- Jan 4, 2005
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Informal Review - Shuttle ST20G5 ***With Edits 2/21***
PROS:
Recent BIOS updates provide enhanced stability and driver support,
including compatibility with AMD Socket 939 dual-core CPUs (requires AMD driver)
Good product bundle, including generous drive cable collection
Good design quality
ULI Southbridge
Efficient buildout (for the most part)
Single 32-bit PCI and single PCI-E 16X slot
System works with NVidia video cards
Elimination of obsolete serial and parallel ports provides an efficient rear panel
DirectX 9.0-compatible DVI video-out comes standard
Bundled 6-pin SLI power connector
Good overall system performance and Windows compatibility
Good sound quality when drivers can be made to work
Good Ethernet driver
Compatible with single-slot NVidia video vards with current BIOS
CONS:
Some optical drives (Sony in particular) may not fit behind front bezel
Difficult optical disc ejection mechanism
CPU heatsink/fan assembly is inefficient and may promote excessive heat
Can accommodate only a single-slot PCI-E video card
Not a great overclocker
Typically poor documentation
-------------------------------------------------
Small-form factor (SFF) computer systems are a largely cultish realm for the computer enthusiast. Most advanced users opt for mini-tower or
full tower chassis that accommodate the standard ATX form factor motherboard and a large collection of drives. Systems of this type can be modified in ways limited only by the owner's imagination and by their tool-handling skills. One downside to using them is the desktop space factor. Another is time. Yet another is gross consumption of power. Perhaps the biggest issue is noise. Get three or four extra fans going in a self-built system and your computer room may start sounding like the takeoff lane at Kennedy Airport.
For my part, the biggest problem with desktop ATX motherboards is their terrible driver support. Too many motherboards boast two Gigabit Ethernet ports, built-in 7.1 sound, and even wireless support. The problem is that when you get these boards home and install Windows on them, those integrated peripherals that you think are going to save you money wind up being a complete rip-off. I've had several boards from different manufacturers whose drivers never worked on new installations for either Ethernet or audio. I feel this is one of the dirty unspoken secrets of the PC parts industry, and it's a big reason why I turned to an SFF as a possible solution.
While the available SFF systems don't have the tight integration of, say, a Mac Mini, many SFFs from Aspire and Shuttle resemble something that could be carried around. Roughly the size of a lunchbox, say. A system of this type imposes tradeoffs. If you're lucky, you'll have all of two expansion slots, but often only one is proffered. (Shuttle does offer an SLI-based SFF.) Two internal drives, one hard disc and one optical, are the norm. Also, no space for after-market CPU cooling, and little scope for modding of any kind.
Shuttle's XPC-branded SFF product line is the prototype. It encompasses the current CPU lines from Intel and AMD. A recent release is the ST20G5, which has an unusual collection of specs for a small-form-factor barebones system:
ATI Radeon XPress 200 chip set with DVI-Out (R480 Northbridge)
ULI M1573 Southbridge chip
1 PCI-E X16 slot
1 33MHz PCI Slot
2 184-pin DDR400 DIMM slots
2 SATA1 Ports
DRAM 100 MHz to 250 MHz with BIOS update
HTT to 255
This barebones system came out around the beginning of 2005, meeting with mixed reviews due to poorly implemented BIOS versions, lack of high-speed RAM support and buggy PCI-E support. However, I was willing to take a chance, having seen recent BIOS updates on Shuttle's site. Armed with an Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1 GB of OCZ PC4000 RAM, an eVGA 7800GT PCI-E video card, D-Link PCI 802.11G wireless card, and the usual SATA drives and DVD burners, I decided to take one more shot at a self-built system before giving up and buying a Dell. It came down to either the ST20G5 or Shuttle's SN25G model, which offered the PCI-E slot and a desirable NVidia NF4 chipset, but no 32-bit PCI slot. I really needed that wireless PCI card.
This is what I found.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
First, I was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of the ST20G5 system's design. The drive cage pulls up and out with a light tug. Installed cables are well organized with plastic ties routing along the chassis. The motherboard is about the size of a paperback book. The overall fit and finish is probably better than you normally encounter from Taiwanese-built barebones systems.
Popping in the CPU could not have been easier. The L-shapped heatpipe/heatsink combo is logically fitted and snaps right back into place after you put on the thermal grease. (More about the CPU cooling system later.) The RAM slots rest directly under the power supply, which can pose a heat problem and are a bit cramped for installation. Those fat Corsair DIMMs with LED readouts that some of us have are definitely out. My jacketed OCZ DIMMs fit fine if a bit tightly.
The ST20G5 supports two SATA1 channels and one IDE drive channel; since I had no desire to install a floppy drive for Windows SATA installation, I opted for a 250GB IDE drive. Therefore I cannot speak to the ST20G5's RAID support, which I heard is buggy in earlier versions. Shuttle bundles every cable you could possibly need for the system, including a 6-pin SLI video card power adapter, which I'll get to later. Shuttle's ribbon drive cables are neatly wrapped and designed for reasonable routing around obstructions.
The first problem I encountered involved installing a Sony DVD burner. It turns out that Shuttle's XPC front bezel for its top 5 1/4" drive bay is not physically compatible with Sony optical drives. The disc tray jams against the bezel and cannot open. Unfortunately, I can't attest to any other drives' functioning here, such as NEC, Plextor, Pioneer and others; Shuttle does market its own branded DVD burners and I suggest getting one when you buy an XPC barebone. I do suspect other drives may work and I will get around to trying one out some time. A USB external drive cage took care of the problem.
