 The current issue of the German IT-magazine "Hardwareluxx printed" includes a round up of six barebones. With three barebones out of six, Shuttle dominated the test and received a lot of praise for their Shuttle XPC Barebone SD11G5, ST20G5 and SD36G5M. Especially the SD11G5 stands out the test field and was cited "Excellent Hardware" thanks to its high versatility.
Shuttle XPC Barebone ST20G5
As one of the AMD barebones among the candidates, the Shuttle XPC Barebone ST20G5 showed up with the ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 chipset, supporting every socket 939 processors. Using the G5 design Shuttle banks on a stylish, neat and brushed aluminium case that's "even more scratch-resistant than competitive boxes." Shuttle's experience as a long term manufacturer of barebones becomes also obvious, when taking a look under the hood: "Installing the components is no real challange," explain the editors of Hardwareluxx. Shuttle's well-tried and famous heatpipe cooling isn't missing in this barebone, of course. It works "efficiently while keeping the noise level down."
Shuttle XPC Barebone SD36G5M
The Shuttle XPC Barebone SD36G5M was the only barebone carrying the viiv-certification of the test line up. Thanks to the Intel i945G chipset and special onboard components such as 8 channel sound the Shuttle XPC Barebone SD36G5M meets the viiv-standards. Featuring a stylish black case, a mirrored front panel with an integrated VFD display it got dubbed a real "eyecatcher." "The display makes it the ideal HTPC barebone," add the testers. Not only the outside is appealing, but also on the inside the Shuttle XPC Barebone SD36G5M has a lot to offer: "After having thown in a powerful graphics card, it can easily be turned into a gaming rig," assure the editors of Hardwareluxx. Just like its brothers the Shuttle XPC Barebone SD11G5 and ST20G5 do, the Shuttle XPC Barebone SD36G5M impresses the editors with "low noise operation."
Shuttle XPC Barebone SD11G5: "Excellent Hardware"
The Shuttle XPC Barebone SD11G5 was recommended as "Excellent Hardware."
The whisper quiet "allrounder" was showered with praise for a number of its features. Equipped with its external 220 Watt power supply, the Shuttle XPC Barebone SD11G5 did its job nearly noiseless. Even with an overclocked Pentium M processor, it stayed comfortably quiet. Having Shuttle’s heatpipe cooling solution working inside, this barebone stays whisper quiet as long as no loud graphics card is installed. Speaking of noise, the Shuttle XPC Barebone SD11G5 features the Soundblaster Live! 24bit onboard chip which delivered "excellent test results" - and Shuttle included all necessary sound connectors. When it comes to measuring its power consumption, the Shuttle XPC Barebone SD11G5 "really sets up a little record." Even under full load having an overclocked processor installed, the SD11G5 uses 60.7 Watt only. On a final note, the editors pointed out it can be used as an ideal "office PC or home server". With a Pentium M processor and a PCI-E graphics card the Shuttle XPC Barebone SD11G5 is also ready for gaming and got dubbed an "allrounder" that puts it well ahead when it comes to benchmarking.
Conclusion:
"The Shuttle XPC Barebone SD11G5 really deserves our recommendation. Setting up a PC with this barebone is really fun and it's the right partner for your computer needs."
Source: Hardwareluxx printed, Issue 3/ 2006 |