Shuttle SN95G5 Review
Shuttle remains the king of small form factor systems, and they are the first to a Nvidia nForce 3 250GB based small form factor, and one using the 939 pin socket. Before we jump into our review of the SN95G5 lets take a look at the full specs.
Overview
More InfoThe XPC SN95G5 destroys the myth that bigger PCs are faster. Designed for power-hungry users, this AMD Athlon 64-based small form factor (SFF) computer delivers tower-crushing, performance in one-third the space. Do everything faster, get the XPC SN95G5 today!
Dimension (L)280*(W)200*(H)185 3.6Kg (N.W.) 5.2Kg (G.W.)
Front Panel USB x 2
MIC_In x 1
Line_In x 1
FireWire Mini Port x 1
Speaker_Out x 1
Back Panel PS/2 Keyboard & Mouse x 1
Coaxial Digital Audio Port x 1
USB x 2
Gigabit LAN x 1 (RJ-45)
Firewire 400 Port x 1
SPDIF I/O Ports
Extension Bay 5.25" x 1
3.5" x 2
CPU Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 / Athlon 64 FX 2000MHz HyperTransport technology
Chipsets North bridge:NVDIA nForce 3 Ultra South bridge:N/A
Memory DDR 266/333/400 x 2
VGA N/A
Audio Realtek ALC 655 6 Channel Audio Digital (SPDIF) Audio Ports
Expansion Slot PCI x 1
8XAGP x 1
IDE interface ATA-133 x 2
Serial ATA 150 x 2
Power SilentX 240W
Accessory 1 Motherboard User manual
1 Motherboard CD-Driver
1 XPC Installation Guide
1 RAID User Guide
1 ICE heat-pipe module
1 FDD Cable
1 HDD Cables
1 SATA Cables
1 HDD Power cord
1 Power cord
1 RAID FDD Disk
Screws/Twin Adhesive/Front Feet
Shuttle retains the black finish for their Athlon 64 line, but they lose the mirrored front finish of the SN85G4 which we were found of. They move the buttons and leds to the middle silver portion of the face, and implement swing out covers on the drive bays and front panel IO ports.
The front ports include the audio in, mic, and out as well as the standard 2 USB ports and a mini Firewire connector.
Here is a look inside the 3.5" drive bay. You press down on the right edge and it pops open. The 5.25" drive bay is pushed open when the optical drive ejects.
The side shot shows the typical side panel that includes air holes and Shuttle imprinted above it. As usual the case cover is a one piece design.
A shot from the top shows a glimpse of the heatpipe and the drive bays.
The drive bay removed reveals placing for the 3.5" and 5.25" drive.
With the drive bay removed you get a better look at the layout of the board with the heatpipe and fan on the right flanked by the expansion slots, and the memory slots. To the left is the heatsink covered chipset, capacitors and voltage regulators, as well as all of the ports, and power connectors. Very little space on the board goes without being used.
This shot shows the AGP slot and PCI slot the system is equipped with. The AGP slot will accept a full length card, and Shuttle again goes with a non standard placement of the AGP to the right of the PCI slot which can keep some Nvidia based video cards with large heatsink so two slots ares needed. You can see the the heatpipe is labeled Athlon 64 processor, and you see the Nvidia chipset on the actively cooled nForce 3 250GB chipset.
Two DIMM slots are included, and both support up to 2GB DDR400 sticks of memory. Thanks to moving to Socket 939 dual channel memory is supported when you populate both DIMM slots.
The rear of the case reveals a serial port, SPDIF in and out, Firewire, 2X USB, Ethernet, keyboard, mouse, and audio ports including one RCA port. The top right has a spot one of the SPDIF audio ports.
Here is a close shot of the ports so you can read the labeling.
The ICE heatpipe system has the normal fan drawing air out, and of course the power supply fan makes it two.
Shuttle keeps their slot retention mechanism from their previous designs.
Here's a shot of the Socket 939 inside a unique retention mechanism from Shuttle. It is a clip on design similar to their past models. Here you can also see the Marvel Gigabit Ethernet PHY chip, and the two SATA ports between the CPU socket and the PCI slot. They support JBOD, RAID 0, and RAID 1.
This shot towards the front of the case on the DIMM side reveals the 24 and 4 pin ATX power connectors.
You will find the power supply above those power ports, and this is a Shuttle marked model delivering 240 watts of power. It matches the wattage of the SN85G4.
This shot shows the IDE and floppy connectors as well as the bios chip between the chipset and the front of the case on the slot side.
Here is a full shot of the expansion slot side with the drive cage installed.
With the heatpipe removed we can get a better look at it. There appears to be no major changes since the SN85G4.
From this shot you can see the copper core of the heatpipe.
Here's the fan the blows out over the fins of the heatpipe which like the power supply is branded Shuttle.
Now we turn our focus from the hardware of the SN95G5 to the bios of the small form factor.
The advanced section is the gateway to most of the major settings for DRAM, MHz, and other settings.
CPU multipliers show up to 12X, but 13X would be required for the FX55 to work. We believe auto probably sets it to this multiplier.
