Having trouble squeezing those last few mhz out of your video card? Got a windowed case with some
cool CCFL’s making the innards glow but still feel like something is missing? Vantec may have
exactly what your looking for, to solve both of these dilemmas…the iCEBERQ 4.

Most of you have at least heard of Vantec. Their Stealth and Tornado
case fans have become somewhat legendary albeit for completely opposite reasons.
The Stealth for being all but completely silent while still pushing a decent
amount of air compared to other quiet fans. The Tornado on the other hand,
pushes an insane amount of air but with just a few of them in your rig can
quickly lead to vacuum cleaner sound levels. Vantec also has lines of CPU coolers,
memory DIMM coolers, even laptop coolers, and soon they will have their very own line
of computer cases.

Today, however we’re going to take a look at Vantec’s iCEBERQ 4 GPU cooler. The heat sink
itself is made entirely from copper so it should be a step up from the
stock cooler that came on your card and with it’s two cool-blue LED’s located within
the fan mechanism it should put a sweet-ass glow down by your PCI cards.

Here are the specs off Vantec’s web site as well as the back of the retail
package…

Overview

We’ll start off with the packaging. The box was nice enough…

The window in the front gives you a sneek peak at the slick looks of the cooler inside. The
contents of the package are listed on the side…

This seems simple but it’s pretty handy if you happen to be buying this
product from a retail store such as Comp USA or Fry’s. Sometimes a plain-jane
word list doesn’t give you a clear idea of what your actually getting. In
the pic below you can see that the plastic molding in the box keeps all the
accessories separate and safe.

Below I have removed everything from the plastic molding to show you all the individual components…

In the top left hand of the picture you can see the 3 to 4 pin converter
in case you don’t have any open fan headers on your motherboard.
In the middle is the cooler itself with the included Vantec brand thermal paste just beneath
it. On the bottom we have the four memory chip heat sinks, and in the plastic bag are four
push-pins used to secure the cooler to the card. You’ll actually only need two of
these but little plastic things tend to break easily so it’s nice to see that Vantec has you
covered. Also in the bag are four pieces of thermal tape that you can use to adhere the four
memory heat sinks. This brings me to one of my few gripes about this product, well actually
just the accessories, and that is that most cards have 8 memory chips. Keep in mind though that
this is a small
complaint because mainly when you buy this thing your not buying it for the memory heat sinks,
your buying it for the GPU cooler.

Lastly we have the super-detailed instructions that show you how to install the cooler… sort of.

To be fair there really isn’t a whole lot to installing this thing so the
fact that these directions are of little to no help really doesn’t matter
as long as you exercise caution and use some common sense.

Installation

Here’s what we are starting out with today. Don’t mind the odd colors on the card, the guy who I
bought this from thought it would be neat to paint this thing like a friggin’ clown. The cooler
that’s on it here is actually a BFG cooler and not the stock cooler that comes with the card. I think
though, that this is merely a stock cooler off a different card so it’s nothing fantastic at any rate.

One awesome thing I noticed almost
immediately after taking the iCEBERQ 4 out of it’s package was the mirror-like finish on the contact
side…

The smoother the finish on your heat sink the better the contact between
it and the GPU, which of course translates into better heat dissipation. I used the thermal tape
that was included to adhere the 4 memory heat sinks…

Once all four were attached it looked pretty damn good, too bad there weren’t four for the other side…

Next I installed the GPU cooler itself and I thought I was S.O.L., check out the pic below to see what
I mean…

As you can see the cooler hangs over the gold AGP connectors which would obviously prevent me from properly
installing the card. Duh, it turns out you have to install it with the words facing the other way. So
once I had it turned around, and I used some of the old memory heatsinks I had for the other chips I was
left with this…

Once it was installed I got to see the blue LED’s light up the PCI card area as shown below…

Testing and Conclusion

The test setup is as follows…

• P4 2.4c stock clock
• Abit IC7 motherboard
• Sapphire ATI 9600XT
• Corsair PC3200 XMS RAM
• Chieftec Dragon style case
• 2x intake 80mm
• 2x exhaust 80mm
• 1x 90mm fan on Zalman PCI bracket

To test I used a Computer Nurse CPU Thermometer model number ETM-2006. I
placed the sensor on the back of the card directly opposite where the GPU
sits on the other side. I started by testing the stock cooler that I already
had in place. To test I let 3DMark03, a graphics benchmarking suite, loop for an hour.
This pushes the graphics card pretty much as far as it will go and therefore gets the
temps as high as possible. The ambient temp in the case was 27 degrees Celsius, I tried
to maintain the room temp throughout testing so that the case temp wouldn’t change too much.

As you can see the iCEBERQ cooler has lower temps all around. The difference of course is most
important when looking at the overclocking potential because I’m guessing most of you out
there who would even bother to upgrade your
video card’s cooling are doing it to get a better OC. This leads directly to the next area of
interest which of course would be the overclocking results. I used a program called ATI Tool to
overclock the card and 3DMark03 to test for stability.