[EDIT]Any generic DVD or CD burner should work fine, as long as it's not a Sony. I installed an NEC ND-3550A dual-layer burner and it works fine with the front bezel. Shuttle's ejection mechanism, however, is almost laughably bad. This L-shaped oblique-pressure lever thingy is very strangely designed, and just barely works after a lot of tweaking.
When you buy any XPC system and do the system buildout, once you install Windows (or even before), make sure to update the BIOS to the latest version on Shuttle's Website. The current one for the ST20G5 is 1.8, and was posted in December 2005. I installed this first thing (using WinFlash, after a Windows installation) and highly recommend it. It is the key to a successful ST20G5 experience (and no doubt is true for other Shuttle models as well). Amazingly, the installed BIOS in the system I bought from Fry's (with a three-year extended warranty) was 1.5. Needless to say, that did not last long.
Installing a modern PCI-E video card and a card in the 32-bit PCI slot means that both cards' retention brackets will stack over each other in the Shuttle unit. This threatened to wreck my installation (I NEEDED both those cards) but the retention bracket worked perfectly with minor manual adjustments.
Others in online forums report problems with BIOS 1.8 (Sudhian, Anandtech) and seem to have a preference for BIOS version 1.6 on the ST20G5. My experience is different and not necessarily representative, but I'll draw conclusions later.
Docs, Discs and Drivers
Shuttle's disc and docs package is pretty much what I expect from a Taiwanese manufacturer for whom accurate, informative and readable docs are not a priority. The Shuttle installation manual is fine if a bit sketchy on some details; the motherboard manual is just about useless for BIOS settings information or anything else except the basics.
Don't expect a lot of handholding online either; Shuttle's rep for support is spotty at best. That is one reason I was concerned about the product and adequate BIOS and driver support. The driver CD is nothing special, either.
Until I began installing drivers, I wasn't that impressed. Nevertheless, for the first time on a Taiwanese motherboard, I got the built-in Ethernet port to activate immediately. Rock-stable under Windows, it saw the DHCP Offer packets from the enterprise server, auto-configured on the network, and I was good to go. The 32-bit PCI slot also worked flawlessly with my D-Link PCI 802.11g card. So networking was solved within five minutes. I started to become much more impressed with the ST20G5.
Installing and getting the sound support to work took longer. After three silent attempts, I got desperate and started the Windows Troubleshooter utility from the Control Panel. With the Shuttle driver CD still in the drive, the troubleshooting utility finally forced the sound drivers into the correct settings in the Windows Registry (at least that's what I think it was) and the darn thing started singing like a canary. It has worked flawlessly ever since. The sound is high-def 7.1 192-bit audio capable but is not hardware-accelerated; the CPU performs all the work (and now the choice of the dual-core CPU became even more fortunate). Based on reviews I've seen, the CPU load is between 8-14% on a single-core. From purely subjective criteria (my ears) sound support is very good for this class of system. The fact that it actually works without resorting to an add-in card to eat up that precious slot is a rarity (in my experience) for a Taiwanese-made system board.
On some online forums, users have complained about the poor audio quality of the front ports on the ST20G5 chassis. Shuttle uses a proprietary cable interface for their sound ports; I must have a) gotten lucky with one; or b) they've finally fixed that issue. The audio out is working fine, with no hissing or crackling. The bundled software is nothing special but OK to play around with. I'm just grateful to have working built-in audio.
One audio-related annoyance is the non-standard fascia coloring for the audio ports in the rear of the unit. I do not understand why five different audio ports, each with markedly different functions, must all be colored the same shade of green.
DVI Video and PCI-E
The built-in video is what separates the ST20G5 from much of its Shuttle brethren. What this means in practice is that you can plug in that high-end flat-panel monitor (you know, the one that gives a terrible analog signal) and start doing real work with the system without having to buy a separate video card. The built-in DVI port produces a lovely, clear, crisp digital image. An analog VGA interface is also provided; dual-monitor support (one DVI, one analog) works fine.
You can assign up to 128 MB of shared memory to act as a frame buffer with the internal video, or as little as 16 MB. As is true for any IGP, this impacts the amount of memory available for the OS and for applications. For any 2D productivity work, the ST20G5's internal video is more than adequate, particularly when you can buy a video splitter cable and run two displays off that single port. Shuttle also advertises a SurroundView feature that allows up to four monitors to be hung off a single ST20G5 system (using an additional video card). More on this point later.
Previous reviewers of the ST20G5 (particularly HardOCP.com) reported big problems installing anything other than an ATI video card. Apparently, early versions of the BIOS did not disable the on-board video when you plugged in a NVidia-based PCI-E video card, leading to all kinds of hair-pulling. This and other issues with the ATI Radeon XPress 200 chip set indicated that NVidia cards could not be made to work with the ST20G5.
At least with the current 1.8 BIOS, that is decisively no longer the case. Installation of the highest-end single-slot video card available, an eVGA 7800GT, worked flawlessly on the ST20G5. This was contrary to every substantive review I'd read of this unit--but those were all written many months ago.
