 "It's curtains up for the new generation of media centre barebones," announces the British online portal BIOS Magazine having just tested the Shuttle XPC Barebone SG33G5M (D'VO Series) with HDMI 1.2a output, remote control and VFD display. The machine which "provides near silent support for high definition movie playback" which also features a "very good" sound solution managed to convince the editors who concluded: "Impressive SFF media centre PC."
The Shuttle XPC Barebone SG33G5M which is meant to sit in the living room and serve multimedia fans, "caters very well for them," state the editors of the British hardware website BIOS Magazine. Having unwrapped the package and put it together, the editors noticed that "the machine is extremely well built, and the screwless chassis is a delight to work with." Being ready for the forthcoming Intel 45nm Penryn processors, the SG33G5M is based on the G33 chipset which allows for playback of HD content "with awesome image quality."
The "real star" of the package is the HDMI output to enable picture and sound sent digitally over one cable. A closer look under the hood reveals one PCI-E 16x and a PCI slot, two DIMMs to accomodate up 4 GBs of memory, three internal and two external SATA connectors with "all the necessary cabling." 7.1 sound is given out in Dolby Digital Live! and DTS Connect high definition quality which is "very good." Besides a 250W PSU which powers the whole system, the Shuttle XPC Barebone SG33G5M is "loaded with even more clever features" such as the VDF display (Vacuum Flourescent Display) providing "information on the playing song, TV programme or DVD-Movie," according to BIOS Magazine, making it "ideal for casual computing," they add. As this wasn't enough, "Shuttle even throws in a Windows-compatible remote control" to complete the media centre package.
On the whole, "kitted out with a good range of peripherals (such as a digital TV tuner, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and memory card reader), the XPC SG33G5M would make an excellent media centre for your living room or den," BIOS Magazine believes.
Pros:
+ Lush design
+ eye-catching display
+ HDMI (HDCP) output
+ onboard Dolby Digital
+ runs cool & quiet
+ remote control supplied |