As indicated in the above chart, the iCEBERQ 4 allows for an extra 17mhz on the core and 4mhz on
the memory. The core advantage is decent for such a minor upgrade and though the added memory performance
is close to negligible I really wasn’t expecting much. Mainly the reason for my low memory expectations is
that although I changed four of the memory heat sinks the other four were the same ones I started out with.

Conclusion

Pro’s:

• Cool Blue LED’s
• Quality construction
• Excellent Mirror-like finish
• Cools like it should

Con’s:

• Only 4 heat sinks
• Cheesy unhelpful instructions.

Overall I was very pleased with Vantec’s iCEBERQ 4. Besides the shortage on memory heatsinks, and the
useless instruction sheet everything was great. Anyone looking to upgrade their graphics card’s cooling
solution for a fair price would probably be hard pressed to find something better. If you want, you can
check out Vantec’s Website or SVC
where this unit was purchased.

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The Super Flower TT-350SS was a bit of a shock. Literally. I got as far as installing the PSU and
taking rail values at 5V and 12V, then after getting distracted from the review and giving it time
to run and observe it’s performance, my computer exploded.

The EPoX I was running at the time (highly overclocked) blew a chip and took the Super Flower down
with it. Could it have been the fault of the PSU? Possibly, but the mainboard was under great stress
for a long period of time.

Thus, I leave you with my voltage tests, some screenshots, and this sad story.

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Ahanix iMon Review – Introduction

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of receiving a great piece of hardware from a friendly gentleman
over at Digiconcepts. The item in
mention is the Ahanix iMon Universal IR Remote Control System, or in other words, a remote control
for your PC.

Now, if you read around here at Fury-Tech you’ll find pretty quickly that I don’t make a habit of
wasting your time plugging every company under the sun. But on the same token, when I see a deal, I’ll
tell you! Fortunately for me, the same folks that provided the iMon for this review happen to have
the best price I can find on this killer unit. Digiconcepts
has a $5 mail-in rebate which would bring the price to $58.89 USD (as of 04/01/04). So if you
like the looks of this as much as I enjoyed actually using it, click on the DIGICONCEPTS banner above
before these guys sell all of them!

Anyway, let’s get on with this review before you strangle me!

Ahanix Corporation is a California based company distributing PC cases in North America. While
self-declared case and enclosure distributors, they also offer a range of cooling products,
multimedia PCs, power supplies, and more.

The iMon Universal IR Remote Control System (or just iMon, for short), fits right into Ahanix’s product
line by offering a powerful and friendly way to turn your PC into a real multimedia machine. The iMon
system is comprised of a universal remote, complete with joystick, and the iMon Station, which is
the receptor for the remote and allows you to communicate with the PC wirelessly.

Let’s get started by having a look at exactly what you’re getting with the Ahanix iMon Universal IR
Remote Control System.

Ahanix iMon Review – Overview

Taken directly from Ahanix’s web site, the requirements for the iMon are pretty straight-forward.
You shouldn’t have a problem using the iMon on any recent machine. As you can see the iMon is
designed for Windows users exclusively, as there is no indication of software designed for OS X or
Linux.

You should never judge a book by its cover, but while a package doesn’t define performance, it does
define an image for the manufacturer/distributor. The iMon package looks more than decent, it’s sturdy
enough to take a beating during shipping, and it has a decent amount of information on the outside to
learn a bit about the product.

The package includes the following items:

• Remote Control
• Irda Receiver
• CD-ROM
• Quick-start Guide
• Batteries

Obviously we get the iMon remote control itself, the receiver (which reminds me eerily of The Terminator’s
glowing red eyes), a CD-ROM containing the manual and software, a quick-start guide, and two AA batteries. In case you
didn’t catch that, let me clarify. Ahanix doesn’t include a printed manual for us, instead opting to
stick it on the CD. Not a big deal, but it would have been a nice touch. The small piece of paper
you see is the iMon Installation Guide, which is a small card with a brief description of the installation
process.

The lack of a physical manual is made up for when we get our hands on the RC. The remote looks pretty
much identical to a standard universal remote, with the exception of a few things. The joystick in
the center is certainly unique to this device, and a small but exceptional addition is the little
“hump” on the bottom of the remote. This nestles in quite comfortably by your index finger and
lets you get a nice solid grip on the device.

Ahanix describes the following features list for the iMon:

• Perfect Control of popular music, DVD, Movie Players using a remote controller
• Powerful Mouse Functions of moving mouse cursor as smooth and precise as real mouse
• Stylish Cool Design of iMON Station according to the variable computer situations
• Convenient Setup and Use of iMON RSC through automatic setup wizard of the application hot-key setting
• Maximize of the remote controller button use by generating different hot-keys with the same remote controller button under different applications
• “Application Launcher” for the immediate load of the application
• “Task Switcher” for the switching in the loaded applications
• “Monitor Resolution Changer” for immediate monitor resolution changing by remote controller
• “All-time Control Window” for control of one application regardless of the current active state
• MACRO for setting and execution of the complicated command like Log In, Composition work of mouse and keyboard, and so on
• Additional convenient functions like PC Power OFF, Screen Saver Activation, Sleep, Alarm and so on
• Wireless Controlling of PowerPoint Presentation using a remote controller
• Excellent IR signal receiving sensitivity up to 15 meter distance and 45ĄĆ angle in any direction
• Use of ANY general House Appliance Remote Controller with iMON through the remote controller registration and setup wizard
• Automatic Search and Setup Functions of popular multimedia S/W
• On Screen Display of volumes, timer info, etc for convenience control of PC
• More Multimedia Applications can be registered and set by the user custom setting

These are all fairly self explanatory so I won’t waste your time repeating them. One thing worth noting,
however, is that you can actually use any universal remote controller with the iMon software and receiver.
Why you would want to do that is beyond me, but I suppose if you ever tire of the iMon RC you can find
one more suited to your needs.