Simple Video Benchmarks
Frankly, I'm not a benchmark hound - I don't build systems just to get the fastest 3DMark scores. They are, however, a set of simple-to-run benchmarks that everyone can relate to as a basis for comparison. Because I'm lazy and don't want to bother running complex performance analysis in what is admittedly a piece I'm not getting paid for, I've just chosen the current versions of 3DMark03 and 3DMark05, and the straightforward AquaMark program to indicate the speed of graphics support for this system. I also use two instances of the Prime95 program to test system stability. Finally, I compared the system's ability to produce a PDF file in Acrobat 6.0 from a 450K Word document with several screen-cap graphics against the 3 GHz Prescott Pentium 4 on my work desktop.
Running the 7800GT at default settings, with no CPU overclocking, the Shuttle produced 15,600 in 3DMark03 and 7160 in 3DMark05, and an 85K in AquaMark 3. These numbers are right in line for default 7800GTs in higher-end systems. No blue screens, no white screens, no crashes. No problems at all. OK, it's not an SLI system wth dual 7800GTX 512MB video cards, but for an SFF this is quite solid. With judicious case modding (i.e. chopping a hole in the side of the chassis with a Dremel, which I've been known to do before), even double-wide cards could be made to work, providing an additional speed boost. However, performance-wise, this is the best system I have ever built. Since I'm not a gamer, this is everything I could ask for. The overclocking is even better (see below).
With a fresh installation of Windows, a current BIOS, current video drivers, and intelligently chosen components, you should have no trouble at all with any ATI or NVidia video card in the ST20G5. Kudos to Shuttle for addressing this problem. Kudos also for providing the badly needed 6-pin SLI power connector; upon installing the 7800GT I discovered this was a necessity. Shuttle saved me a frenzied run to Fry's to get that item.
In case you are insane enough to want to hook up four monitors to your system, you will not be able to run SurroundView if you install a NVidia-based PCI-E card. Doing so automatically disables the IGP (analog and digital) and the BIOS settings for SurroundView. (This seems to be a workaround to allow NVidia compatibility with the system.) For the four-screen application, a single-slot ATI card with dual-DVI output is necessary, along with the video splitter for the IGP DVI port. However, as the 7800GT is faster than anything in the same class from ATI, and provides dual-DVI itself, I can live with that outcome.
Of course, if you're crazy enough to do that, you are probably going to build an SLI or CrossFire system, and an SFF is probably not the best choice there.
(ALERT: Shuttle plans to release an ST21G5 model, which appears to have similar attributes to the current model under review, except that it's built around the NV51 chip set rather than ATI. It too has built-in DVI video out.)
CPU fans, Heat and Temp Settings
At this point, I am convinced there are no reliable temperature-reporting programs under Windows. Every monitoring program I ever saw bundled with an Athlon 64 motherboard suspiciously under-reported CPU temps. Shuttle does not even bother with this charade. Instead, the AWARD BIOS provides the standard PC Health set of temp reports and a collection of temperature settings to allow for increased CPU fan speeds at specific temp levels. (They work, by the way.) If you need to check your temps, go here as your first line of defense. Here, you should see anywhere between 35C-40C at idle, even with dual-core. These are completely normal for basic air cooling. Obviously, you can't measure temps under load through the BIOS screen.
The L-shaped CPU cooling system has a cleverly designed 92mm fan bolted to the rear of the chassis by an aluminum housing. The HSF's metal plate clamps directly onto the CPU, and a set of heatpipes funnels heat to the fan. One upgrade I think Shuttle should offer is to make this device out of copper, which is a more efficient dissipator of heat than the aluminum comprising the current unit. It makes me miss my ThermalTake XP-90C, which obviously cannot be installed in a Shuttle, and would probably save 5-6 degrees Centigrade.
I would also like to see Shuttle offer a Windows temp monitoring program - of course, an accurate one.
For Windows temp monitoring, I was ready to declare SpeedFan my current utility until I discovered that where the BIOS consistently reported temps of 38C-39C, SpeedFan reported up to a scorching 59C! Clearly, something was wrong. Was it the software? Or was I turning my precious X2 dual-core into a crispy counterpart of Intel's egg-frying Prescott processors? After running two instances of Prime95 over the weekend, each assigned by Affinity to a separate core, with no crashes or problems of any kind, and with reasonably cool air coming from the back of the chassis, I began to smell a rat. Checking the BIOS, which I have to assume is more accurate, showed the figures I've cited. The platform is pretty esoteric, so I can't blame the Italian programmer who supports SpeedFan. It's just reality. In any case, the ST20G5 appears to run Athlon dual-core CPUs at reasonable temps. I can't say it's the quietest or coolest thing I've ever seen; I have a horror or running any CPU over 55C so I set the BIOS fan speeds to a pretty unforgiving setting. It's still a lot quieter than any desktop Athlon 64 system I've built.
[EDIT] For an AMD dual-core, setting the BIOS PC Health fan settings to 45C seems to be the sweet spot. With a fully packed system like this, every slot and drive bay filled, the CPU fan stays pretty quiet most of the time.
Overclocking Notes
One thing the online forums are pretty much unanimous about is that the ST20G5 is a weak overclocker. This is partly owing to the system supporting a maximum FSB of 255, which is a hard limit and difficult to rationalize. Previous reviews noted that the system did not support more than DDR400 RAM speeds. The current 1.8 BIOS does allow adjustments of RAM speeds up to DDR500; in practice this doesn't seem to help much. The issue is that you can't set the HTT multiplier in the ST20G5 BIOS. It defaults to 5 as far as I am aware, since this is SOP for A64 mobos.
