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A slim, whisper-quiet design with a front LCD screen and remote control
With their extra features, Shuttle's small form factor (SFF) case designs have grown bigger and bigger over the years.
So it's good to see the Shuttle SG33G5M go back to basics, standing just 20cm tall.
In slimming down, there's only space for a single-width PCI Express graphics card, which is a sensible inclusion since Intel's GMA 3100 integrated graphics aren't very powerful.
The chip puts its HDMI to waste as it can't playback content from Blu-ray or HD DVD discs. There's also a VGA output and an HDMI-to-DVI dongle.
An Intel G33-based motherboard, which supports Intel's latest quad and dual-core processors, is fitted with a huge number of ports. Internal cables are well routed as internal scaffolding keeps everything in place.
We fitted the SG33G5M with high-end components and found it whisper-quiet in operation thanks to an intricate CPU heatsink, with heatpipes that transfer heat to the back of the unit where a fan whisks the hot air away. It was so quiet, in fact, that all we could hear was a stream of clicks from the hard disk.
A single 5.25in bay for an optical drive joins two 3.5in bays, one of which has a front-opening door so it could be used by a hot-swappable disk, card reader or even a floppy drive.
A translucent mirror finish and gold trimmings frame a neat LCD screen, which displays information such as date and time. A classy brushed metal and plastic remote control features a power button, which ensures you never need bend down to your PC to turn it on and off.
We're impressed with Shuttle's latest case. And for £269, which includes a 250W power supply, the price is reasonable.
Pros: Quiet; attractive; good system performance; wealth of
ports
Cons: Poor integrated graphics; poor hard disk insulation
Overall: One of the most well-rounded Shuttles we've seen in a
while. It makes for a brilliant entertainment PC
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No Blu-Ray or HD-DVD Playback
Does not work with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Stay away from this machine.
Posted by Sang, 03 Nov 2007
SG33G5M review
Where do I start ? I?m about to take back my second within a week ? I?m writing this in the evening, and first thing in the morning my second one is off back to the shop. No replacements this time ? just cash. First one had awful boot issues. It either booted up to the fans on at full speed (noisy) and got no further than the ?Shuttle? splash screen (fans stayed on) ? or it booted quietly (relatively) and got no further than the ?Shuttle? splash screen... got in to bios when required but what for? To read that all appears ok... (Batter the DELETE key when booting to get in to the bios ? I had to Google that to know how to get in to bios ? a good indication of the level of support you?ll get from the contents of the box). All settings are at AUTO. That?ll do for me. Bios picked up CPU, RAM, HDD etc etc... All ok, but boot up just kept freezing. Forums advised to increase the voltage applied to the RAM in the bios as I was using a particular manufacturer?s RAM (OCZ) but WTF?! Why should I? I was only using 2x 1Gb ? on a supposedly 2x 2Gb supported by the mobo. I decided to just use one stick of RAM and worry about the bios later ? it boots. WAHEY! Spend AGES figuring out that the drivers on the CD aren?t quite what?s required. WIFI would not support WPA (only WEP) ? Googled that to death and got nowhere. Updated Realtek drivers worked but stopped my other PC getting on the network until I dropped everything to WEP ?. Much later the bios tweak did allow for 2x 1Gb ram but I see no good reason why a ?barebones? should mean bios tweaks as many customers are just not that technical ? I bet most RMA?s are not faults... Discovered that HDMI gives no sound out until I got to Intel?s site for new G33 drivers. I then learn that Intel do not support or promise, or even lean towards support promises for many of the native resolutions for many of today?s LCD TV?s... I bought this unit to go under the TV. HDMI to give one cable video and audio solution (my home cinema kit is poor) sounded a great idea. I tried for 3-4 hours reading forums to find out that unless I was one of the few lucky ones whose TV looked OK after plugging it in out of the box, my solution was wait for Intel to recognise (acknowledge and fix) the problem or edit the hex key entries of the Vista registry to fool it in to being tweaked to show my native resolution. Possibly to use a third party application to stretch my screen settings to suit my TV ? assuming I can find one that will work. I am familiar with editing bios and registry settings, but the thought of the latter was the last straw. I may have been able to sort it with a couple more weeks of forum searching. Not a chance. Can?t be arsed. On the subject of drivers, the one device that is unidentified is annoying until you establish it is the Bluetooth ? again had to go to third party site for up to date drivers and by pure chance the Realtek drivers from the site also sort the Bluetooth out. The supplied CD did not sort this. For those that want to persevere longer than I did, the forums out there are supported by some great people ? unfortunately none of them work for Shuttle. I?m by nature, and by employment description a ?techie?. I build PC?s and repair them all the time. I come up with fixes and ?workarounds? for a living ? if you are not familiar with tweaking bios and registry settings ? put your cash back in your pocket and look elsewhere. If all of my ranting geek-speak was not just mumbo jumbo to you, and you have the patience of a saint (see all of the above) and you agree with me, that aesthetically it?s gorgeous, then bear in mind that the SG33G5M is not nearly as quiet as you?d think. I have a moderate house with a large open plan living room, leading to dining room and open plan kitchen. Sit in kitchen and you can hear the SG33G5M when all else is quiet ? but having said that, sit in living room with the Shuttle switched off then turn on the microwave in the kitchen you can hear that? you?ll get the idea. If your living room is quiet at the times of day when you want to watch a film ? don?t bother. It is not nearly as quiet as a laptop ? it?s about as quiet as my office HP DC7600.
Posted by Jim, 05 Jan 2008