The iMon sports a lot of Windows-specific features that let you control your desktop, applications,
browsing, etc. A lot of us will be purchasing this device for their Home Theater PC (HTPC) though,
so let’s see what the iMon layout looks like in a little more detail.

At the top of the remote we find the obligatory bright red power button, and we also have a button
labelled Application Exit, which is fairly self explanatory. The screen saver button
will start your screen saver, and the timer button starts the iMon Timer application.

Next we see a numeric keypad, which serves a few purposes. We can assign quick text strings to these
buttons for instant keyboard input, and we can also use them along with the Virtual Keyboard to speed
up text input. More on these in a minute.

Directly beneath the keypad we have a Desktop button which will minimize all of your open
applications to the taskbar. To the other side, the Max/Res button will maximize and restore
your current window.

Here are a few more OS specific buttons below the keypad as well. Esc (escape), a Windows
key supplement, a menubar button, the iMon Application Launcher button, the iMon All-Time
Control Window button, and finally a button for the iMon Task Switcher.

In the very center of the remote we have a contoured joystick, as well as buttons for keyboard/mouse
selection, right/left mouse clicks, tab, shift-tab, and forward and back key.

Mute, Vol +, and Vol - are located right above the Application section
of the remote.

The last of the buttons are located in the Application section of the remote, and provide
common media control buttons, including a button for fullsize video viewing. These buttons are not
limited to media control though, and when assigned to another application you use each of these buttons
for a purpose differing from what they are labelled as.

The iMon Station is unique, it looks exactly like HAL 9000’s eye, from the
film 2001: A Space Odyssey. When you press a button on the remote, two alternating red LEDs
flash from within.

The station has a small stand that you can rest it on, as shown in the picture. Unfortunately the
stand has a small peg which the “eye” rests on, but it does not make a solid connection. The station
comes with a piece of double-sided tape for positioning the unit, and I could imagine sticking it under
a shelf or your desk to get it out of the way. However, it will fall right off the base without some
other method of securing it.

This could make for a fun case mod if you found the right use for it, though! Now that
we have an idea of what to expect, let’s move on to installation and get this puppy running!

Ahanix iMon Review – Installation & Setup

Installation of the iMon is fairly straight-forward. The card we find in the box explains the
three basic steps to installing the iMon.

The first step is of course inserting the CD into our computer and running the auto-install process.
We do not want to plug in the iMon just yet. The installation program will start and you will be
walked through a standard installation process for the software. Once the software has been succesfully
installed, we can plug the iMon in, and (hopefully) it will detect the device and automatically
configure the proper drivers for it.

The first thing we see upon entering the CD is the Setup Manager window, which asks for you to read
the installation documentation and agree that you understand it. Once you click Start Setup you
will see the InstallShield Wizard, which will guide you through a normal application installation process.
As soon as the installation completes succesfully, you will be asked to select your RC:

In this case, we are choosing the IMON RSC option. The installation should finish at this point and
let us know that our new iMon was succesfully installed! We can now plug the iMon into a USB port
in our PC and open the iMon icon that was created on your desktop.

This loads up the iMon Manager where we can configure our device. From here we can
opt to use a different remote control altogether, but for the purposes of this review we will of
course select the “iMON RSC” under the RC caption.

The Option button will give us access to six device-level configuration screens, shown below.

Common: Here you can configure a sound to be played when an identified or unidentified IR
signal is received. You can also set the remote to control only one application at all times.

Mouse: This screen lets you configure the mouse speed when controlled by the iMon.

Keyboard: This screen lets you configure the keyboard repeat speed when controlled by the iMon.

Timer: This screen lets provides configuration options for the timer, including alarm duration
and default sound.

Screen Resolution: Here you can configure the screen resolution(s) you use. Why? I have no idea.

Virtual Keyboard: This screen can be very handy. You can configure any of the ten numerical buttons on
the iMon to type out a character string. Some ideas might be commonly used usernames, web sites,
etc.

The configuration settings above are the most basic options for your iMon. Now we can look at the
extended configuration screen and see what this device can really do for us.

Ahanix iMon Review – Configuration

The iMon Remote Control System lets us configure more than just the supported applications. Out of
the box, the iMon is configured to handle some of the most common Windows applications, such as PowerDVD,
Windows Media Player, WinAmp, and PowerPoint.

The real power comes with configuring our own applications. Even better, an application doesn’t require
iMon or IR support, as long as you know the application’s keyboard shortcuts for the commands you
want to access we can set them up for control via the iMon Setup program. Starting with the
Program CMD tab we can begin adding and configuring whatever applications we want to.