The BIOS does support a useful selection of memory dividers, including 100, 133, 166, 200, 216, 233 and 250 MHz. Since you don't have the HTT multiplier to work with, this make it more difficult to operate with higher-speed RAM. Memory settings do support 1T operation, and since there are only two DIMM slots you should never run 2T, which is the BIOS default. For better overall performance, definitely change this setting. Also, don't bother wasting your money on DDR500 memory. You're better off with low-latency DDR400 sticks. Also, this is a really good time to buy 2 GB and the ST20G5 is a good platform to run it on.
After numerous tests and juggling BIOS settings, I achieved a stable overclock of 2.3 GHz with the default DDR400 memory divider, and a 209 FSB speed. Running two instances of Prime95 over the weekend. With those settings, and the overclocked 7800 GT, I broke 16000 in 3D Mark03 (16029), hit 7600 in 3dMark05, and achieved 89,965 in AquaMark. This effectively gives me 4400+ speeds, as the 512K difference in each core's Level 2 cache appears to impose a performance penalty of 2-3% between the 4200+ and the 4400+. So it's nice to get something for nothing. Temps remained stable. Increasing the FSB to 218 from 209 caused Prime95 to quickly fail on both cores. Changing the FSB multiplier to 10X from the CPU default 11X and increasing the FSB speed to attain default CPU speed caused all tests to fail. Changing the FSB multiplier is definitely out on this platform.
The next step was to change the memory divider to 166 MHz, and increase the FSB to 218 MHz to reach 2.397 GHz. Basically, 4600+ speeds with a slight hit to memory performance. No problems booting or running normal productivity apps. Temps remained rock solid based on BIOS readings. So far so good. Unfortunately, Prime95 failed after several minutes. Disabling Spread Spectrum (a feature for which I have yet to find a coherent functional description) had no effect. I also was reluctant to increase the CPU voltage beyond the defaults, owing to the uncertainties in heat management.
Ultimately the 2.3 GHz overclock was the best I could do. This may be CPU-bound rather than system-bound, but there are no guarantees in life.
[EDIT] I think the thing that really hurts is not being able to set the HTT multiplier to 4. I cannot understand why this setting isn't in the BIOS.
However, the video card was a diferent story. My final results with a 2.3 GHz CPU speed and a 485 MHz/1185 MHz 7800 GT setting gave the following:
3dMark03: 16,670
3dMark05: 8064
AquaMark3: 89.9K
Prime stable: weekend
PDF test: 10 seconds (Pentium 4 system 18 seconds)
Conclusions
For a first foray into the SFF cabal, I am extremely pleased with the ST20G5. It really helps to be experienced when you start digging into this type of platform. Assembly is strikingly easy, but there are wrinkles. Because Shuttle has stuck with the ST20G5 platform to the extent of consistently updating the BIOS, a lot of my fears about cutting over to that system proved unfounded. Performance is excellent even with the limited scope for overclocking, which frankly is not a big criterion for success in my book. The biggest considerations for any hobbyist building a system should be: drivers that work, BIOS update support, compatibility with industry-standard components, and seamless operation under Windows. In all of these areas the Shuttle ST20G5 delivers. In fact, if I ever do another Intel build I will definitely consider another Shuttle bare-bones system. Perhaps after Conroe comes out.
The best piece of advice regarding Shuttle systems, based on my experience, is to wait awhile before buying a newly released system. After reading many forums and scouring the Net for Shuttle SFF reviews, it seems that Shuttle has a habit of releasing platforms before they're fully baked. If I had bought an ST20G5 in April of 2005, I'm sure I would have had a more difficult time. For example, after the ST21G5 comes out, wait a few BIOS releases or track the forums before buying.
If you plan to use an internal DVD burner, make sure it isn't a Sony. Also, since Shuttle seems to have a rep for quality control issues, try to get an extended warranty from your reseller. This drives up the cost but provides some peace of mind.
Otherwise, this little thing may be the best PC I've ever built. Frankly, I never expected to draw that conclusion.
***After a month or so burning the rig in and running my normal mix of tasks and media on it, I am absolutely delighted with this thing. Not a single crash or glitch. I also upgraded to 2 GB of low-latency OCZ RAM and the system feels silky smooth in everything I've tried, including large thumbnail displays of folders containing hundreds of bitmap images, simultaneous burning of discs and normal system use along with audio playing, the system has been rock solid (knock on wood) and silky smooth. It is by no means a high-end machine compared to the current state-of-the-art. However, refreshing the RAM and having the 7800GT will probably hold me for a couple years until my next system build, which will probably be a SFF system with a Conroe processor (or its updated equivalent).
I have not tried any games on it yet but am planning on buying Half-Life 2 very soon and giving that a run.***
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Rich Grace has built his own PCs since the 80286 days, when 1 MB of RAM was state-of-the-art and Windows barely existed. During the palmy days of Microsoft dominance, Rich made a living writing computer books, including the best-selling Using PowerPoint for Windows 3.1, Windows NT 4.0 Connectivity Guide, The Benchmark Book, Linux To Go, and numerous other titles. He also published well over 100 magazine articles for publications like InfoWorld, Network World, MacHome, MicroTimes, and Windows World. He now spends his time exploring routing protocols and security architectures as a technical writer in Silicon Valley, and lives in the Russian River country of Sonoma County.
