Shuttle ST20G5

Overclocking:

Much like the SN25P, we had very little luck overclocking our 4000+. Anything over 210MHz CPU bus would cause fatal windows errors and anything over the stock 200MHz CPU bus would cause Prime95 to fail. At stock speeds there was no problem observed with stability and Prime95 was solid. This may well be down to the lack of HyperTransport multiplier adjustment, but it could be down to any number of variables. In short, this board has very limited overclocking capabilities.

Performance Summary:

There's no doubt about it: the Shuttle SN20G5 forms the basis of a very fast platform. It is as fast as the fastest platforms we have tested to date, and in some cases we found it to be the fastest platform we have tested to date. It generally outperformed Shuttle's SN25P, which is based on NVIDIA's very popular NForce 4 core logic. The fact that the SN25P does not have the fully featured NForce 4 Ultra chipset, means that the feature gap between the two chipsets is somewhat smaller than it could be.

In the gaming benchmarks, with the ability to only write two pixels per clock in comparison to the sixteen that the GeForce 6800 GT can process in the same time, it performs as expected - pretty badly. 2D performance and image quality is absolutely fine and the ability to drive two monitors from the IGP is a welcome inclusion. In direct comparison to the to the EQS M56K9-MLF, the ST20G5 outperforms it across the board. However, the differences are not massive and you are unlikely to notice these slight variations.

Rounding things up...

The ST20G5 looks absolutely gorgeous, there's no doubt about that. The brushed aluminium-look front complements the case wonderfully, as do the stealthed drive bays. Inside, the larger fan on the ICE cooling system allows for a much quieter and more tolerable cooling solution - it's a big improvement over the previous 80mm solution.

However, the chassis does have its short falls. You are still limited to video cards with a single slot cooling solution due to the internal layout. That is not necessarily a bad thing, though, as the fastest video card available at the moment - the GeForce 7800 GTX - will fit in this chassis without issue, making a very, very capable (and quiet) gaming system.

There are also issues with the ULI Southbridge requiring drivers during Windows installation if you are planning on using the ULI's SATA ports. Many consumers don't own a floppy drive in this day and age, and this could be improved. Once you have overcome the initial agro that the ULI Southbridge will give you, the long term benefits are rosy - the inclusion of Native Command Queuing support and Intel's High-Definition Azalia Audio should provide enough to outweigh this southbridge's shortcomings.

Another issue that we came across was the inability to disable the onboard video - you can only change the boot display device from onboard to discrete. We found that installing a GeForce 6800 GT video card caused some teething problems, due to the driver conflicts on first boot up with the NVIDIA card installed. However, after rebooting the onboard video appeared to disable itself and there were no further warnings regarding the initial driver conflicts.

If you opt for an ATI-based video card to accompany this Shuttle ST20G5, you will be able to use up to three video outputs with the help of ATI's SurroundView multi-monitor software that is built in to its Catalyst display driver. For anyone who uses multiple monitors, this is a chassis that is worth some serious consideration when coupled with an ATI video card - the IGP makes it a relatively inexpensive multi-monitor solution.

Finally comes the price - at around £260 the ST20G5 isn't the cheapest Shuttle on the market, but it is cheaper than the £290 asking price of the SN25P. Take the fact that you don't need to invest in a PCI-Express video card right away, and you've got yourself a very affordable and capable office solution. Lets not forget the sterling game performance either - when you do decide to purchase a PCI-Express video card, you will not be disappointed by its game performance.

Providing you do ample research to ensure that you choose the right components to go with the ST20G5, you will find yourself with a very versatile and good looking small form factor platform.