At the top of the screen we can define new applications and remove existing applications from the
iMon setup program. You can change key/shortcut associations by selecting the respective application
and defining your shortcuts directly below.

Not only can you configure your own applications, but you can export your settings for other iMon
users! This is a great addition since you can now share your configurations with other users, and
save yourself time by using configurations that have already been created and tested.

The next tab in the iMon Setup screen is Windows CMD. This is where we configure the Windows-specific
buttons on the iMon remote.

HTPC users might not care about a lot of these, and you must disable them
in order to assign them to other programs. For your average user who wants to use the remote for
total PC control, these are best left untouched.

The Windows CMD screen doesn’t let us create new Windows-specific commands, but we can
move on to the next tab to do this: Customized Windows CMD.

The Customized Windows CMD screen is pretty straight forward. Like the Program CMD
tab we can define new associations for our iMon Windows buttons here. For even more Windows
functionality, next we see the Macro tab.

If you want to execute a series of commands via a Macro, you can create new button associations here
to do just that. Creating associations is pretty much identical to the other screens. Finally, we have
the Launcher tab.

The Application Launcher provides quick access to your favorite applications at the touch of
a button. This screen lets you define what applications you want shown when you select the application
launcher button on the iMon. When you press the Application Launcher button on the iMon, a list of
your applications is displayed as shown:

The icon on the far left launches the Virtual Keyboard, at which point you will see an on-screen
keyboard. This is basically the same as typing text into a phone, except it was a real pain to
skip to the next letter. I wouldn’t plan on writing any books with this little feature.

As you can see the iMon Setup program gives us a lot of flexibility. The iMon provides a lot of
control over your entire PC, as opposed to restricting itself to media/HTPC systems. This is great
in my opinion, because HTPC users can just disable the Windows-centric stuff and get a ton of
functionality out of the remote. The rest of us can enjoy the fact that we now have a supreme level
of control over our computers.

Realistically though, if I want to type something I’ll use my keyboard. If I want to browse the web
I will use my mouse. So what benefit does the iMon offer to normal PC users? Let’s move on and put
the iMon to some use, and see why I enjoyed using this device so much.

Ahanix iMon Review – Testing and Conclusion

Considering we can configure this device to work with nearly any application we want, it would be
unreasonable for me to tell you that it will be perfect for your needs. I tested the iMon in the
applications I will most use it for – Windows Media Player, WinAmp, PowerPoint, and Mozilla.

The iMon is a shoe-in for Windows Media Player. The Application control pad lets you play, pause, stop,
fast-forward, rewind, resize, and open media in WMP. I didn’t encounter any problems using the iMon
with WMP, even from the other end of my room (which is around 30ft. away).

The iMon was similarly useful with WinAmp. By looking up WinAmp shortcuts and adding them manually,
I was able to do most of the things I would do without the iMon. Unfortunately, since we’re limited to
configuring shortcuts, I couldn’t access any of the more advanced configuration options which did
not have keyboard shortcuts available. This isn’t necessarily a limit of the iMon, although further
support of common apps like WinAmp would be desirable.

For productivity/office applications, the iMon proved to be useful and impossible. Controlling PowerPoint
was simple, given the limited number of controls you need for an average presentation. Mozilla on the
other hand, was a different story. Browsing the web with a remote control is just not practical. It
might be cool, but it takes a lot longer to punch in an URL on the iMon than it would just typing it.
You can use a combination of the iMon and your keyboard, but that pretty much defeats the purpose
of a remote control in the first place.

One cannot complain though. Since the majority of users will be interested in playing MP3’s and AVI’s,
not browsing www.fury-tech.com, the iMon serves its purpose. It serves its purpose very well, in fact.
Not only is the device comfortable in the hand with a great range (15M), the software is easy to
use and configure, appears very stable, and gives you flexibility to customize the iMon to your
needs.

While I’m not a hardcore HTPC fanatic, I can safely say the iMon is a great piece of hardware. From
opening the package to controlling my movies, the iMon was a smooth ride that was both quick and easy.
Like any product there is always room for improvement, such as the lack of a physical manual or
extensive application-specific software, but overall Ahanix did a respectable job of delivering a
quality product.

Let’s wrap this up with one last look at the pro’s and con’s of the iMon Remote Control System.

Pros:

• Easy installation
• Highly configurable
• Quality manufacturing and design engineering
• Great range (15M)

Cons:

• No physical manual included
• The Irda stand doesn’t securely attach to the Irda
• Some application specifics cannot be configured for use if they don’t have shortcuts

Thanks again to Digiconcepts for providing the iMon
for this review. They currently have the iMon for the cheapest price I can dig up, so if you’re
looking for a sweet new RC it couldn’t hurt to visit their web site.

I hope you enjoyed this review of the AHANIX iMon Universal IR Remote Control System, and if you
have any questions, comments, criticism, or just want to say hi, we welcome you to discuss this review.

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Tired of waiting for high profile sequels like Half Life 2 and Doom 3? Need something to
justify the purchase of that shiny new video card? Well wait no more, German developer Crytek
has brought us Far Cry, a next generation title you shouldn’t overlook. Easily the best looking
game on any platform to date, Far Cry has plenty to offer in terms of graphics and gameplay.
This one is easy to recommend.

