Introduction

Retired Brigadier General Chuck Yeager once said (and we’re paraphrasing because we can’t remember the exact quote off the top of our heads) “Every 15 years aviation technology takes a giant step forward. We’re at the base of a giant leap right now”. General Yeager would know – during his 60 year flying career he’s flown aircraft ranging from the P-51 Mustang to the F/A-18 Hornet; with Lockheed's SR-71 Blackbird in between. Not only was he the first man to break the sound barrier, he was also the first to exceed Mach 2.5, flying 1,650 MPH in a Bell X1A experimental aircraft.

Just a few short years later, stealth technology was introduced to the public in Lockheed’s F-117A Nighthawk. Air combat hasn’t been the same since.

The 3GHz wonder box

Why did we say all this? Because if Shuttle has its way, its XPC will shake up the desktop PC market in a similar fashion. Let’s look at things historically. Before Shuttle perfected its XPC formula, small form factor systems were regarded as weak little beige boxes that offered anemic performance and supported outdated technologies. There was little for the hardware enthusiast to really fall in love with other than their small size, especially considering the price premium they typically went for. Shuttle’s initial small form factor offering, the SV24, showed lots of potential, but the VL133 chipset it was based on offered antiquated hardware support, and worse yet, integrated graphics that could not be upgraded. The closed nature of its design was a big turn off to many gamers, but at the same time the tiny chassis was perfect for LAN parties. In an age where everyone wants to be different, what stands out more than a toaster-sized PC that can run with the fastest desktop PCs? This revolutionary ideal was ultimately reached by Shuttle last year with the SS51G: dramatically changing the face of small form factor computing. Shuttle had its equivalent of stealth.

Shuttle has used its new weapon to dominate the barebones PC segment. Actually, dominate is probably an understatement: Shuttle has grown the small form factor PC from a tiny niche into one of the fastest growing markets on the PC. It’s no small wonder that many motherboard manufacturers are now working on small form factor products of their own. Even the big boys ASUS and MSI want a piece of the action.

RADEON 9800 PRO graphics inside

The shell of the SB61G2

Today Shuttle is taking another step forward, ahead of even its own SB51G, which is already considered the benchmark in small form factor systems for the Pentium 4. This groundbreaking product is the SB61G2, sporting Intel’s brand new 865G “Springdale” chipset with 800MHz front-side bus support. In fact, we packed our SB61G2 system with the latest technologies -- Intel’s 3.0GHz Pentium 4 with 800MHz bus and Hyper-Threading, and ATI’s flagship RADEON 9800 PRO.