Shuttle XPC SN21G5 Barebones System Reviewed

Sudhian Media and The Tech Report reviews the Shuttle XPC SN21G5 barebones system (US$330), which features AMD Socket 939 processor support, NVIDIA GeForce 6100/NVIDIA nForce 410 MCP chipset, 2 x 184 pin DDR SDRAM at 333/400 Dual channel DDR support up to 2GB, Realtek ALC655 AC97 with 5.1 channel support, GeForce 6100 GPU with PureVideo, DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3.0, and MPEG2/MWV9 Playback acceleration.

The strengths of the SN21G5 are certainly the lower price point (around $300), the included onboard video, the G5 chassis and the included PCI slot. To help differentiate the product from competing with the SN25P, the SN21G5 lacks a Gigabit LAN, has a 250w PSU (compared to the 350w of the SN25P), has a lower specification onboard audio and lacks onboard DVI. That said, the SN21G5 is certainly a welcomed edition to the XPC line. Many readers will not be using the onboard video or audio anyways and will appreciate the lower price point and the flexibility of having a PCI slot. If you love the G5 chasis, are not a gamer or were looking at the SN25P or a similar unit, and wanted another option, the SN21G5 is for you. [Sudhian Media]

As it stands, the SN21G5's price will have to drop well below $330 for it to become a truly attractive alternative to the ST20G5. Shuttle intends the SN21G5 to be a budget offering, I suppose, but $330 is still way out of reach for most budgets. It seems unlikely that many price-sensitive consumers would even be considering small form factor systems, anyway. After all, you can get a pretty sweet ATX or even Micro ATX motherboard, power supply, and case for well under $300. [The Tech Report]

It would probably be best to wait for an XPC model that features the NVIDIA GeForce 6150.

Technorati : Barebones, Hardware, PC, Review, SFF, Shutlle, XPC