Title:	Far Cry
Distributor:	Ubi Soft
Sugg. Retail:	$39.99 USD
Supported OS:	Windows 98SE/2000/XP
Minimum Specs:	1GHz Processor 256 MB RAM 64 MB DirectX® 9.0b-compatible graphics card 4x DVD-ROM 4GB Free Space

When you install and play Far Cry the first thing you’ll notice is how absolutely beautiful this
game is. Lush green undergrowth sways in the breeze, water sparkles and shimmers as it reflects
the landscape, everywhere is a vibrant interplay of light and shadow.

The game boasts a draw
distance of 1.2 km, and takes place on a number of small tropical islands. This setup allows
you to see the entirety of whatever level you are on. At any time you can use a pair of
binoculars with various zoom settings to examine your surroundings. Being able to see massive
outdoor environments like this is not only visually impressive, it also adds realism to the
experience.

As you play through the game you’ll notice small visual details that give the game a polished
feel and help draw you further into the experience. As you walk through the jungle, light
filtering through the leaves overhead will run along the length of your gun. When not looking
through the scope of your rifle, the lens will shine with a tiny distorted reflection of the
scenery in front of you. Small touches like this add to the overall “wow” factor of the game.

You will need a high end DirectX9 compatible card to truly appreciate all this game offers, but
you will be glad of the investment.

Far Cry Review – Overview

Longer than the average shooter, it took this reviewer approximately twenty-five hours to complete
the single-player campaign. In an age when games seem to be getting shorter and shorter, it’s
refreshing to see a game with a bit more meat on its bones.

Load times are not really a problem here. The game will load between levels, but the levels are
massive and once loaded there are no pauses in the gameplay, only momentary flashes when the game
lets you know it has autosaved. These are so inobtrusive you will sometimes not even notice them.
You cannot quicksave your progress, if you die you have to load from one of these predetermined
autosave points, but the placement of these is usually pretty intelligent, and not having to worry
about constantly saving can actually be a refreshing change of pace.

The plot of the game is barely worth mentioning. You play as Jack Carver, a former special ops
soldier who quit the millitary to become a civilian sailboat captain. However, your peaceful
life is interupted by the evil machinations of a mad scientist and his army of goons, who blow
up your boat and kidnap your hottie passenger Valerie. Val comes from the Lara Croft school of
female game characters, she’s similarly physically endowed and even sports a similar “fashion
mole” on her lip. She appears in several gratuitous booty scenes, emerging dripping wet from
the surf, bathing in an island waterfall, etc… Sometimes you’ll feel as though you’re playing
an episode of Baywatch. The story takes a few predictable twists and turns, and contains some
sci-fi elements, and generally serves to put you in situations with lots of baddies to shoot at.
Action fans will be pleased to know it does this well and often. Fortunately, the game is so
pretty and so fun to play, you won’t be paying much attention to the mediocre story.

Far Cry Review – Gameplay

The gameplay in Far Cry is engaging and as detailed as the visual aspect of the game. It can be
frustrating at moments, but you’ll always be coming back for more. The weapons are all modeled
after realistic modern firearms. There are no real surprises here, but all the bases are covered.
They “feel” like real weapons when you fire them, machine guns will recoil and jump with automatic
fire, the sniper rifle will bob and weave with your breath when zoomed way out, and of course the
models are all beautiful. You can carry up to four weapons at one time, meaning you will sometimes
have to strategically pick the right gun for the right situation.

The game has a robust physics model, many objects can be affected by gunfire and explosions.
Enemies will die with satisfying “ragdoll” animations, and there are several situations where
you wil be able to roll barrels down a hillside to crush bad guys. In some cases the terrain
will deform with explosions, which is a cool effect, unfortunately this doesn’t seem to happen
most of the time. Also, it is disappointing how few obects can actually be destroyed. Trees
and buildings can take a full clip of rockets and suffer little more than a scorching.

The enemy AI is competent and well programmed. Enemies will take cover and aggressively team up
and try to flank you, issuing verbal commands to one another. The “stealth” aspect of the game
is one which could have used more work. Sometimes no matter how stealthy you try to be, enemies
will be alerted to your presence, and once one has seen you, all enemies in the area will go fully
hostile. It’s usually better to take the direct and violent approach.

There are a variety of drivable vehicles in the game, several with mounted weapons, and these are
all an absolute blast to drive. There are some fun chase sequences scattered throught the campaign,
on land, sea and air. Each vehicle has its own distinct wieght and feel. Zipping down a river
in a patrol boat feels quite different from soaring through a deep valley in a hang glider, once
again a testament to the games great use of physics.

