Shuttle have truly created a beast, both in size and performance. Their first venture into the realms of the Grantsdale LGA775 seems to have paid off with blisteringly fast performance and Shuttle-like class to boot. Prescott has become a synonym for scorching in the industry and by totally redesigning the ICE system the SB81P has capped the heat confidently.
Although the GMA 900 from Intel is the fastest onboard solution currently available in the industry and it is quite capable of running most games at a playable framerate it is at the cost of image quality and resolution with lack of hardware T&L and vertex shaders, no FSAA and high texture filtering (tri-linear together with anisotropic filtering). I for one would not imagine for one moment that this system, that is aimed at the power user, would have its onboard graphics used for anything else than a stop gap solution until PCIe availability improves. In the short term that is a good thing, in the long term I have to ask myself whether or not the 915P (sans graphics) would have offered a slightly lower price to help purchase the beast of a graphics card that this system deserves.
Summary
Pros:
Cons:
I have not mentioned price up until now; because it\'s only now, as I find myself writing the review conclusion that early prices have appeared. Komplett have it retailing at £310, quite a high price point for a Shuttle I must say. Although £310 is a lot of money, one must realise that the package itself is far from paltry and has been designed from scratch. Included with the system you have Stealthed drives, card reader, onboard graphics, decent power supply, stylish case, excellent cooling system and all the cables you could need. Add all this up on an equally performing system and you are looking at close to that price anyway. On top of this you have the guarantee that the system you own is built by the company that is one of the leading SFF systems and SFF motherboards manufacturers so resolution of any issue is likely to be swift and compatibility problems few and far between.
Currently, power users will have to pose themselves a question before buying this system; is it worth carrying out an upgrade that involves changing both CPU and Graphics card? I can\'t answer that for them, what I can say is that if you do have a high end system based on a similar speed chip and graphics card rather than an upgrade you are making a sideward move. AGP and Socket 478 are coming to the end of their lives but they have not yet taken their last breath, with all the current top end cards still on AGP and the last 478 to be released being the 3.4 Prescott. If you are, however, looking to move into the high end system owners club then you can do little wrong in getting this system even with only DDR1 support onboard, as latencies in DDR2 are far from exciting at the moment.
Shuttle have once again pulled a virtual rabbit out of their technological hat, with a total new redesign for a totally new platform. I am excited at the prospect of seeing an Alderwood version, but until then I am happy to recommend this system to you wholeheartedly.
Shuttle SB81P XPC - Performance, looks and portability; the epitome of the Intel SFF computer class
Although the GMA 900 from Intel is the fastest onboard solution currently available in the industry and it is quite capable of running most games at a playable framerate it is at the cost of image quality and resolution with lack of hardware T&L and vertex shaders, no FSAA and high texture filtering (tri-linear together with anisotropic filtering). I for one would not imagine for one moment that this system, that is aimed at the power user, would have its onboard graphics used for anything else than a stop gap solution until PCIe availability improves. In the short term that is a good thing, in the long term I have to ask myself whether or not the 915P (sans graphics) would have offered a slightly lower price to help purchase the beast of a graphics card that this system deserves.
Summary
Pros:
- Performance
- Silence
- Style
- Ease of assembly
- Connectivity
- DDR1 support
Cons:
- Onboard graphics
I have not mentioned price up until now; because it\'s only now, as I find myself writing the review conclusion that early prices have appeared. Komplett have it retailing at £310, quite a high price point for a Shuttle I must say. Although £310 is a lot of money, one must realise that the package itself is far from paltry and has been designed from scratch. Included with the system you have Stealthed drives, card reader, onboard graphics, decent power supply, stylish case, excellent cooling system and all the cables you could need. Add all this up on an equally performing system and you are looking at close to that price anyway. On top of this you have the guarantee that the system you own is built by the company that is one of the leading SFF systems and SFF motherboards manufacturers so resolution of any issue is likely to be swift and compatibility problems few and far between.
Currently, power users will have to pose themselves a question before buying this system; is it worth carrying out an upgrade that involves changing both CPU and Graphics card? I can\'t answer that for them, what I can say is that if you do have a high end system based on a similar speed chip and graphics card rather than an upgrade you are making a sideward move. AGP and Socket 478 are coming to the end of their lives but they have not yet taken their last breath, with all the current top end cards still on AGP and the last 478 to be released being the 3.4 Prescott. If you are, however, looking to move into the high end system owners club then you can do little wrong in getting this system even with only DDR1 support onboard, as latencies in DDR2 are far from exciting at the moment.
Shuttle have once again pulled a virtual rabbit out of their technological hat, with a total new redesign for a totally new platform. I am excited at the prospect of seeing an Alderwood version, but until then I am happy to recommend this system to you wholeheartedly.
Shuttle SB81P XPC - Performance, looks and portability; the epitome of the Intel SFF computer class
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October 14 2021 | 15:04
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