HEXUS.reviews :: Shuttle XPC SD11G5 SFF PC

[Steve]

One stumbling block Shuttle faces in marketing the SD11G5 is price. A search of online retailers shows it to retail at around the £340 mark. That's a lot of wedge to pay for a motherboard, case (albeit a stylish one), and cooler. There's also the lack of relative gaming performance from the onboard graphics. Playing any modern game is an absolute no-no, as far as we're concerned. Shuttle, though, is aiming the SD11G5 at style gurus and those interested in an ultra-quiet, powerful machine. In that respect and if you can put up with the price, it succeeds well.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=3710

[Hottentot]

Nice review but for a system like this I can't see the point of gaming benchmarks. A lot of people I know don't play games but are very interested in a home theatre/PVR/media centre box which is quiet, compact and can be left on 24/7.

Anyway it looks like a good system but the price is silly so lets hope other manufacturers start providing alternatives and that the prices come down. Maybe AMD and VIA will step in with there low powered CPUs and new chipsets.

Early days

[davidstone28]

"....with the 92mm exhaust fan spinning at 800RPM and using only onboard graphics, it's virtually silent; you'd need to put your ear right next to the unit to confirm that it was operational."

Great!

"What's also pleasing is the fact that you can run any discrete single-slot PCI-Express card of your choice. That includes, for example, NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX, making the SD11G5 a fine base for a gaming machine."

Not so great, as GPU fan is probably the noisiest thing in the system.

Modern passive cards (eg. Gigabyte X800XL) won't fit and I'm unclear from the review whether those fitted with the Arctic Silencer or VF700 would either.

Shuttle need to redesign this so that you can fit a passive card into it.

[kalniel]

Well I think there are quite a few enthusiasts who use the pentium M as a gaming chip - it overclocks extremely well.

I'd be tempted too, if it weren't for the price.

[Tarinder]

"....with the 92mm exhaust fan spinning at 800RPM and using only onboard graphics, it's virtually silent; you'd need to put your ear right next to the unit to confirm that it was operational."

Great!

"What's also pleasing is the fact that you can run any discrete single-slot PCI-Express card of your choice. That includes, for example, NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX, making the SD11G5 a fine base for a gaming machine."

Not so great, as GPU are probably the noisiest thing in the system.

Modern passive cards (eg. Gigabyte X800XL won't fit) and I'm unclear from the review whether those fitted with the Arctic Silencer or VF700 would either.

Shuttle need to redesign this so that you can fit a passive card into it.

Cards with a single slot but with larger coolers will probably not fit as standard, unless you're not averse to keeping the chassis lid off at all times.

The card's cooler can realistically be any wider than the slot plate at the back. Any wider and lid won't fit back on properly. There's quite a few midrange cards whose fan speeds can be toggled via software. They'd be ideal for this kind of rig.

[davidstone28]

Also why is the reviewer reviewing the card board box??

What cares what it looks like or or whether its the same colour as the XPC inside.

Anyone whose buying decision is influenced by the colour and design of the cardbox box it comes in needs their head examined.

[Tak]

Another good review here - with more emphasis on its noise properties.

[daimon1]

"....with the 92mm exhaust fan spinning at 800RPM and using only onboard graphics, it's virtually silent; you'd need to put your ear right next to the unit to confirm that it was operational."

Great!

"What's also pleasing is the fact that you can run any discrete single-slot PCI-Express card of your choice. That includes, for example, NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX, making the SD11G5 a fine base for a gaming machine."

Not so great, as GPU fan is probably the noisiest thing in the system.

Modern passive cards (eg. Gigabyte X800XL) won't fit and I'm unclear from the review whether those fitted with the Arctic Silencer or VF700 would either.

Shuttle need to redesign this so that you can fit a passive card into it.

I have an SD11G5 and I added the Gigabyte's X800XL fanless card. It was a tight fit and I was unable to screw it in. But it did actually work. It runs stably and I have played a number of hours of Warcraft III with it with no problems. I haven't, however, played the hardest-hitting, highest-setting 3D games with it, so I can't vouch for its stability at those peaks.

[kudosdude]

Hi all, I know this is an old thread, but I have a 7800 gt in my sd11g5, it's too noisy so I'm thinking of changing it. Possible alternative is the ASUS Extreme AX1600XT SILENT
Any-one tried one of these in their sd11g5?
Any other options. I know it's quite a step down in performance, and I'll have to sell my 7800 gt . . . what are your thoughts?
(P.S. no complaints about the performance of my machine, just the noise ;-( )

[daimon1]

Kudosdude, FWIW, I wanted to update my previous post in response to your question. You actually can screw in the X800XL, which is fanless. I actually found that I was mistaken in my earlier post. The only problem I encountered was that I had to add a piece of electrical tape to a portion of the top, which barely made contact with the center chassis. I had no stability problems. Since the X800XL fit, and many of the same passive coolers are the same size, I hope that you can find something of similar size. You can compare some of the passive solutions to get an idea what'll fit.

To make the system even quieter, I replaced the stock shuttle fan with a Nexus fan and a Fan Mate 2 controller, which I fed out the back. When I play games, I crank the fan up to ensure good airflow. I also suspended the hard drive using elastic plastic thread.

That said, I have a second rig I use for gaming now and could use the 7800gt, so if you'd like to work a cash-and-card swap of some sort, let me know!

"Hi all, I know this is an old thread, but I have a 7800 gt in my sd11g5, it's too noisy so I'm thinking of changing it. Possible alternative is the ASUS Extreme AX1600XT SILENT
Any-one tried one of these in their sd11g5?
Any other options. I know it's quite a step down in performance, and I'll have to sell my 7800 gt . . . what are your thoughts?
(P.S. no complaints about the performance of my machine, just the noise ;-( )"

[kudosdude]

daimon1 you have a pm.