The Multiplayer portion of the game offers endless hours of entertainment. There are several
different modes of play, including classic deathmatch and CTF, but the main draw seems to be the
assault mode. In this team based game, one team will try to capture a series of checkpoints
while the other defends. There are different character classes, similar to Half-Life’s Team
Fortress. There is a fighter who carries assault rifles and submachine guns, a sniper, and an
engineer. The engineers can drop health packs, lay mines and build structures at various
predetermined points in the level. The structures can be anything from defensive walls to gun
emplacements and towers. These can be destroyed with enough firepower, and rebuilt again,
adding an almost RTS-like give and take element to the game. A good combination of the three
classes is needed to acheive victory. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking here, and
it’s not as fast paced or fleshed out as other recent games such as Unreal Tournament 2004, but
the online game is fun, stable and is easily the best looking multiplayer shooter to date.
With the inclusion of the CryEngine Sandbox, a development tool that allows users to create
their own content, we are sure to see some great mods. The future online life of Far Cry looks
promising.

Far Cry Review – Conclusion

This game is a must play, if only for the amazing graphics. We finally have a true next
generation game, and a professional and polished one at that. It is not without its weak points,
namely the paper-thin plot and the occasionally frustrating gameplay. But these flaws are
vastly overshadowed by the creative and technical accomplishment that is Far Cry. This is a
true rival to the elusive Half-Life 2, and best of all, it’s complete and available right now.
If you have the harware to run it I highly suggest picking it up. If you don’t, perhaps it’s
time for an upgrade.

Thanks for reading today.

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The Multi-Function FAN CONTROL PANEL as it says on the lower half
of the package. Unfortunately I’m unable to discern whether or not the “User
DIY” message on the upper half is the name of the company or just a slogan.
Anyway you can see the model number at the top, ATN-TP-02E, and you can pick
it up over HERE at SVC’s
webstore. Oddly enough, if you look at that link the model number has a “-SV”
at the end of it. If you look at some of their other products made by manufacturers
such as Nexus, they often have a few letters in the model number indicating the
company’s name, i.e. “NX” for Nexus. So could it be that this is one SVC’s
own products? It’s possible…but not all that important anyway. Heheh, just
thought I’d point it out. At any rate, this thing is going to set you back about
$15 after shipping so who makes it is less important than how well did they make it,
and does it do its job.

Here are the specs copied directly from SVC’s web site…

Specs

• The panel can adjust 3 fans of speed at the same time
• Aluminum material design, suits 3.5″ bay of pc
• The panel can transfer 2 USB ports to the front panel of
  your pc
• Input 12VÄ… 10%, output 6-12VÄ… 10%; there are 10% allowance
  in each
• Max output 10 watt, each channel
• Convenient and easy installation

Well let’s jump right into this shall we. First we’ll take a look at what came in the package…

Shown above is the controller in all its shiny glory. It’s meant to be installed
in a 3.5″ external bay so naturally it’s roughly the same size as a floppy drive as far
as width and height go. The length of the two side “brackets” are a bit shorter than the
depth of a FDD however and obviously this thing is hollow/empty in the center.

The body is constructed of a lightweight aluminum but the knobs unfortunately are just cheap
plastic. It’s not that they look terrible or feel as though a good turn would snap them off, but
holding tightly and wiggling them a bit you get the feeling that your getting what you pay for (which
isn’t much), as far as knob quality goes anyway. So while the knobs don’t exude quality, I’m happy
that whatever company made this thing decided to only use plastic for the knobs and not the whole body.

The USB 2.0 ports are…well…USB 2.0 ports. They don’t scream quality either but when I was plugging
in my digital camera I didn’t feel any give, like I was going to push right through as it feels when I use
the ones on the front of my case (a knock-off of the Chieftec case in Tekime’s latest review).
More on those ports later, also included in the package were the wires and screws shown below…

The wires, from left to right, are USB, fan connectors, and power (as if the big ol’ molex connectors
didn’t give that away), and of course the four basic drive screws in the plastic bag on the bottom. And
last but not least the super-duper-all-inclusive-pimp-daddy instruction sheet seen below…

Behold it’s absolute magnificance, oooohhhh aaahhhhh, behold all it’s grammar
and spelling errors (heheh).

The back of the controller doesn’t contain anything fascinating either but items of interest do
include the various connections on the small piece of PCB shown below…

The black connection on the left with the gold colored prongs is for the USB wire, the small
white one in the middle is for the power, and the large white one on the right is for the fan
connections. So now that you’ve seen the connections on the PCB let’s check out the connectors
that go on them, first the power and fan connectors…

So as you can see nothing special with these, a positive and negative wire for the power connector,
and a positive and negative wire for each of the three fan connectors. As for the USB connector, I
thought it was pretty basic on the end that connects to the controller but on the other end rather
than give you a nice simple all-in-one deal, they decided to split all the wires up and label them
individually for those who might be using a mother board that doesn’t use the standard connections
shown below (in blue, duh)…

What this means, in case you don’t already know, is that you will have to look in your motherboard’s
manual and find out which pin is which and match them up with the individual wires and then plug them
carefully in one at a time. This can be a major PITA but it isn’t so uncommon though and I taught
myself a simple little trick to keep you from ever having to do it more than once. Simply do as I said
and look up the correct configuration in your manual and then once they are all connected use your thumb
and forefinger to pull them off all at once as though you were unplugging a single connector with many
wires. It’s important to hold it tight and not lose the exact configuration from when all the wires
were connected, now grab some scotch tape and get yourself a piece about 1 1/2″ long and carefully wrap
the wires together so that they hold the correct order. WALLAAH!!(I know that it’s spelled differently in
French like voila or something, but I’m not French so there)…

Anyways yeah, so now you don’t have to look that crap up again if you ever
have to disconnect everything from your motherboard only to hook it all back
up again shortly thereafter, which will happen sooner then you think trust
me.

