Verdict: Back in black, the fastest Shuttle yet
All this Shuttle XPC needs is the Knight Light and it would be the desktop PC equivalent of KITT, the Pontiac Trans Am from 'Knight Rider'. Shuttle has chosen its influences well: a PC styled after the Dukes of Hazzard's orange General Lee car would be too garish, and the SB75G2's black finish makes it look very stylish.
The SB75G2 is based around the Shuttle FB75 small form factor motherboard. Like previous XPCs, the system's basics remain the same: the case is very small, and to cut down on the need for add-in cards, a lot of functionality is included on the motherboard. The FB75 includes 5.1 audio support, six USB 2 and two FireWire ports, and optical in and out sockets. There's also a single AGP and PCI slot. The SB75G2 is a performance machine, so it's the first XPC to feature the high-end Intel 875P chipset, and doesn't include integrated graphics like most of the other XPCs. Instead, you'll have to make use of the AGP slot. It's single width, so some GeForce FX cards are out of the question, but the SB75G2 will take a Radeon 9800 with no complaints, meaning you can build an exceptionally quick and small PC.
However, once you've got the 875P chipset, a Pentium 4 and a fast AGP 8x graphics card in that small interior, it's going to get very hot. The processor is cooled - as in all XPCs - by the excellent ICE system, which uses heatpipes and a radiator/fan combination to funnel heat out the back of the case, but Shuttle has altered other aspects of the design to cater for the hot, high-end components. The Northbridge is cooled by a small 40mm fan, while both sides of the case have a wide grille mesh cut into them. These grilles mean the densely packed interior of the SB75G2 gets more air, and they're particularly helpful for graphics cards. The AGP slot is situated very close to the side of the case, and the mesh panel means that the fans on cards such as our Radeon 9800 are able to properly expel heat. The side panels also give the SB75G2 a more aggressive look, slightly reminiscent of a Mitsubishi Evo, and although they're not full case windows, they should also appeal to the light brigade, as any illuminated components will shine through.
Shuttle is currently leagues ahead in terms of design and implementation of high-performance, small form factor PCs. If you're looking for a quick but compact PC, it's likely you'll come down to a choice between the SB75G2 and the Athlon 64-based SN85G4. The SN85G4 is based on the 3200+ variant of the Athlon 64 chip, and features the new G4 fascia. Frankly, the G4 design just can't compare to this SN75G2's simple, clean lines. In performance terms, the SB75G2 is arguably better than the 64-bit SN85G4 too.
PERFORMANCE
We built our usual Pentium 4 test system in the SB75G2: a 2.6GHz Pentium 4c with an 800MHz FSB, 1GB of Corsair XMS 3500 DDR RAM and a Hercules Radeon 9800 graphics card. At stock speeds, the SB75G2 performed very well. Using the same RAM and drives, it was faster than our new Athlon XP 2500+ reference PC, in both CD ripping and video encoding tests, although it slipped behind a fraction on the image editing benchmark. In our Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory game benchmark, the SB75G2 returned a good result of 37.6fps at 1,280 x 1,024 with 2x AA and 4x AF.
These strong results show that Shuttle knows how to get the 875P chipset performing very well indeed. While the 875P chipset is actually the same silicon as the 865PE chipset, 875Ps are cherry-picked for greatness by Intel and then pushed harder, thanks to Performance Acceleration Technology (PAT). The 875P has a reputation for being a great overclocker, but in the past Shuttles have often been a little disappointing when it comes to performance tune-ups. Despite the disparity between the respective reputations, the result is the best that could be hoped for: the SB75G2 is a phenomenal overclocker. You can push the FSB right up to 255MHz. So we did - all the way. Once we'd upped the CPU voltage and scaled back the RAM timings, the SB75G2 zoomed into Windows without a complaint.
Simply booting up with such a huge overclock, which added another 700MHz to the CPU speed, is impressive on its own, but the SB75G2 really put the hammer down when it came to our benchmarks. At standard speeds, the SB75G2 was slower overall than the SN85G4, though not by much. However, once we put the pedal to the metal in the BIOS and overclocked the 2.6GHz Pentium 4 to 3.32GHz, the SB75G2 blasted past its Athlon 64 rival. No surprise then that in the video test, the SB75G2 was 25 per cent faster, thanks to the huge memory bandwidth provided by the 1GHz+ FSB, clocking a result of 2.02, compared to the SN85G4's1.51. In the image test, the SB75G2 upped its score to 1.20, compared with the SN85G4's 1.13. However, the SB75G2 could only add another 7fps to its Wolfenstein 3D score, and couldn't beat the 64-bit Athlon system.
Overclocking a system by such a huge margin generates an enormous amount of heat, and it's a testament to the fundamental soundness of the ICE system that the SB75G2 was able to go so far yet remain stable. However, extreme speed does work the cooling systems hard, and this is the noisiest Shuttle yet. It's not as bad as the full-on hurricane that is the seven-fan Thermaltake Xaser III 2000+ case, but when overclocked, the SB75G2 isn't easy company in a quiet room.
CONCLUSION
The SB75G2 is cheaper than the SN85G4, and arguably better looking, and can provide a head-spinning overclock that makes its Athlon 64 sibling look pale by comparison. However, at £240, it's more expensive than 865G-based solutions, and you do have to cope with a little more noise than usual.
Nevertheless, this is a great base for a PC and it's no wonder that XPCs are favourites in the enthusiast market. The inclusion of Mandrake Linux in the box is a nice extra, although hardcore Windows users will probably just ditch the CDs. One word of caution: given how capable the ICE cooling technology is, it might not be too long before the small form factor performance crown passes to an Athlon 64-FX XPC.
