An excellent choice for a small form factor PC or a LAN party system.

Shuttle Computers has become one of the premier developers and suppliers of small form factor computer systems. Their latest system, the SB51G, is based around an Intel 845GE chipset support Intel Pentium 4 processors and even supports the Intel Hyper-Threading technology. Its one of the few small form faster systems out that that supports a full AGP expansion port for adding in any one of the top of the line 3D graphics cards on the market.

The Shuttle SB51G is essentially a barebones configuration. The case is made from aluminum, measures 8 inches wide, 7.5 inches tall and 11.5 inches deep and weighs just over 10 pounds. The remainder of the kit is the unique heat pipe and fan heatsink, floppy cable, Hard Drive cable, CD-Rom cable (which is cut and wrapped to reduce space), power cord manuals and software. All that is necessary to get the system up and running is an Intel Pentium 4 CPU, 1 or 2 DDR memory DIMMs, a hard drive, floppy drive and a optical drive.

The installation booklet is very well laid out with color photographs and diagrams detailing all the steps, parts and connectors. This is one of the best manuals I have seen to come with a case for installing all the parts into the system. It is especially important for this system to follow the steps due to the tight spaces when all the components are installed.

Performance of the system was very respectable. This system is definitely a viable replacement for a full size system it still isn't as powerful as full size systems out there which have more expansion and modification options available to them. The system was benchmarked with the following configuration and compared against another Athlon based system with its listed configuration:

The benchmarking was done with Mad Onion's 3DMark2001 SE and PCMark2002 with all the settings at their defaults:

Overall, the Shuttle SB51G is a highly recommended system for any individual looking to buy a new stylish small form factor PC for their home or office or for an individual looking for a fast gaming system that is portable for LAN parties. The only drawback to the system is the lack of internal expansion capability, but the multitude of connectors on the system for external peripherals makes up for it.

Manufacturer's Site