The USB ports did work the way they were supposed to but I won’t be keeping
them connected for a few reasons. For one thing I don’t need to add to the
clutter of wires already residing in my case. But really I chose to disconnect
them because I can’t shut my case’s door while anything is connected like
I can with the ports located on the upper part of the intake vents on the
front of my case. Really most cases now days have USB ports on the front somewhere
so I feel that the manufacturers should have used that space for another fan
header and knob.

So let’s install this bad boy shall we. The case I am using, as I have already
mentioned, is a Chieftec Dragon style knock-off. More importantly my fan setup
in said case is as follows, 2 80mm fans in the lower front doing the intake
job, 2 80mm fans in the rear handling the exhaust, 1 90mm fan on a Zalman PCI
bracket pushing air towards my cpu, and a cheapo PSU with two fans. One of the
PSU’s fans sucks air from underneath it and the other blows it out upper rear
of my case. Everything is pretty standard fare, the two fans in the back are
Vantec UV reactives, the 90mm fan is just a no-name fan I picked up at my local
computer store that probably pushes around 45-50cfm, one of the front 80mm fans
is a LED fan by PC Toys, and the other is a Vantec Stealth.

So taking into consideration my current setup and the obvious reason one gets a fan controller,
namely to reduce fan noise, I decided that (a)the 90mm fan needs to be hooked up,(b)the LED fan
rattles a bit and it’s in front so that’s next to get hooked up, and(c)the 80mm Stealth
can do without for obvious reasons. So that leaves me with one fan connector and two rear fans
(the Vantec UV’s in case you haven’t been following). Some quick thinking and a bit of rummaging
through my parts bin and I came up with a 3-pin splitter wire. Using this I would connect both fans
to the final connector so that they would then be controlled by the same knob.

So now all I have
to do is quit planning and start doing. Luckily my case came with a removable drive cage so I can show
you cool pics like this one…

Installation was a breeze as you can imagine. The only problem I ran into was a bit of a quality issue
with the fan connector…

As you can see in the above pic the small piece of plastic on “F2″ that
locks the two connectors together snapped right off and I was being fairly
gentle with it even…no really I was. I didn’t have any trouble with the
other two connectors though so maybe it was just a faulty one. Anyhow the
fit was a snug one anyway so it didn’t matter all that much in the end.

My test setup up consists of the following:

The first thing I need to say is that unfortunately I have not yet aquired
a temperature sensor. Therefore I am forced to use the motherboards onboard
temp sensors which I can tell you right now, are not known for their accuracy.
While the actual temperatures will be off from the readings I’m going to give
you, the important part should still be accurate and that is the change in
temperature from when I have the fans on low and when I have them on full blast.
For load temps I ran the new Farcry demo while playing an MP3 and playing
divX flick (Matrix Reloaded).

As you can see above the difference is about 2 degrees Celcius on either load or idle. In my
eyes this is a good thing because it means that even with my fans on low/silent mode, I can
still do just about anything and not worry about temps getting out of hand. Then, should the
occasion arise, I can kick on the fans (and put on my headphones) to enjoy some serious gaming.

So let’s talk about the noise issue now. First of all let me say that I have
headphones on or the music bangin’ pretty loud about 85% of the time BUT when
I’m out in my living room or even in my bedroom I can still hear the fans
in my case. Well that was the case until I installed this mofo.

Once again I’m sorry to report that I don’t own the expensive tool required
to record the decibel level put out by my case’s cooling system. Plus I don’t
have a REALLY nice microphone, just the one that came with my Soundblaster
Live X-Gamer sound card. So please take the following recordings w/ a grain
of salt. Even though the recording setup wasn’t very glamorous I think you
can get a good idea of what this controller could do for you and your case.
With the first one I had the case all closed up like normal and I put the
mic in front by the bottom where the intake vents are. For the first 5 seconds
the fans are all on low, then I turn them all on high for 5-6 seconds and if you
turn your volume up you can hear a distinct rattle that my front LED fan makes on
high, then for the last few seconds I turn them down again…

(click to listen)

Hopefully you could hear that one all right. You don’t notice the difference so much when I turn the
fans up but for me I can hear the quietness that comes after I turn them down again. Okay, for the
next clip I put the mic inside the case, right about in the center, and then closed up the side as best
I could…

(click to listen)

It’s a lot easier to hear the difference in that one huh? The main thing your hearing though is the
90mm fan but that is what creates the most noise anyway so it’s not completely biased.

//

Well overall I was pretty impressed with this little fan controller as far as functionality goes.
They could have spent a bit more on the knobs but even with the plastic ones the aesthetics don’t
suffer to much. When I started this review I had two 3.5″ external bays, one with floppy and one
with a modded switch that controlls three UV lights within my case. I wanted to keep the switch
because, as my first mod, I’m quite proud of how it looks and works. So that means I said bye-bye
to the floppy drive. I started with this…

and I ended up with this…

It looks a whole helluva lot better than it did with that ugly old beige floppy drive I picked up
for six bucks on my local computer store’s discount rack. They are also available in white or black
from SVC.