The memory clock can be set from 200MHz to 333MHz manually, but auto will set it to the rated speed, which we used DDR400 for.
The front side bus can run from 200MHz up to 280MHz in 1MHz increments. This is the same as the SN85G4.s
The AGP MHz can be set from 66MHz up to 100MHz.
The HyperTransport MHz multipliers can be set from 1X to 5X, or 200MHz to 1GHz.
CPU voltage range up to 1.700V.
Memory voltage can be set to auto or up to 2.90V.
AGP voltage can be set to auto up to 1.80V.
Chipset voltage can be put at auto or up to 1.90V.
The PC Health Status screen shows voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds. They also include their CPU fan speed control again with additional explanations on the right side.
Preset fan speed settings include the auto adjusting smart fan setting, ultra low, low, mid, and full for a wide variety of control.
<span class="pn-normal">We tested with the Athlon 64 3800+. 2X512MB of Corsair XMS DDR400 memory at Cas 2 was used for all of our Athlon 64 testing. The Radeon 9800XT was the video card of choice for all systems, and Windows XP Pro was the OS used. We used the latest bios and drivers for each motherboard.</span>
Here is a list of the benchmarks we used during testing.
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Sisoft Sandra
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3DMark2001SE
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3DMark2003
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Cinebench
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Aquamark 3
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Science Mark
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STARS CFD Solver
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SuperPi
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Quake Arena
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UT2003
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Realstorm
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Comanche 4
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Phase 2
We begin with the memory benchmark from Sciencemark 2. Here the Shuttle holds up well coming in 2nd place overall.
In Sandra the integer memory performance shows the Shuttle reaches near the full potential bandwidth of the Athlon 64 dual channel at over 6,000mb/sec.
The floating point scores are all very similar to the integer numbers.
SuperPi is quite memory intensive and the Shuttle manages to come in 2nd behind the Gigabyte.
Caselab is another memory intensive application that tests the design of airplane wings. Here the Shuttle takes the top time.
Sciencemark 2's Primodia is memory intensive. The SN95G5 comes in second place here again.
Phase 2 Open Pit benchmark puts each competitor tied at 29 seconds.
Realtorm rendering tests put the Shuttle in 2nd place to the Gigabyte.
In Cinebench the Shuttle falls behind the first time in our benchmarks.
In 3DMark2001SE again the SN95G5 comes in 2nd place.
3DMark2003 scores put the Shuttle in the second place.
In Comanche 4 the scores Shuttle just a hair behind the MSI in performance.
UT2003 Citadel botmatch the SN95G5 falls into 3rd place.
Quake Arena scores again put the Shuttle in 3rd place.
Aquamark 3 is a DirectX 9 gaming benchmark, and here in the Shuttle is a bit behind the other boards.
Overall performance of the SN95G5 falls into 2nd place overall only behind the Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939.
Accessories
Shuttle provides manuals for the SN95G5 including a separate one for the motherboard. They also provide a RAID manual, and a CD with drivers and utilities. A power cable, screws and connectors, IDE and SATA cables, and power connectors are all included.
Pricing
The SN95G5 can be found for as low as $315. Its predecessor, the SN85G4 can currently be picked up for $289. We feel the extra $26 is worth it for the SN95G5.
Overclocking and Stability
Thanks to Athlon 64 FX CPUs being on Socket 939 the overclocking options are enhanced when using those CPUs as you can change the multipliers. Paired with a host of MHz and voltage settings Shuttle remains the king of options for Athlon 64 small form factor overclocking options. And as a bonus the Nvidia ForceWare utility supports overclocking in Windows for their chipsets.
Stability of the system was never in question as we had no problems with crashing during any of the testing. Shuttle's ICE heatpipe kept the system adequately cool although it could get a bit loud when the fan was running at full RPMs.
Issues and Suggestions
We are still hoping to see the ability to have two 5.25" drives in the Shuttle. So far no Athlon small form factor has allowed that. We would also love to see the serial port disappear, and even the old keyboard and mouse ports in favor of additional USB ports. There is space for two hard drives for RAID, but you will lose room for a 3.5" floppy or memory reader if utilized.
The Good Stuff
Shuttle has the smallest and most well built Athlon 64 small form factor on the market. They utilize the nForce 3 250GB chipset very well, and having the first Socket 939 sff is also a plus. They are also tops in overclocking options, and performance is excellent. The price isn't too bad either at just over $300. Documentation is excellent, and stability was never in question. The fan control is powerful, and the improvements to the audio inputs and outputs make it an excellent model for a media PC.
Conclusion
Shuttle keeps up the pace by continuing to innovate their small form factor line while using it to move into retail computer sales. The SN95G5 makes it mark as the smallest Athlon 64 SFF that is the first to Socket 939 while keeping up the best build quality. We have a few quibbles, but we can only conclude that if you are looking for the most advanced Athlon 64 small form factor, particularly for Socket 939 CPUs, then the Shuttle SN95G5 should be on the top of your list.