PROS:
Recent BIOS updates provide enhanced stability and driver support,
including compatibility with AMD Socket 939 dual-core CPUs (requires AMD driver)
Good product bundle, including generous drive cable collection
Good design quality
ULI Southbridge
Efficient buildout (for the most part)
Single 32-bit PCI and single PCI-E 16X slot
System works with NVidia video cards
Elimination of obsolete serial and parallel ports provides an efficient rear panel
DirectX 9.0-compatible DVI video-out comes standard
Bundled 6-pin SLI power connector
Good overall system performance and Windows compatibility
Good sound quality when drivers can be made to work
Good Ethernet driver
Compatible with single-slot NVidia video vards with current BIOS
CONS:
Some optical drives (Sony in particular) may not fit behind front bezel
Difficult optical disc ejection mechanism
CPU heatsink/fan assembly is inefficient and may promote excessive heat
Can accommodate only a single-slot PCI-E video card
Not a great overclocker
Typically poor documentation
-------------------------------------------------
Small-form factor (SFF) computer systems are a largely cultish realm for the computer enthusiast. Most advanced users opt for mini-tower or
full tower chassis that accommodate the standard ATX form factor motherboard and a large collection of drives. Systems of this type can be modified in ways limited only by the owner's imagination and by their tool-handling skills. One downside to using them is the desktop space factor. Another is time. Yet another is gross consumption of power. Perhaps the biggest issue is noise. Get three or four extra fans going in a self-built system and your computer room may start sounding like the takeoff lane at Kennedy Airport.
For my part, the biggest problem with desktop ATX motherboards is their terrible driver support. Too many motherboards boast two Gigabit Ethernet ports, built-in 7.1 sound, and even wireless support. The problem is that when you get these boards home and install Windows on them, those integrated peripherals that you think are going to save you money wind up being a complete rip-off. I've had several boards from different manufacturers whose drivers never worked on new installations for either Ethernet or audio. I feel this is one of the dirty unspoken secrets of the PC parts industry, and it's a big reason why I turned to an SFF as a possible solution.
While the available SFF systems don't have the tight integration of, say, a Mac Mini, many SFFs from Aspire and Shuttle resemble something that could be carried around. Roughly the size of a lunchbox, say. A system of this type imposes tradeoffs. If you're lucky, you'll have all of two expansion slots, but often only one is proffered. (Shuttle does offer an SLI-based SFF.) Two internal drives, one hard disc and one optical, are the norm. Also, no space for after-market CPU cooling, and little scope for modding of any kind.
Shuttle's XPC-branded SFF product line is the prototype. It encompasses the current CPU lines from Intel and AMD. A recent release is the ST20G5, which has an unusual collection of specs for a small-form-factor barebones system:
ATI Radeon XPress 200 chip set with DVI-Out (R480 Northbridge)
ULI M1573 Southbridge chip
1 PCI-E X16 slot
1 33MHz PCI Slot
2 184-pin DDR400 DIMM slots
2 SATA1 Ports
DRAM 100 MHz to 250 MHz with BIOS update
HTT to 255
This barebones system came out around the beginning of 2005, meeting with mixed reviews due to poorly implemented BIOS versions, lack of high-speed RAM support and buggy PCI-E support. However, I was willing to take a chance, having seen recent BIOS updates on Shuttle's site. Armed with an Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1 GB of OCZ PC4000 RAM, an eVGA 7800GT PCI-E video card, D-Link PCI 802.11G wireless card, and the usual SATA drives and DVD burners, I decided to take one more shot at a self-built system before giving up and buying a Dell. It came down to either the ST20G5 or Shuttle's SN25G model, which offered the PCI-E slot and a desirable NVidia NF4 chipset, but no 32-bit PCI slot. I really needed that wireless PCI card.
This is what I found.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
First, I was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of the ST20G5 system's design. The drive cage pulls up and out with a light tug. Installed cables are well organized with plastic ties routing along the chassis. The motherboard is about the size of a paperback book. The overall fit and finish is probably better than you normally encounter from Taiwanese-built barebones systems.
Popping in the CPU could not have been easier. The L-shapped heatpipe/heatsink combo is logically fitted and snaps right back into place after you put on the thermal grease. (More about the CPU cooling system later.) The RAM slots rest directly under the power supply, which can pose a heat problem and are a bit cramped for installation. Those fat Corsair DIMMs with LED readouts that some of us have are definitely out. My jacketed OCZ DIMMs fit fine if a bit tightly.
The ST20G5 supports two SATA1 channels and one IDE drive channel; since I had no desire to install a floppy drive for Windows SATA installation, I opted for a 250GB IDE drive. Therefore I cannot speak to the ST20G5's RAID support, which I heard is buggy in earlier versions. Shuttle bundles every cable you could possibly need for the system, including a 6-pin SLI video card power adapter, which I'll get to later. Shuttle's ribbon drive cables are neatly wrapped and designed for reasonable routing around obstructions.
The first problem I encountered involved installing a Sony DVD burner. It turns out that Shuttle's XPC front bezel for its top 5 1/4" drive bay is not physically compatible with Sony optical drives. The disc tray jams against the bezel and cannot open. Unfortunately, I can't attest to any other drives' functioning here, such as NEC, Plextor, Pioneer and others; Shuttle does market its own branded DVD burners and I suggest getting one when you buy an XPC barebone. I do suspect other drives may work and I will get around to trying one out some time. A USB external drive cage took care of the problem.
