Shuttle XPC SB81P

A diminutive basis for a powerful PC.

Shuttle has been at the forefront of the small form factor (SFF) PC revolution and, unlike many of its competitors, has stuck with the concept. Bringing its product line bang up to date, the XPC SB81P features Intel's 915 chipset and the new 775-pin processor socket.

The new case is a little longer and taller than previous models; the extra height is taken up by a 6-in-1 memory card reader, which has been moved from its usual position. This move is due to a radical redesign in the drive bay cage that allows you to fit an impressive three hard drives into the SB81P. The standard drive bay takes either a floppy drive or a hard drive, while two remaining drives are cleverly mounted across the top of the drive cage.

At the heart of the SB81P is Shuttle's FB81 motherboard, based around Intel's 775-pin CPU socket and a combination of Intel's 915G and ICH6R chipsets. Although this provides the latest Intel integrated graphics, there's also a 16x PCI Express (PCX) graphics slot for upgrading if you need to. The ICH6R means you get an integrated Raid controller that supports Raid 0 and Raid 1 arrays.

Although the 915 chipset offers support for DDR2 memory, Shuttle has opted to go with DDR1. The two supplied Dimm slots provide support for up to 4GB of DDR400 or 333 memory.

Shuttle's CPU cooler has been redesigned to take into account the heat generated by the latest Prescott processors. Now at the front of the case, it has a two-fan cooling system. This, combined with two case fans, make the system slightly noisier than previous models, but nowhere near as loud as you'd expect.

Offering plenty of features, the SB81P could be the basis of a very powerful desktop system.

Contact: Shuttle
www.shuttle.com

Specifications:

• Socket 775 for 533/800 FSB Intel Pentium 4
• Intel 915G/ICH6R chipsets
• Integrated Intel GMA 900 graphics
• 2 DDR1 memory slots
• 16x PCx graphics slot
• Audio support 7.1
• 6-in-1 card reader
• 1 PCI slot
• 1 serial, 1 VGA
• 4 USB2, 2 PS/2, 2 S/PDIF out, 1 S/PDIF in, 2 6-pin Firewire, Ethernet