed cooling system, and the 350 Watt SilentX PSU, it?s clear that many aspects of the SB81P are here to stay for future Shuttle SFF systems.

For those of you who are itching for the latest and greatest, and especially if you can budget for a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processor, the SB81P is the only SFF solution today featuring Intel?s next generation chipset. Couple this with the literal truckload of features provided by the Grantsdale 915G chipset, and you?ve got what amounts to the top-of-the-line SFF to date.

We were thoroughly impressed with the SB81P?s environmental performance, producing consistently cooler and quieter operating conditions than expected with a Pentium 4 EE 3.4 GHz processor. While the external aesthetics of the new P-style chassis?s faceplate may not appeal to everyone, the clean-lined stealthing and covered front IO ports provide an overall cleaner looking system, reminiscent of other popular SFF systems.

In terms of features, there?s not much more you could ask for.

At the end of the day, the SB81P is a strong performer with impressive thermodynamics, and top of the line performance. Shuttle?s next generation XPC is just that, featuring a completely new design on almost every front. For those looking for the latest and greatest Intel chipset and processors, you?ll certainly be content with the Shuttle SB81P.

Shuttle?s next generation has arrived.

Now, if we could just get them to offer Springdale, Canterwood, and Athlon-64 based systems in the P-style chassis!

< previous - (11 of 11)

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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)