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Small Form Factor PCs are popular in the gaming community because they offer a compact and portable PC without compromising on performance, which makes them perfect for a LAN party. People who are interested in building a home theatre system might find SFF PCs very useful, thanks to its sleek look and compact size. Shuttle joined the trend of making SFF bare bone boxes a little late, but has excelled where other SFF PCs lacked. Currently, Shuttle is a leader in the SFF category in terms of innovation. They embrace and implement new technology much faster than their competitors and that helps them to stay ahead. One example is the fact that they're the first to have introduced SFF PCs based on Socket T and Socket939; making them the first to introduce 64 bit SFF PCs. The Shuttle SB61G2, on review today, is based on the Intel Springdale i865 Chipset. This one packs just about everything that a high-end PC would have. It's got USB 2.0, SATA, 6-channel sound card, SPDIF IO, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), Heat-pipe cooling and a lot more. 
What really impressed us about the Shuttle SB61G2 was the fact that they included different cables of specific sizes, tailor-made to fit this cabinet so that there would be less clutter. Okay enough of jabber; let's have a look at the exterior and interior of the Shuttle SB61G2, but first some specifications. Specifications Dimension: (L) 300 x (W) 200 x (H) 185 Front Panel: USB x 2, Speaker x 1, MIC x 1, Mini 1394 x 1, Line in x 1 Back Panel: PS/2 Keyboard & Mouse x 1, USB 2.0 x 4, 1394 x 1, RJ-45 x 1 Extension Bay: 5.25" x 1, 3.5" x 2 Motherboard: Shuttle FB61 CPU Support: Intel Compatible 478 Pin Processors with 400/533/800 MHz FSB (with Prescott support) Chipsets North bridge: Intel 865G South bridge: ICH5 Memory: DDR 266/333/400 x 2 (Dual Channel Support) VGA: Intel Extreme Graphic 2 Audio: Realtek ALC650 six channel audio Expansion Slot: PCI x 1, AGP x 1 Connectors: 2 x IDE Connector, 2 x SATA Connector, 1 x Floppy Drive Connector PSU: True 200W SMPS 
A point to note is that though the Shuttle SB61G2 has a 200W SMPS, we were able to run two HDDs, a DVD-Writer and a ATI X800 Pro 256 MB with a 3.06 GHz Pentium 4 HT Processor, all at the same time without any glitches. So the SMPS is capable of powering all that hardware sufficiently. Due to its compact size, the Shuttle SB61G2 uses its own propriety cooling mechanism called I.C.E (Integrated Cooling Engine), which use heat pipes to cool the processor. 
I.C.E. consists of two parts, the radiator and the heat sink. The heat from the heat sink travels up in four heat pipes and into an array of radiator fins screwed into the back of the chassis. The chassis fan mounted just behind the radiator blows air through the fins, thus carrying the heat outside and away from the system. 
The speed of the chassis fan can be adjusted through the BIOS. There's also an option to select SMART FAN mode, in which the rotation speed of the fan depends upon the CPU temperature. Even though Shuttle claims their SFF PCs to be the quietest computers in the world, the chassis fan gives off a small amount of humming noise. 
Even after stressing the Shuttle SB61G2 for more than six hours, there were no signs of slowdown, something we expected would happen had the cooling not been sufficient to remove the heat off today's power hungry Pentium 4. This clearly shows that the Shuttle has a highly efficient cooling technology for the CPU. The Shuttle SB61G2 comes with a full bevy of overclocking features, including front-side bus and multiplier adjustment, adjustable AGP/PCI speed and adjustable core, memory and AGP voltages. One defect that we noticed in the Shuttle SB61G2 design was the body of the cabinet didn't have any ventilation for the graphic card. This can create airflow and heating issue with certain graphic cards. We were able to run an ATI X800 XT PL 256 MB, but we had to downclock both the core and memory by 50 MHz for stable operation; else the card would show a lot of artifacts. Shuttle needs to punch in some more holes on the sides of their body cover. So before buying any graphic card for this barebone, make sure it runs fine without any heating issues. The bundle 2 x ATA100/66/33 Ribbon Cable 1 x Floppy Ribbon Cable 1 x Twin Ports USB Cable 1 x SATA Cable Manual Drivers CD 
As seen from the pictures, the front interface includes Line-In, Microphone and Headphone ports as well as two USB 2.0 ports and a mini FireWire / IEEE 1394 port. So you would have all commonly used ports in the front, which helps you save the effort of connecting it behind the computer. The rear interface includes SPDIF IO, VGA out, COM port, one FireWire port, four USB 2.0 ports, PS/2 Mouse, PS/2 Keyboard, Front, Surround and Rear audio ports, and a 10/100 Ethernet port. The only thing which we felt was missing is an S-Video Out, which is a must for home-theater solutions. 
The Shuttle SB61G2 consists of two major parts; one is the main frame which forms the skeleton of the cabinet on which the main board is attached and another is the tray upon which you can attach your HDD, FDD and an optical device. 
Due to its compact size, attaching the hardware is a bit troublesome. Even if you want to attach an IDE cable to the motherboard, you need you to remove the tray, which in turn needs you to remove two screws. So it's advised to fit all your hardware at one go, pack the PC and then just let it be. 
Test Bench Pentium 4 3.06 GHz Corsair XMS 3200 1 GB DDR RAM 80 GB Seagate 7200 RPM HDD Lite-On 8X DVD-Writer Nvidia GeForce FX 5600 256 MB Benchmarks SiSoftware Sandra 2004 
Performance The performance of the Shuttle SB61G2 motherboard is at par and at times better than any other motherboard based on Intel 865 chipset tested by us. The IDE performance of this motherboard is one of the best, with transfer rate exceeding 45 Mbps with our Seagate 80 GB Barracuda test drive. Also, the onboard Intel Extreme 2 graphic adapter is capable of running most DirectX 7-based games on full graphics and DirectX 8-based games on low to medium setting. If you are planning to play games like Far Cry or DOOM 3, then you need a better graphic card. Conclusion The Shuttle SB61G2 lives up to the expectation and is a powerhouse packed in a small case. It is clearly a cool alternative to the bulky cabinets. It looks simply stunning, especially when the front LEDs light up. The only drawback for this product is insufficient ventilation for the graphic card. For a street price of Rs. 15, 575/-, it comes with a one-year warranty. We would recommend it to enthusiasts who like to have a small computer. Throw in a LCD screen and this is the perfect portable PC. Test Unit Sourced From: Mediatech India.
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