Shuttle SN27P2 SFF: AM2 gets the Tiny Treatment
by Jarred Walton on June 30, 2006 11:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Features
We've already covered at least one of the major changes from the older P series: the exclusion of the flash memory reader. Shuttle has also removed another feature that some people will miss: no more legacy PS/2 ports. This means you will need a USB keyboard and mouse.
The remaining changes are generally minor, but there's one major addition: you now get four DDR2 DIMM slots. Each slot can be used with a maximum 2GB DIMM, giving you the option of running up to 8GB of RAM. Most people won't need that much memory right now, but with the looming launch of Windows Vista and 64-bit applications, not to mention quad core processors, that's not an inconceivable upgrade to make sometime during the life of the system.
Shuttle has now switched to HD audio, provided in this case by the Realtek ALC882 chipset. Several of their previous AMD SFF offerings included onboard Creative SoundBlaster Live! audio, but now that NVIDIA's chipsets support HD audio such steps are not required. Still, we wouldn't mind seeing an upgrade to Creative Audigy or X-Fi, especially considering the limited expansion possibilities. That said, most people will find the onboard audio to be more than sufficient, and S/PDIF in/out ports give you the option of hooking up to a home entertainment center.
| SN27P2 Features | |
| FORM FACTOR | Shuttle Form Factor P2 Chassis |
| PROCESSOR | Socket AM2 - AMD Sempron/Athlon 64/FX/X2 Processor |
| CHIPSET | NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP |
| MEMORY | DDR2 400/533/667/800 Dual Channel Unbuffered RAM (4) x 240 pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Max 8GB |
| ATA | (3) SATA 3Gb/s with RAID 0[c] 1[c] 0+1[c] 5[c] JBOD plus (1) SATA 3Gb/s e-SATA (1) ATA UltraDMA-133 |
| EXPANSION SLOTS | (1) PCI-E X16 (1) PCI |
| AUDIO | Realtek ALC882 HD Audio 7.1 + 2 HD Channels |
| ETHERNET | Marvell 88E1116 Gbit LAN PHY Supports 10/100/1000 Mbps |
| IEEE1394 | VIA VT6307 controller |
| ONBOARD CONNECTORS | (3) 4-pin Fan Connectors (1) 3-pin Fan Connector (1) 8-Pin Proprietary Power Connector (1) 6-pin Proprietary Power Connector |
| FRONT PANEL | (2) USB 2.0 Ports (1) Mini IEEE1394 Port (1) Mic In (1) Earphone Out (1) Power on button (1) Reset button (1) HDD LED (1) Power LED |
| BACK PANEL | (6) USB 2.0 Ports (1) RJ45 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN Port (1) IEEE1394a Port (1) External SATA Port (1) S/PDIF Coaxial Out (1) S/PDIF Optical In (1) S/PDIF Optical Out |
| EXPANSION BAY | (1) 3.5[q] Bay (2) 3.5[q] Bay (internal) (1) 5.25[q] Bay |
| DIMENSIONS | 325(L) x 220(W) x 210(H) mm |
| POWER | SilentX 400W (PFC) Power Supply Unit |
We've already covered at least one of the major changes from the older P series: the exclusion of the flash memory reader. Shuttle has also removed another feature that some people will miss: no more legacy PS/2 ports. This means you will need a USB keyboard and mouse.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The remaining changes are generally minor, but there's one major addition: you now get four DDR2 DIMM slots. Each slot can be used with a maximum 2GB DIMM, giving you the option of running up to 8GB of RAM. Most people won't need that much memory right now, but with the looming launch of Windows Vista and 64-bit applications, not to mention quad core processors, that's not an inconceivable upgrade to make sometime during the life of the system.
Shuttle has now switched to HD audio, provided in this case by the Realtek ALC882 chipset. Several of their previous AMD SFF offerings included onboard Creative SoundBlaster Live! audio, but now that NVIDIA's chipsets support HD audio such steps are not required. Still, we wouldn't mind seeing an upgrade to Creative Audigy or X-Fi, especially considering the limited expansion possibilities. That said, most people will find the onboard audio to be more than sufficient, and S/PDIF in/out ports give you the option of hooking up to a home entertainment center.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
17 Comments
View All Comments
Calin - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
Most any ATX case will be quiter and possibly cooler inside than one of those SFF computers. However, they will be twice as big (or more). If that's ok with you, that's great - ATX all the way. If not, a laptop or a SFF certainly makes sense (even if the price is much better on the full ATX front).JarredWalton - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
I don't know - it depends on the ATX case you're talking about and how many fans you want to install. If you install two or three case fans (or more) and they aren't temperature controlled, a lot of the less expensive ATX cases will be louder than many SFF cases. Lower quality power supplies will also make a lot of noise. If you don't want a big case, and you are interested in getting an extremely easy to set up bare-bones system, SFF computers are really very nice.I do wish prices were about $100 lower, however. $300 for a SFF I can justify; $400+ is a lot more difficult to stomach. For that much money, you can get a good power supply, motherboard, and pretty much any case that you want. I suppose part of it has to do with economies of scale; I don't know how many SFF cases Shuttle has sold, but I doubt they sell as many SFFs someone like ASUS would sell motherboards. That means all of their R&D costs that go into creating a smaller case have to be passed on as a larger percentage of the price.
JarredWalton - Saturday, July 1, 2006 - link
There was no opinion given on which CPU to choose, was there? I simply stated (and this is the expanded version) that even if you're going to buy AMD anyway and couldn't care less about Core 2 Duo, AMD has price cuts scheduled for July 24th so you can pick up an X2 CPU for a lot less than current prices. Here's my opinion:Core 2 Duo will be faster than anything AMD has to offer at least in the short term. AMD X2 will cost less at most (all?) price points, and in some cases (gaming), you're probably GPU limited either way since the current maximum for an SFF is going to be the 7950 GX2. I expect Shuttle will have the SD37P2 out some time after C2D launches, but since they're already 1 month behind the AM2 launch and you still can't purchase the SN27P2, that trend will likely continue and the SD37P2 won't be available until probably early September or so. (I could very well be wrong on that account, but I'm simply going by recent history.)
Which is the better choice? As you have so clearly demonstrated, that's a matter of personal taste. Some people are only going to buy AMD at present; others will only buy Intel. Most would like to buy whichever offers the best performance at a specific price point. I would guess that AMD will be competitive in the price/performance area even if C2D is faster overall, so in the end they get what they're happy with. I still wouldn't purchase an AM2 chip until those price cuts take affect.
VooDooAddict - Saturday, July 1, 2006 - link
Simply.
Will the 7950 Fit?
Does the BIOS support the card?
Can the powersupply keep it running with 2 gigs of RAM and a AMD 5000+?
As soon as I saw the 7950 anouncement all I could think about was building a new SFF system around it.
JarredWalton - Saturday, July 1, 2006 - link
I don't have one available, but my understanding is just about any motherboard with an X16 slot will work with the 7950 GX2. Since I managed to install a 7900 GTX in the SN37P2, I'm pretty sure the GX2 is actually a bit smaller overall, so it will certainly fit. Is it compatible? Well, the SN27P2 uses an NVIDIA chipset, so if it's *not* compatible, NVIDIA has a serious problem with support of GX2. In other words, I'm 99% certain that it will work.VooDooAddict - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
I didn't think the issue was the chipset ... I thought it was the BIOS.JarredWalton - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
Right, the BIOS needs to support non-graphics devices in the X16 slots. My point is that if a board using NVIDIA's chipset doesn't support NVIDIA's top GPU, what's the chance of getting everyone else to support it?