[EDIT]Any generic DVD or CD burner should work fine, as long as it's not a Sony. I installed an NEC ND-3550A dual-layer burner and it works fine with the front bezel. Shuttle's ejection mechanism, however, is almost laughably bad. This L-shaped oblique-pressure lever thingy is very strangely designed, and just barely works after a lot of tweaking.
When you buy any XPC system and do the system buildout, once you install Windows (or even before), make sure to update the BIOS to the latest version on Shuttle's Website. The current one for the ST20G5 is 1.8, and was posted in December 2005. I installed this first thing (using WinFlash, after a Windows installation) and highly recommend it. It is the key to a successful ST20G5 experience (and no doubt is true for other Shuttle models as well). Amazingly, the installed BIOS in the system I bought from Fry's (with a three-year extended warranty) was 1.5. Needless to say, that did not last long.
Installing a modern PCI-E video card and a card in the 32-bit PCI slot means that both cards' retention brackets will stack over each other in the Shuttle unit. This threatened to wreck my installation (I NEEDED both those cards) but the retention bracket worked perfectly with minor manual adjustments.
Others in online forums report problems with BIOS 1.8 (Sudhian, Anandtech) and seem to have a preference for BIOS version 1.6 on the ST20G5. My experience is different and not necessarily representative, but I'll draw conclusions later.
Docs, Discs and Drivers
Shuttle's disc and docs package is pretty much what I expect from a Taiwanese manufacturer for whom accurate, informative and readable docs are not a priority. The Shuttle installation manual is fine if a bit sketchy on some details; the motherboard manual is just about useless for BIOS settings information or anything else except the basics.
Don't expect a lot of handholding online either; Shuttle's rep for support is spotty at best. That is one reason I was concerned about the product and adequate BIOS and driver support. The driver CD is nothing special, either.
Until I began installing drivers, I wasn't that impressed. Nevertheless, for the first time on a Taiwanese motherboard, I got the built-in Ethernet port to activate immediately. Rock-stable under Windows, it saw the DHCP Offer packets from the enterprise server, auto-configured on the network, and I was good to go. The 32-bit PCI slot also worked flawlessly with my D-Link PCI 802.11g card. So networking was solved within five minutes. I started to become much more impressed with the ST20G5.
Installing and getting the sound support to work took longer. After three silent attempts, I got desperate and started the Windows Troubleshooter utility from the Control Panel. With the Shuttle driver CD still in the drive, the troubleshooting utility finally forced the sound drivers into the correct settings in the Windows Registry (at least that's what I think it was) and the darn thing started singing like a canary. It has worked flawlessly ever since. The sound is high-def 7.1 192-bit audio capable but is not hardware-accelerated; the CPU performs all the work (and now the choice of the dual-core CPU became even more fortunate). Based on reviews I've seen, the CPU load is between 8-14% on a single-core. From purely subjective criteria (my ears) sound support is very good for this class of system. The fact that it actually works without resorting to an add-in card to eat up that precious slot is a rarity (in my experience) for a Taiwanese-made system board.
On some online forums, users have complained about the poor audio quality of the front ports on the ST20G5 chassis. Shuttle uses a proprietary cable interface for their sound ports; I must have a) gotten lucky with one; or b) they've finally fixed that issue. The audio out is working fine, with no hissing or crackling. The bundled software is nothing special but OK to play around with. I'm just grateful to have working built-in audio.
One audio-related annoyance is the non-standard fascia coloring for the audio ports in the rear of the unit. I do not understand why five different audio ports, each with markedly different functions, must all be colored the same shade of green.
DVI Video and PCI-E
The built-in video is what separates the ST20G5 from much of its Shuttle brethren. What this means in practice is that you can plug in that high-end flat-panel monitor (you know, the one that gives a terrible analog signal) and start doing real work with the system without having to buy a separate video card. The built-in DVI port produces a lovely, clear, crisp digital image. An analog VGA interface is also provided; dual-monitor support (one DVI, one analog) works fine.
You can assign up to 128 MB of shared memory to act as a frame buffer with the internal video, or as little as 16 MB. As is true for any IGP, this impacts the amount of memory available for the OS and for applications. For any 2D productivity work, the ST20G5's internal video is more than adequate, particularly when you can buy a video splitter cable and run two displays off that single port. Shuttle also advertises a SurroundView feature that allows up to four monitors to be hung off a single ST20G5 system (using an additional video card). More on this point later.
Previous reviewers of the ST20G5 (particularly HardOCP.com) reported big problems installing anything other than an ATI video card. Apparently, early versions of the BIOS did not disable the on-board video when you plugged in a NVidia-based PCI-E video card, leading to all kinds of hair-pulling. This and other issues with the ATI Radeon XPress 200 chip set indicated that NVidia cards could not be made to work with the ST20G5.
At least with the current 1.8 BIOS, that is decisively no longer the case. Installation of the highest-end single-slot video card available, an eVGA 7800GT, worked flawlessly on the ST20G5. This was contrary to every substantive review I'd read of this unit--but those were all written many months ago.
