Modern PCs have always come in roughly three specific sizes; desktop, mid-tower, and full tower. However, as technology has advanced, the PC has been able to shrink down smaller and smaller. This has, of course, given birth to the laptop, pocket sized PCs, and several other devices. But for those folks that want to take advantage of the smaller size and yet retain more of the upgrade options, the Small Form Factor (SFF) PC has come to the rescue. At about half the size of a mid-tower, new SFF systems are packing in a lot of features in order to please the current fan base and attract new customers.
Enter Shuttle. Shuttle was one of the pioneering companies in the SFF market, and remains one of the industry leaders. In early 2002, Shuttle launched the XPC product line with the SS40 model, their first to target the consumer market. Since then, they have been hard at work putting out innovative barebone SFF systems to the masses and have had a great reception.
But what has this to do with Linux? In September of this year MandrakeSoft, maker of the Mandrake Linux distribution, announced it had a made a bundling deal with Shuttle. With each and every one of Shuttle’s Network Appliance (NA) XPC products, a copy of Mandrake Linux would be in the box. This agreement covered the SB52G2, SB62G2, and SB75G2 models. Perhaps taking a cue from the marketing of ridiculed Lindows, MandrakeSoft has decided to give bundling with hardware a shot. The real question is, did they do it right the first time or are they going to repeat the mistakes Lindows has made by bundling with inferior hardware? Shuttle was kind enough to send us an SB75G2 so we could take a look for ourselves.
The Package
Our unit arrived direct from Shuttle in a heavy duty cardboard box. Inside we found another box, the one you would find on retail shelves with the handle on it. Opening up the second box, we could see the SC75GB nestled down snuggly with plenty of padding. Also inside was the chassis manual, motherboard manual, driver CD (Windows), power cord, parts bag, cables, Mandrake flyer, and of course the 2 disc Mandrake 9.2 set.
First things first, I checked out the documentation. Looking over the flyer, I noted the purchaser gets a 20% discount to the MandrakeClub. Nice, but on to the manuals. The motherboard manual is just what one would expect it to be, filled with lots of information on the motherboard, where to connect this, where to connect that. The chassis manual however, I found to be an excellent read. Though SFF systems aren’t new to the market, they are new to me. Until this one arrived, I hadn’t even seen one up close and personal. This manual is packed with step-by-step instructions on how to install the remaining hardware, backed with full color photos at each step. This includes how to properly route the cables and where to use the included adhesive strips to hold the cables in place. Oh, and did I mention the manual is also in several different languages and twice as thick as the motherboard manual? I have to say, I was quite impressed.
Front And Center
Once unpacked, it was time to add on the rest of the hardware to make a full system. We chose to use the following configuration:
CPU – Intel 3GHZ 533MHz bus
Cooler – Included I.C.E module
PSU – Included 220W
RAM – 256MB Samsung PC2700U x2
HD – Western Digital 40GB ATA133
Video – AOpen FX5200 Ultra AGP
Tuner – ATI TV-Wonder VE PCI
Floppy – Generic 1.44MB
Optical – Generic 52X CDROM
Sound – Onboard Realtek ALC650 5.1
Speakers – CreativeLabs Inspire 5.1
IEEE 1394 – Onboard VIA VT6307
LAN – Onboard BCM5788
Originally, we were going to run with a VisionTek Ti4600 in the AGP slot, but got hung up. When installed, the video was garbled up and the system unstable (we didn’t use it this way for long). The AOpen FX5200 however had no problems at all. In looking over the docs, we noticed that only one Ti4600 model was supported and that was from ASUS. We’re guessing here, but we suspect the problem was the result of the power required from the VisionTek card exceeding what the PSU could put out. In every other system we tried, the Ti4600 ran fine.
Following the previously mentioned excellent instructions, we got everything into place and ready to rock. Other that the Ti4600 issue, the only other “problems” we ran into were petty. First, the ATI tuner was a little tight getting in as some of the audio cabling was in the way. The instructions missed the step with the CD audio cable. And finally, we really wish the front covers for the 5 ¼” and 3 ½” drive bays could have been reused. They look so nice, that leaving them off detracted from the appearance of the final product.
Those Lovely Drive Bay Covers
Booting from the Mandrake CD, the installation was ready to go. The installation program continued on with very little extra user interaction. Everything was detected correctly, but no package selection was allowed in either the default or expert installation paths. The default kernel for boot time was the SMP kernel that was Hyper-Threading aware, though other options are available. And that, was that. Note, we encountered zero problems getting the system ready to run.
