SHUTTLE - Shuttle XPC SN85G4 Athlon 64 Barebones Review

Digit-Life reviews Shuttle’s new nForce3 150 based SN85G4 XPC mini barebones system:

Because there is no wide choice of barebones for Athlon 64 on the market, Shuttle SN85G4 assessment should not be based on a better/worse principle, but rather on a suitable/unsuitable one. However, the model could surely be appreciated by customers even if it competed with others. Its “pros” are: a stylish (though peculiar) design, quiet functioning without overheating, and a very high performance (with additional overclocking potential). Like other Shuttle XPCs, it is not cheap, but at least it’s about 50 dollars cheaper than SB75G2, a top product for Pentium 4, which, by the way, has no integrated graphics either.

To conclude, we list the barebone’s most important advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:
Stylish though peculiar deesign
Convenient to assemble/disassemble
Compatibility with high-profile AGP and PCI boards (PCI: short high-profile or low-profile)
Support of USB 2.0
Support of FireWire
Support of SATA [RAID]
Optical S/PDIF input and output
Very high performance
Very good CPU cooler (in the package)
Quiet and effective cooling system
Quite powerful PSU
6-in-1 card-reader (in the package)
Wide range of optional accessories
(?) Great overclocking potential

Disadvantages:
Possible “colour incompatibility” with CD/DVD-ROMs
No integrated graphics
Only 4 accessible USB ports
Need to use the floppy drive for installing OS onto the SATA HDD
High price (current average price (supply volume) in Moscow retail stores)

Shuttle XPC SN85G4: a barebone system for Athlon 64, in a new case @ Digit-Life