Simple Video Benchmarks
Frankly, I'm not a benchmark hound - I don't build systems just to get the fastest 3DMark scores. They are, however, a set of simple-to-run benchmarks that everyone can relate to as a basis for comparison. Because I'm lazy and don't want to bother running complex performance analysis in what is admittedly a piece I'm not getting paid for, I've just chosen the current versions of 3DMark03 and 3DMark05, and the straightforward AquaMark program to indicate the speed of graphics support for this system. I also use two instances of the Prime95 program to test system stability. Finally, I compared the system's ability to produce a PDF file in Acrobat 6.0 from a 450K Word document with several screen-cap graphics against the 3 GHz Prescott Pentium 4 on my work desktop.
Running the 7800GT at default settings, with no CPU overclocking, the Shuttle produced 15,600 in 3DMark03 and 7160 in 3DMark05, and an 85K in AquaMark 3. These numbers are right in line for default 7800GTs in higher-end systems. No blue screens, no white screens, no crashes. No problems at all. OK, it's not an SLI system wth dual 7800GTX 512MB video cards, but for an SFF this is quite solid. With judicious case modding (i.e. chopping a hole in the side of the chassis with a Dremel, which I've been known to do before), even double-wide cards could be made to work, providing an additional speed boost. However, performance-wise, this is the best system I have ever built. Since I'm not a gamer, this is everything I could ask for. The overclocking is even better (see below).
With a fresh installation of Windows, a current BIOS, current video drivers, and intelligently chosen components, you should have no trouble at all with any ATI or NVidia video card in the ST20G5. Kudos to Shuttle for addressing this problem. Kudos also for providing the badly needed 6-pin SLI power connector; upon installing the 7800GT I discovered this was a necessity. Shuttle saved me a frenzied run to Fry's to get that item.
In case you are insane enough to want to hook up four monitors to your system, you will not be able to run SurroundView if you install a NVidia-based PCI-E card. Doing so automatically disables the IGP (analog and digital) and the BIOS settings for SurroundView. (This seems to be a workaround to allow NVidia compatibility with the system.) For the four-screen application, a single-slot ATI card with dual-DVI output is necessary, along with the video splitter for the IGP DVI port. However, as the 7800GT is faster than anything in the same class from ATI, and provides dual-DVI itself, I can live with that outcome.
Of course, if you're crazy enough to do that, you are probably going to build an SLI or CrossFire system, and an SFF is probably not the best choice there.
(ALERT: Shuttle plans to release an ST21G5 model, which appears to have similar attributes to the current model under review, except that it's built around the NV51 chip set rather than ATI. It too has built-in DVI video out.)
CPU fans, Heat and Temp Settings
At this point, I am convinced there are no reliable temperature-reporting programs under Windows. Every monitoring program I ever saw bundled with an Athlon 64 motherboard suspiciously under-reported CPU temps. Shuttle does not even bother with this charade. Instead, the AWARD BIOS provides the standard PC Health set of temp reports and a collection of temperature settings to allow for increased CPU fan speeds at specific temp levels. (They work, by the way.) If you need to check your temps, go here as your first line of defense. Here, you should see anywhere between 35C-40C at idle, even with dual-core. These are completely normal for basic air cooling. Obviously, you can't measure temps under load through the BIOS screen.
The L-shaped CPU cooling system has a cleverly designed 92mm fan bolted to the rear of the chassis by an aluminum housing. The HSF's metal plate clamps directly onto the CPU, and a set of heatpipes funnels heat to the fan. One upgrade I think Shuttle should offer is to make this device out of copper, which is a more efficient dissipator of heat than the aluminum comprising the current unit. It makes me miss my ThermalTake XP-90C, which obviously cannot be installed in a Shuttle, and would probably save 5-6 degrees Centigrade.
I would also like to see Shuttle offer a Windows temp monitoring program - of course, an accurate one.
For Windows temp monitoring, I was ready to declare SpeedFan my current utility until I discovered that where the BIOS consistently reported temps of 38C-39C, SpeedFan reported up to a scorching 59C! Clearly, something was wrong. Was it the software? Or was I turning my precious X2 dual-core into a crispy counterpart of Intel's egg-frying Prescott processors? After running two instances of Prime95 over the weekend, each assigned by Affinity to a separate core, with no crashes or problems of any kind, and with reasonably cool air coming from the back of the chassis, I began to smell a rat. Checking the BIOS, which I have to assume is more accurate, showed the figures I've cited. The platform is pretty esoteric, so I can't blame the Italian programmer who supports SpeedFan. It's just reality. In any case, the ST20G5 appears to run Athlon dual-core CPUs at reasonable temps. I can't say it's the quietest or coolest thing I've ever seen; I have a horror or running any CPU over 55C so I set the BIOS fan speeds to a pretty unforgiving setting. It's still a lot quieter than any desktop Athlon 64 system I've built.
[EDIT] For an AMD dual-core, setting the BIOS PC Health fan settings to 45C seems to be the sweet spot. With a fully packed system like this, every slot and drive bay filled, the CPU fan stays pretty quiet most of the time.
Overclocking Notes
One thing the online forums are pretty much unanimous about is that the ST20G5 is a weak overclocker. This is partly owing to the system supporting a maximum FSB of 255, which is a hard limit and difficult to rationalize. Previous reviews noted that the system did not support more than DDR400 RAM speeds. The current 1.8 BIOS does allow adjustments of RAM speeds up to DDR500; in practice this doesn't seem to help much. The issue is that you can't set the HTT multiplier in the ST20G5 BIOS. It defaults to 5 as far as I am aware, since this is SOP for A64 mobos.
