2006-01-17 – Gamesplanet.be: 9.5 out of 10 points

"The Shuttle XPC Barebone SB83G5M looks stylish, is a good performer and stays comfortably quiet," write the editors of the Belgian hardware website Gamesplanet.be. And this is exactly what matters for a SFF PC that is designed to serve as a basis for a Media Center PC in the living room.

After having arrived in the labs of Gamesplanet.be, the Shuttle XPC Barebone SB83G5M had to pass extensive testing in terms of technology, performance, handling, looks. Each category was passed excellently with ratings from 9.4 to 9.5. Although the Shuttle XPC Barebone SB83G5M is not designed to serve as a gaming rig in the first place, it can easily be equipped with a PCI-Express graphics cards to meet even gamers' requirements. It comes with USB 2.0, FireWire, SATA, GigaBit LAN and RAID and the integrated Intel GMA 900 onboard graphics lets you "work with Windows and watch movies easily."

All in all the Shuttle XPC Barebone SB83G5M is a good performer which "mainboard-performance can easily keep up with high end desktop systems," explain the editors. While installing the components, the editors had a lot to praise about installing the ICE heatpipe cooling system that could be done "pretty fast" and "a lot faster than proceeding with other coolers." Apart from quietness and connectivity a PC for the living room needs to be appealing to the eye – and the Shuttle XPC Barebone SB83G5M takes this last hurdle brilliantly – as you can surely guess from the 9.5 points this SFF PC was given in terms of looks. The G5 chassis with the built-in front panel looks "really cool" and is "well-engineered."

Conclusion:

Given all these aspects, "we surely can recommend the Shuttle XPC Barebone SB83G5M."

Pros:

• Good workmanship
• Front display (VFD)
• A 7800GTX graphics card fits in
• Extremely quiet (thanks to the ICE heat pipe cooling)
• Stable and quiet power supply
• Good performance

Source: http://www.gamesplanet.be/index.php?main=gp_article&info=gp_article&articleId=598&chk=6120fWwg8f