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Shuttle SN25P

The SN25P is Shuttle’s endeavor in to the wonderful world of the nForce4 chipset. Read on to find out just how good a job they did with their latest Athlon64 based XPC.

Introduction

Shuttle is a favorite among the LAN gaming and enthusiast crowd alike for their innovative, yet powerful XPC line of systems. Shuttle remains of the best small form factor system designers, and continues to drive the market with their dedication to system quality and performance. Their latest XPC systems boast nothing less than a redesigned cooling flow and system layout to make for even cooler running and better performing systems.

The SN25P is Shuttle’s latest foray in to the Athlon64 socket 939 market. This system is designed with the much hyped NVIDIA nForce4 MCP chipset, supporting all Athlon64-based socket 939 CPUs, DDR RAM modules operating in Dual Channel mode, and PCI Express x16 type video cards. Being a small form factor solution means that the SN25P requires the minimum amount of components for a functioning system, including the following: Athlon64 socket 939 CPU, DDR memory, and a PCI Express x16 video card. The following components have been integrated in to the SN25P’s design: 1 IDE ATA-133 port; 4 SATA-300 ports (both IDE and SATA ports are RAID 0 and 1 capable); 1 floppy port; 6 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 2 in front panel); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, 1 in front panel); 1 Marvell Gigabit Ethernet port in rear panel; VIA Envy24 8-channel audio codec featuring S/PDIF optical input / output and RCA output ports; and serial and PS/2 port support.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Packaging/Case

For the SN25P, Shuttle chose to use the standard XPC box art, with the supported CPU and chipset displayed along the top and front side panels of the box. The box also doubles as a carrying case to help you while you’re on your way to all your LAN gaming adventures. Shuttle includes the following in with the SN25P itself: 1 ATA-133 IDE cable; 1 floppy cable; 3 SATA cables; a MOLEX extension cable with integrated floppy connector; feet for the front bottom of the case; heatsink compound for use with the ICE cooling unit; foam feet to combat hard drive vibration; removable drive rails for optical, floppy, and hard drives; a power cord; and the standard complement of manuals, driver CDs and floppy disks.

Like the rest of the XPC line, the SN25P was built in a modular fashion, with removable components including the drive cage, PSU, CPU cooling unit, and motherboard. This particular version of the XPC case features a tool free drive cage design with integrated mounting rails for all drives, a horizontally oriented Integrated Cooling Engine (I.C.E.) system for better CPU heat dissipation, and a massive 350 watt BTX type PSU. The drive cage is fully tool less, designed instead with sliding drive rails and pull-tabs. The cage itself holds a 5.25 inch and a 3.5 inch device, with an integrated 8-in-1 multimedia card reader along the upper front. Additional 3.5 inch drives can be mounted along the top rails of the drive cage using the included cage rails as well. The I.C.E. cooling system holds a few new surprises as well. The cooling system is now at the very front of the case, and is oriented in a horizontal fashion. The unit draws air in from one side of the case and expels the warm air out the other side of the case, allowing for better overall CPU cooling due to its isolated nature. The I.C.E. unit itself is made up of 3 individual parts, the air intake duct, the CPU heat pipe, and the rear exhaust fan. The CPU block and heat pipe is a single integrated unit, sporting a hybrid copper / aluminum design.

Due to the placement of the CPU cooling unit and the PSU, the SN25P has an abundance of space, without the normal crowded look of a small form factor box evident at all. The integrated ports on the SN25P are evenly distributed between the front and rear of the system, with the front ports hidden behind a stealth panel. The front panel of the unit contains 2 analogue audio ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, and 1 IEEE 1394 port. Power and reset buttons are arranged along the right side of the unit, backlit with blue LEDs, as well as an amber colored hard drive activity LED. Both the floppy and optical drives are stealthed, making for a very clean and uniform front panel appearance. The rear side of the system contains the rear panel ports, the PSU power switch, and the system fans. Note that the case has a total of 3 system fans, one large one for the PSU and 2 smaller units for providing airflow over top mounted hard drives. One other interesting thing here is the location of the PCI-Express slots, which are located on the right side rather than the left. Furthermore, the x16 video card slot is along the outside of the case, allowing for use of larger, double slotted video card solutions. The following ports are integrated into the rear panel: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; 1 serial port; 1 IEEE 1394 port; CMOS clear button; 4 USB 2.0 ports; a Gigabit Ethernet port; 5 analogue audio ports; S/PDIF RCA output and optical input/output ports. The CMOS clear button is located just below the serial port and allows for BIOS reset without having to remove the case cover. This button can be toggled using a paperclip, or similar instrument.

Board Layout

The SN25P’s motherboard layout was masterfully done, with adequate maneuvering room between components. There is really nothing glaringly bad about the layout or design whatsoever. The board included with the system was a revision 1.2 model, with the serial number displayed on a sticker along the outer edge of the PCI Express x16 video card slot. Shuttle chose to use capacitors from Taiwan Ostor Corporation (Taiwain) in building the SN25P.

The CPU socket sits along the bottom of the board, which is at the very front of the system. The I.C.E. CPU cooling system is held to the processor using a set of 4 mounting holes, similar in layout to the Intel LGA775 hold down design. Just above the CPU socket are the 2 onboard DDR DIMM slots. The 4-pin FAN1 header, as well as the 6-pin power connector is located to the upper right of the CPU socket. To the lower left of the socket are the 4-pin FAN2 header and the front panel button and LED header. Just below the socket and along the lower edge of the board are the front panel connectors for interfacing with the front panel daughter board.

In the upper left quadrant of the SN95P are the CD_IN, AUX_IN, and mini CD_IN connectors, the ATA-133 and floppy ports as well as the audio enable jumper. The onboard infrared header is located to the left of the floppy port, with the FAN3 header located directly to its right. Just above the ATA-133 port are the onboard USB 2.0 header, and the parallel port header.

The SN25P’s PCI-Express slots are in the upper right corner of the board, with the PCI-Express x16 video card slot located along the outer edge of the board. To the left of the PCI-Express slots are the nForce4 chipset, the 4 onboard SATA-300 ports, the 8-pin power port, and the FAN4 header. Notice that the nForce4 chipset is actively cooled by a many-sided aluminum heatsink and fan unit. The heatsink is held to the chipset via push pins on opposite sides of the chipset. The CMOS battery and CMOS reset jumper are to the upper right of the nForce4 chipset, with the wireless keyboard/mouse header directly above it.