The BIOS does support a useful selection of memory dividers, including 100, 133, 166, 200, 216, 233 and 250 MHz. Since you don't have the HTT multiplier to work with, this make it more difficult to operate with higher-speed RAM. Memory settings do support 1T operation, and since there are only two DIMM slots you should never run 2T, which is the BIOS default. For better overall performance, definitely change this setting. Also, don't bother wasting your money on DDR500 memory. You're better off with low-latency DDR400 sticks. Also, this is a really good time to buy 2 GB and the ST20G5 is a good platform to run it on.
After numerous tests and juggling BIOS settings, I achieved a stable overclock of 2.3 GHz with the default DDR400 memory divider, and a 209 FSB speed. Running two instances of Prime95 over the weekend. With those settings, and the overclocked 7800 GT, I broke 16000 in 3D Mark03 (16029), hit 7600 in 3dMark05, and achieved 89,965 in AquaMark. This effectively gives me 4400+ speeds, as the 512K difference in each core's Level 2 cache appears to impose a performance penalty of 2-3% between the 4200+ and the 4400+. So it's nice to get something for nothing. Temps remained stable. Increasing the FSB to 218 from 209 caused Prime95 to quickly fail on both cores. Changing the FSB multiplier to 10X from the CPU default 11X and increasing the FSB speed to attain default CPU speed caused all tests to fail. Changing the FSB multiplier is definitely out on this platform.
The next step was to change the memory divider to 166 MHz, and increase the FSB to 218 MHz to reach 2.397 GHz. Basically, 4600+ speeds with a slight hit to memory performance. No problems booting or running normal productivity apps. Temps remained rock solid based on BIOS readings. So far so good. Unfortunately, Prime95 failed after several minutes. Disabling Spread Spectrum (a feature for which I have yet to find a coherent functional description) had no effect. I also was reluctant to increase the CPU voltage beyond the defaults, owing to the uncertainties in heat management.
Ultimately the 2.3 GHz overclock was the best I could do. This may be CPU-bound rather than system-bound, but there are no guarantees in life.
[EDIT] I think the thing that really hurts is not being able to set the HTT multiplier to 4. I cannot understand why this setting isn't in the BIOS.
However, the video card was a diferent story. My final results with a 2.3 GHz CPU speed and a 485 MHz/1185 MHz 7800 GT setting gave the following:
3dMark03: 16,670
3dMark05: 8064
AquaMark3: 89.9K
Prime stable: weekend
PDF test: 10 seconds (Pentium 4 system 18 seconds)
Conclusions
For a first foray into the SFF cabal, I am extremely pleased with the ST20G5. It really helps to be experienced when you start digging into this type of platform. Assembly is strikingly easy, but there are wrinkles. Because Shuttle has stuck with the ST20G5 platform to the extent of consistently updating the BIOS, a lot of my fears about cutting over to that system proved unfounded. Performance is excellent even with the limited scope for overclocking, which frankly is not a big criterion for success in my book. The biggest considerations for any hobbyist building a system should be: drivers that work, BIOS update support, compatibility with industry-standard components, and seamless operation under Windows. In all of these areas the Shuttle ST20G5 delivers. In fact, if I ever do another Intel build I will definitely consider another Shuttle bare-bones system. Perhaps after Conroe comes out.
The best piece of advice regarding Shuttle systems, based on my experience, is to wait awhile before buying a newly released system. After reading many forums and scouring the Net for Shuttle SFF reviews, it seems that Shuttle has a habit of releasing platforms before they're fully baked. If I had bought an ST20G5 in April of 2005, I'm sure I would have had a more difficult time. For example, after the ST21G5 comes out, wait a few BIOS releases or track the forums before buying.
If you plan to use an internal DVD burner, make sure it isn't a Sony. Also, since Shuttle seems to have a rep for quality control issues, try to get an extended warranty from your reseller. This drives up the cost but provides some peace of mind.
Otherwise, this little thing may be the best PC I've ever built. Frankly, I never expected to draw that conclusion.
***After a month or so burning the rig in and running my normal mix of tasks and media on it, I am absolutely delighted with this thing. Not a single crash or glitch. I also upgraded to 2 GB of low-latency OCZ RAM and the system feels silky smooth in everything I've tried, including large thumbnail displays of folders containing hundreds of bitmap images, simultaneous burning of discs and normal system use along with audio playing, the system has been rock solid (knock on wood) and silky smooth. It is by no means a high-end machine compared to the current state-of-the-art. However, refreshing the RAM and having the 7800GT will probably hold me for a couple years until my next system build, which will probably be a SFF system with a Conroe processor (or its updated equivalent).
I have not tried any games on it yet but am planning on buying Half-Life 2 very soon and giving that a run.***
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Rich Grace has built his own PCs since the 80286 days, when 1 MB of RAM was state-of-the-art and Windows barely existed. During the palmy days of Microsoft dominance, Rich made a living writing computer books, including the best-selling Using PowerPoint for Windows 3.1, Windows NT 4.0 Connectivity Guide, The Benchmark Book, Linux To Go, and numerous other titles. He also published well over 100 magazine articles for publications like InfoWorld, Network World, MacHome, MicroTimes, and Windows World. He now spends his time exploring routing protocols and security architectures as a technical writer in Silicon Valley, and lives in the Russian River country of Sonoma County.
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