Shuttle Glamor XPC SG33G5 (Intel G33)

Conclusion

Conclusion

Many different vendors have tried their hand at creating the home entertainment media hub. We have seen consumer friendly versions that run some form of Linux in the background and have their own custom interface navigated using a remote control. These are dedicated 'dumb' machines that require little maintenance or computer knowledge from the user. Then there are those that make no attempts to conceal its PC roots, focusing instead on the advantages offered by a fully featured HTPC. Shuttle's offerings belong to the latter.

While Shuttle may have introduced a true HTPC system before (the Shuttle XPC M Series Media Center) that outwardly takes its cue from consumer electronics, its strength has always been in giving enthusiasts full license to custom build their ideal system. Hence, the latest chipsets together with innovative features like SLI and CrossFire have been squeezed into the confines of the Shuttle SFF. Power users who know what they want and how to configure their own software and settings will find Shuttle's offerings more than equal to their expertise.

The latest Shuttle XPC, the SG33G5 comes from this tradition of having state of the art technologies and is anything but a dumb machine despite the fact that it targets HTPC users in particular with crowd pleasing features like its HDMI output and 7.1-channel HD audio with DTS Connect and Dolby Digital Live. Based on the new Intel G33 chipset, this XPC supports all existing Intel LGA 775 processors, along with the upcoming 45nm processors. It also has integrated graphics courtesy of an Intel GMA 3100 chipset that helps relieve part of the workload off your CPU during high definition video playback. However, beware of its video decoding support limitations like no VC-1 acceleration, so you would still require a fairly powerful processor like an Intel Core 2 Duo that are 2GHz or faster (thankfully those processors are quite affordable these days). Coupled with the Shuttle's decent exterior appearance and generous number of SATA and even eSATA ports, the SG33G5 is quite an ideal modern HTPC and media hub. However, it also means that compared to some other 'performance' SFF from Shuttle, it is more narrowly focused and will suffer when handling the latest games. Space and power constraints mean that high-end discrete graphics are not feasible and the integrated graphics core won't be sufficient even for casual gamers as it didn't impress us in our benchmarks.

The usual characteristic of a Shuttle XPC, like its excellent cable management and the quiet ICE cooler are present and the G5 chassis is a familiar sight, especially with the extremely minor facelift that Shuttle has crafted in order to glam it up. Installation too was generally smooth and trouble free, which has always been a major advantage of Shuttle XPC compared to its few competitors. Finally, price is also typical of Shuttle XPCs, which are usually at a premium. At S$629 (about US$400), the Shuttle Glamor XPC SG33G5 is priced significantly lower than the performance oriented SD37P2 (~S$800), based on Intel's 975X chipset. This SFF may be somewhat a misnomer since there wasn't anything overly glamorous about it but we are satisfied with its HTPC credentials.

Looking forward, the upcoming Intel G35 chipset featuring the GMA X3500 is perhaps the most promising desktop IGP from Intel yet with full DirectX 10 support, better hardware and VC-1 hardware acceleration as well as improved MPEG-2 hardware acceleration. However, this is still sometime away (late in third quarter of 2007) and given Intel's graphics driver team still sorting out how best to tap performance from their architecture, it could be a while longer before this IGP can glimmer. If all goes well, a Shuttle system based on the G35 chipset sounds great, but that's an article for sometime in the future. For now, there is the Shuttle XPC SG33G5 and the more glamorous SG33G5M.