Shuttle XPC SB65G2

The mini ATX format cube PC, or small form factor to give its official name, has come along way in a short space of time, from no more than a low-powered gimmick to a powerful alternative to the usual desktop or tower PC. Leading the way in this revolution has been Shuttle. Its latest barebones system, the XPC SB65G2, now adds wireless to the mix.

Stylishly finished in black anodised aluminium, the SB65G2 certainly looks the part and, with a number of black optical, floppy or Flash card readers available, there is no excuse for sticking a beige unit in either of 5.25in or 3.5in external bays to spoil the effect. To make it easy to mount these drives and a hard disk, the whole drive cage unit slides out with the removal of two screws.

Access to the case is via three thumbscrews and once inside there is a surprising amount of room, especially if you remove the previously mentioned drive cage.

Dominating the internals is a 40mm Sunon cooling fan and shroud, which is part of Shuttle's Ice cooling system for the processor. It uses a large heatsink and heatpipe arrangement instead of the usual cooling fan, making the system almost silent.

At the heart of the system lies one of Shuttle's own FB65 motherboards based around Intel's i865PE (Springdale) chipset. This supports socket 478 Celeron and Pentium 4 processors using 400,533 or 800MHz FSB (front-side bus) speeds.

There are two memory slots to enable the dual-channel function of the chipset and these support up to 2GB of PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200 (DDR266, 333 and 400 respectively). The ICH5 southbridge provides support for the two Serial ATA connectors and up to eight USB2 ports. There's also integrated 5.1 audio.

Unlike other mini ATX boards this one doesn't have integrated graphics but it does support an 8x AGP slot, so any of today's graphics cards can be used. There's also a PCI slot for anything you think Shuttle might have missed. Both slots accept full-size cards.

Shuttle supplies the SB65G2 with all the cables you need, including a special short ATA cable for the hard disk and a cut and rolled cable for the optical drive bay. You also get screws to hold any drives you add and even some thermal grease for the CPU.

Although the 220w power supply may seem small compared to the standard power supply you get in a tower PC, don't forget that you are not trying to power a plethora of drives and cards in the SB65G2. Tucked away above the power supply is Shuttle's USB-powered 802.11b module, which uses its Prism software. An antenna screws neatly on the back panel and can be folded out of the way. If you prefer the wired world, there's an onboard Realtek 8100B 10/100 Lan.

The front panel holds the usual suspects; three audio ports, two USB2 and Firewire. The back I/O panel holds a serial, four more USB2, three more audio, two PS/2, Lan and another Firewire port. Sitting in the top right-hand part of the rear panel are the in and out optical ports.

Shuttle's installation manual for the SB65G2 is first rate. The multilingual guide uses clear colour photos and precise instructions on everything from installing the processor to adding any cards. This makes a change from the usual thin non-informative manuals you normally get. Also worthy of a mention is the 76-page manual about the FB65 motherboard. The documentation package is rounded off by a guide to setting up the wireless Lan.

Shuttle's SB65G2 is as near silent as you can get with a PC these days and, with the addition of Wireless to the SB65G2, it keeps one step ahead of the competition.

Contact: Microdirect
www.microdirect.co.uk

Specifications:

• Compatabilty: socket 478 Intel Celeron and Pentium 4
• Intel i865PE chipset
• Two memory slots
• AGP 8x
• Audio support 5.1
• 1 PCI slot
• 1 serial, 6 x USB2, 2 x PS/2, 2 x optical 1 x 4-pin Firewire, 1 x 6-pin Firewire, Lan, 6 x audio