Once Mandrake was installed, we went in search of anything that was not compatible or just plain sucked. We checked the USB ports, audio, IEEE 1394, network, ACPI, etc. Simply put, everything worked. We were able to play games, watch TV, listen to music, attach to our network, fiddle with USB thumb drives, record sounds, and a whole slew of other activities. Sound poured from all our speakers, the FX5200 was spitting out 3D with the preinstalled NVIDIA drivers, and everything moved quickly. I am so used to this section being longer, but, we couldn’t find anything to rag about.
Ah yes, for those that are into the modification of the PC and tweaking out every bit of performance, this section is for you.
Already, modifying the Shuttle XPC line is getting attention from retailers. Instead of having to hack up your own case, you can buy parts that have already been modified. We looked into one of these, specifically Outside Loop and their ClearView product. Normally we see pre-modified cases but as the XPC lines comes with its own case, one has to get inventive. And that is just what Outside Loop has done. Their ClearView kit is a replacement for the XPC shell, done in clear plastic. Besides being clear, it claims to have better airflow and is also set up with a sections on each side that can be knocked out and drilled into for adding fan grills. Toss in some lighting options that you’re looking spiffy at the next LAN party.
A Side of ClearView
We tried one of
these kits out, and it is a nice quality product. Well packed, it
arrived from the manufacturer just a few days after it was ordered.
It fit the SG75G2 like a glove and reused all the same screw points
as the original. Clearly (no pun intended), it is a quick off the
shelf modification that can really enhance your XPC visually. If only
they could do something for the XPC faceplate to get a full look
going. I know, looking at bare metal isn’t always that
exciting, but you never know what an inventive mind can come up with.
For those that long to overclock the hell out of everything, the SB75G2 will not disappoint. Nestled in the BIOS we found everything we needed to trick out the performance. Our CPU clock was selectable from 100MHz to 255MHz in 1MHz steps. The manual setting is typed in, so no long scrolling required. The AGP/PCI/SATA clocks could be fooled with as well, though not as greatly. Instead, there are four options allowed: Sync by CPU clock, 66/33/100, 73/36/100, and 80/40/100. In the voltage tweaking section, CPU voltage could be run from .08250V up to 1.5875V in .0125V increments, memory voltage from 2.65V to 2.75V in .05V increments, and AGP voltage from 1.55V to 1.65V in .05V increments. And for us chickens, one can just set it all to Auto and rest easy.
‘Round The Back
The only “gotcha” we encountered during usage testing was quite minimal and design related. The SB75G2 does not have an analog Line-In audio port on the rear. Instead, it is up on the front side. This was a problem for us as the TV tuner only has a 3.5MM audio out jack. The only solution here was to either run a cable from the back to the front, outside the case, or be a bit more creative. We went the creative route. The tuner clearly had been designed to have an internal audio jack installed, which was later omitted. Using a handy dandy soldering iron, we installed the missing audio jack on the card. Then we ran a cable from the card to the AUX_IN connector on the motherboard. Problem solved. The only other complaints here were with Mandrake itself. As this is a review of the Shuttle system, we won’t go there. (Dear Mandrake: Please inform your install program that if it detects and installs TV tuner drivers, then it should also install the applications to make use of it.)
So what exactly can we do with the SB75G2? Well, there is use it as a desktop, of course. It would also make a most excellent homebrew PVR box as it is quite small, nearly silent, sports nice onboard sound and LAN option, and looks rather unobtrusive in its native form. It may cost a little more than you want to spend on such a box however. With the SATA onboard, using it as tiny file/web server wouldn’t be a bad choice either. Honestly, there isn’t much that you can’t do with this unit.
After toying and testing, I have to say that I am very impressed with the SB75G2. I’m not a SFF person myself, but this system is really nice. I mean, give-it-to-your-parents-as-a-present nice. The look and feel are great, the onboard options excellent, and the quality is excellent. The small issues we ran across are far overshadowed when looking at the whole picture. Its compatibility with Linux is perfect, and the hardware solid. Mandrake certainly made the right choice in getting a bundling deal with Shuttle. The only thing missing from this system is a PSU with more power. Given a bit of time, I am sure Shuttle will come up with one. I’m very happy with it regardless.
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