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Shuttle XPC SN27P2 (Socket AM2)

By Vincent Chang - 14 Jun 2006

SN27P2 Interior Part 2

SN27P2 Interior Part 2

Equipped with an nForce 570 Ultra MCP means that the standard features for this chipset are present on the SN27P2. Obviously as a Socket AM2 board, the SN27P2 supports only AMD's latest processors and it has only two expansion slots, of which one is the 16 lane PCI Express slot required for graphics cards and the other is the older PCI slot. For those who are still using a PATA hard drive, not to worry as there's ATA133. Shuttle did not cut any corners here as things like 3.0Gbps SATA connections, SATA RAID (0, 1, 0+1, 5), MediaShield and Gigabit LAN are all there. Talking about Gigabit LAN, this is made possible on the SN27P2 by a Marvell 88E1116 Gigabit PHY chip but NVIDIA's DualNet technology (combining two Gigabit MAC to form a two-Gigabit pipe) won't work, as there is only one Gigabit Ethernet port. Azalia HD Audio is also standard for the nForce 500 series and Shuttle uses a Realtek ALC882 audio CODEC, which is decent for the non-audiophiles. FireWire is covered by a VIA VT6307 controller. In short, it's just like any nForce 500 series motherboard, with all the basic features like sound and SATA RAID.

Some of the onboard components for this NVIDIA 570 Ultra motherboard include the VIA FireWire controller, Marvell Gigabit PHY and the battery for the BIOS (which is within easy access should you need to change it).

A small fan and heatsink keeps important components on the motherboard cool. The SN27P2 also has quite a few ventilation holes at the bottom of the enclosure to help cool the motherboard.

With an almost full load of drives and cards installed, everything was still remarkably neat and orderly.

One known issue that cropped up was an apparent memory incompatibility problem with Kingston HyperX branded DDR2 modules. We had some random memory-related issues when we initially installed the SN27P2 with Kingston RAM. These problems disappeared once we replaced the Kingston with Corsair RAM. We have had similar problems with the new nForce boards and Kingston memory before so we would recommend not mixing these two if you want to get the Shuttle SN27P2 (at least for the time being). At the moment, we've contacted Shuttle regarding this issue and they are working to fine-tune their BIOS. Hence, this issue would soon cease to exist but you must understand that the AMD AM2 platform is not mature yet and it still faces teething problems, of which the most obvious one is memory module incompatibility.

Shuttle's proprietary heat-pipe based 'ICE' heatsink and cooler. Due to the confines of the SFF, you cannot use the processor's stock cooler.

The heat from the CPU is transmitted to the heat pipes and this fan helps to vent warm air out of the casing.

Gone are the tool-free drive cages from older Shuttle designs. Instead, we have screws?

Even the power cable for the graphics card has been twisted into position, awaiting your card.

Enough allowance for a GeForce 7950 GX2? While the thought did occur to us, especially if the PCI slot was left empty, we think that it's not a physical issue so much as a power issue, since the peak power demands of a GeForce 7950 GX2 may rise up to 143W. That is a large chunk for the 350W PSU.

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