![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, July 30, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Shuttle SN45G
The SN45G is Shuttle’s answer to the AMD power user crowd. Sporting the new nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset, it’s looking to take on the competition in a big way…
Introduction
Shuttle of late has become a darling among the enthusiast crowd. This is due to their innovative SFF (small form factor) PC designs featuring the latest chipsets with an all in one solution in a small footprint box. This makes for a very powerful system that is easy to pick up and go with, perfect for any LAN gaming experience. This is a big thing for Shuttle, since traditionally they have catered to the OEM and system builder crowd. Their latest SFF creation is no disappointment.
The SN45G is Shuttle’s latest creation based on the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset. The NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset offers support for all AMD processors including their line of 400 MHz FSB processors. The chipset also continues to support DDR RAM spec’d up to PC3200 operating in Dual Channel mode. As is common in the SFF (small form factor) arena, the SN45G is a feature complete solution featuring everything needed to get started with the exception of processor, memory, graphics card, and drives (hard drive, CD-ROM, and floppy). Included in its tiny chassis are the following components: 2 ATA-133 ports; 4 USB 2.0 capable ports; 3 IEEE 1394 capable ports; integrated NVIDIA 10/100 Ethernet; 6 channel audio featuring S/PDIF in/out ports and NVIDIA SoundStorm digital audio support; and serial, parallel, and PS/2 port support.
Main Specifications Overview:
CPU | AMD Athlon XP/Duron |
Chipset | NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 / MCP-T |
FSB | 100/133/166/200 |
BIOS | Phoenix AwardBIOS |
Memory | 2 DDR DIMMS, up to 2 GB |
Expansion slots | 1 x AGP, 1 x PCI |
Onboard IDE | 2 x ATA 133 based headers |
USB 2.0 | 2 rear panel / 2 front panel (4 ports total) |
AGP | AGP 4x/8x |
Audio | 6-Channel NVIDIA based SoundStorm solution with S/PDIF input/output ports |
NIC | 1 x NVIDIA 10/100 Ethernet controller in rear panel |
Detailed Mainboard Specification List:
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Packaging/Case
From the first glimpse of the box, you get the impression that the system inside is meant to be used in a group situation. The box itself doubles as a carrying case for the unit with its in-built handle, making it an ideal transport mechanism when toting the rig to a LAN party. Shuttle chose to include an interesting assortment of components with the unit including: driver CD, installation and usage manuals, a short single device ATA-133 cable with pull tab, a rounded 2 device ATA-133 cable, a floppy cable with locking motherboard connector, feet for the front bottom of the case, adhesive strips and zip ties for cable routing, and a shim to protect your precious CPU when mounting the heatpipe unit.
The unit itself is almost entirely modular, meaning that the unit can be just about entirely disassembled into component pieces. The hard drive cage itself takes up the upper front portion of the case, and has room for a hard drive, a floppy drive, and a CD-ROM drive. The HSF unit included with the system is by far the coolest part of the package. It is a heatpipe based system given the name I.C.E by Shuttle. I.C.E stands for Integrated Cooling Engine, and believe me, it lives up to its name very well.
The system itself is a bit cramped for space, but Shuttle does some extremely innovative things with cable routing and cable placement so that things are not too cluttered. Shuttle had to come up with some creative cable routing in order to support the plethora of ports available in the front and rear of the case. From the case front, you have access to 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 IEEE 1394 port, line-in, microphone, and headphone audio ports, as well as your standard power and reset buttons. The rear of the case features the rear panel cutout for the motherboard ports in the lower left corner, with the exhaust fan for the PSU and for the I.C.E system just above it, and S/PDIF digital input and output ports in the upper left corner. Notice that the PSU is vertically mounted in the case and that the PCI and AGP card slots have a swinging locking mechanism to better hold the cards in place when seated in the case on the motherboard. The motherboard rear panel area along the bottom left of the case contains your standard complement of ports: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, 1 serial port, 2 IEEE 1394 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, a 10/100 Ethernet port, and 3 audio ports for your front, rear, and center channel speakers. Oddly enough, no parallel port is included in-built to the board.
Board Layout
Shuttle had to put some serious thought and design time into the layout of this board in order to support all the required peripherals in such a limited amount of space. With the exception of the AGP slot placement, I can find no areas that are overly crowded or tight. The board included with the SN45G system is a revision 1 board. Make note that Shuttle chose to use capacitors from the following manufacturers: Illinois Capacitor Inc. (USA), Luxon Electronics Corporation (Taiwan), and Richey Electronics Limited (Taiwan). The capacitors marked RLX are from an unknown source.
The CPU socket area is amazingly clear on all sides, making mounting and removing the I.C.E. unit a breeze. In fact, if for some reason you chose not to use the I.C.E. system for cooling the CPU, you would have no problem with space constraints around the CPU socket area. Height constraints might be a bit of a problem though. Shuttle chose to include the mounting holes around the socket for use in securely mounting the I.C.E. heatsink to the CPU. Just above the CPU socket and to the right is the monitored FAN3 header and the parallel port header used for connecting the rear panel parallel port. The floppy port is located to the right of the parallel header along the edge of the board. The FAN1 header is located just above and to the left of the CPU socket. The nForce2 Ultra 400 Northbridge chipset is located just below the CPU socket. The Northbridge itself is passively cooled with a good sized aluminum heatsink held on with two pushpins through the board. The monitored FAN2 header is located to the right of the Northbridge.
The board’s 2 DIMM slots are located between the Northbridge chipset and the lower edge of the board. There is no differentiation between the slots color-wise to demarcate the individual memory channels. However, populating both slots will enable Dual Channel memory mode. The board’s two ATA-133 ports are located just below the lower DIMM slot along the board’s edge, with the ATX connector along the edge to the right of the ATA-133 ports. The ATX12V connector is located just above and to the right of the topmost DIMM slot. Although it looks to be in the way, there was no contention between the upper DIMM slot and the ATX12V connector. The front panel header for status LEDs, reset, and power is located to the left of the ATA-133 ports along the edge of the board.
The board’s MCP-T Southbridge chipset is located to the right of the Northbridge, between it and the edge of the board. Notice that the chipset itself is passively cooled by a small aluminum heatsink attached with thermal tape. Just above the Southbridge is the board’s USB 2.0 header, with the CMOS battery and CMOS reset jumper between the Southbridge and the PCI slot.
The SN45G has a total of 1 PCI slot and 1 AGP slot, with the AGP slot positioned along the outer edge of the board. The positioning of the AGP slot could make it a bit tricky to use an AGP card with an overly huge cooling system with the system cover on. To the right of the PCI slot is the front panel connector, used for connecting the front audio ports, the USB 2.0 ports, and the IEEE 1394 port. Just above this header is the SPDIF in/out header for the S/PDIF rear panel connections. The board’s CD-IN and wireless keyboard/mouse headers are located to the right of the SPDIF header.