Product Reviews

Shuttle's XPC concept has been one of the greatest success stories of the last couple of years, particularly in 2002. The XPC proves two things: first, that a small form factor doesn't equate to a lack of features or performance; and second, that PCs can look good and be objects of (for want of a better word) desire. For its latest bare-bones machine, Shuttle has recruited the services of another proponent of component integration: Nvidia. The result is the first nForce2-based XPC.

Nvidia's nForce2 platform is an ideal choice for Shuttle's XPC form factor. It's the most sophisticated in terms of component integration and also the most powerful core logic for AMD processors. The bare-bones system includes the FN41 motherboard, chassis and a 200W power supply. The chassis is similar to most other XPCs, providing a single 5.25in drive bay plus space for a hard disk and floppy disk drive. The front panel also features headphone, microphone and optical S/PDIF audio connectors plus two USB 2 ports and a FireWire port. This is supplemented by an additional two USB 2 and two FireWire ports at the rear.

However, the real driving force in this system is the new FN41 motherboard featuring Nvidia's nForce2 GT chipset, which supports the latest AMD Athlon XP processors. Despite the size

The GT chipset also features integrated GeForce4 MX-class graphics, and we were pleased to see two VGA D-SUB outputs at the rear for dual-monitor setups. There's an S-Video TV-out at the rear too. However, for those who hanker for more power than the modest GeForce4 MX can muster, there's an AGP 8x slot providing support for all the latest graphics cards. A single PCI slot sits beside this, which should be ample for most people's needs.

Space is pretty tight inside the SN41, restricting airflow and making a traditional CPU cooler less effective. To combat this, Shuttle uses its ICE heatpipe system in combination with a temperature-controlled rear exhaust fan, which can be set to speed up (or down) at a certain temperature in the BIOS.

To test the SN41, we added an Athlon XP 2700+ CPU, two 256MB sticks of Samsung PC2700 memory, a GeForce4 Ti 4600-class graphics card, a 60GB Seagate Barracuda ATA IV hard disk and installed Windows XP Professional. The resulting 1.62 in our 2D benchmarks is excellent considering the mid-range Barracuda hard disk. Gaming performance is stunning too, scoring 13,287 in 3DMark2001 SE at 1,024 x 768 in 32-bit colour.

With each new revision, Shuttle's XPC concept gets stronger and the SN41 is the best example yet. The nForce2 GT platform provides a superb set of features as standard, and with a recent Athlon XP at the helm, performance is right up there with a full-sized desktop in both 2D and 3D applications. This is the future of the PC, and I like it.