Pros

• Aluminum material for body
• Strong USB ports
• Aesthetically appealing
• Fairly easy to install
• Does what it’s supposed to
• Really great price

Cons

• Plastic material for knobs
• USB ports, although solid, still seem a bit cheap
• USB ports would be better as another knob for a fourth fan

Thanks for reading this review today.

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The mouse has a very nice weight to it… it’s a little lighter than I was hoping for, but w/ the batteries installed, it’s all good. I am one of those people that shouldn’t work on a computer because of my large hands, the mouse has enough arch in it to keep my hand off my mouse pad/table comfortably which I give a big plus.

Visually it’s pretty sexy. There are no real clickers, the slightly reflective silver piece of plastic "V’s" and flexes when you press them… giving you the "click" No buttons. The dock is nice, but looks like a gum drop. Although gum drops are yummy, I feel strange with a large black and silver one sitting on my desk.

Battery length is TBA. but since it has NiMH’s I’m sure a good 3-4 days should drain them. One of the first things I did was test the range on this bad boy. First 10 feet… all good, 20 works great… the advertised 30??? Like I was sitting right there. I couldn’t test any farther do to building restraints. (aka, walls)

Now for the bad news (for me anyway) Mac OS X Software. THERE IS NONE (edit… none available from the website, I haven’t actually tried the CD that came with it yet). I have 3 buttons that do NOTHING. Emailing Tech Support on this matter, 12 hours later I still have no reply. I will point out that the "right" clicker works great as a "right click". But I know that is just the good ‘ol OS doing it’s job. All other Logitech Mice that I have used have had great software for the Mac. And given it’s a brand new product, I’ll let it slide for now. If I don’t hear back from tech support by tomorrow. There’s going to be trouble.

Final judgment on the MX900. I’m glad I have it. Feels great, smooth motion… NO WIRES! but the lack of software & support I’m going to have to give it a 3 out of 5. If I get a (good) reply from support That will push it to a 4 and if software is released by the end of the month AND does my taxes, I’ll give it a 5. (Note, If I were a PC user, it would have a 5)

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Shuttle has earned a strong reputation for itself in the Small Form Factor (SFF) and computer
mainboard markets. Over two decades ago Shuttle Inc. was founded in Taipei, Taiwan, and since 1990
Shuttle Computer Group has provided mainboards, cases, and barebones systems to consumers in the
Americas.

When we think SFF, Shuttle’s XPC line comes immediately to mind for many of us. I was excited to
check out the Shuttle SB51G XPC, and see if the quality, design, and performance hold up to the
reputation it carries.

Before starting, it would be prudent for me to mention the nature of this review. We will not be
evaluating the hardware performance of this system, nor will we be evaluating the overclocking
potential, for a few reasons. It would be unfair of us to provide a half-baked attempt at performance
review, and I don’t have a dozen SFF PC’s kicking around to test against. Maybe some day, but not this
day. As far as overclocking is concerned, I would have liked to see how high I could take the FSB on
this sucker, but this case is ultimately destined for a home installation.

We will, however, dig into the guts of this thing, and put it through the paces to make sure it isn’t
going to flake out on us during a heavy round of UT2K3 or Desert Combat. We will also have a good
look at installation, access, cooling performance, design, and quality of construction.

Why Small Form-Factor? (aka Heat, Cash, and Cases)

Before we even begin to look at this unit, it would make sense to ask ourselves what kind of benefit
a Small Form Factor (SFF) PC has to offer us. Two big negatives came to mind when I considered the Shuttle SB51G;
upgrades are somewhat limited, and the pricetag is also pretty hefty (about $240 USD). The SB51G has
room for one AGP card, one PCI card, one 5 ź” bay device, and two 3 ˝” bay devices (one external,
one internal). While this gives us a substantial path for video upgrades, it’s not exactly an
enthusiasts dream.

This is, however, to be expected with a SFF PC. Aside from the obvious limitations of this form
factor, the real advantage here is size! The Shuttle SB51G is at least 1/3 as large as my
mid-tower. It has a very small footprint, letting you stick a computer just about anywhere that has
electricity and a little airflow. Coupled with a nice flat panel display, your computer could
actually compliment its surroundings, even in a “non-geeky” environment.

Will you be stuck with an outdated machine in a year? No. Will you have room for a fan controller,
DVD burner, floppy drive, CD-RW, and internal card reader? No. The performance path is decent, as
you can upgrade CPU, AGP, memory, and internal storage as you could with any other case. It is the
sheer number of components where we see the limitations.

The choice of SFF or full sized ultimately boils down to your needs. While you are weighing your
options, just remember to account for the price difference. You can find a barebones mid-tower for
easily half of the price as the SB51G.

Let’s move along and see what this piece of machine is made up of.

Specifications

Shuttle’s line of XPC products are broken down primarily by chipset. The SB* series use Intel, SS*
use SiS, ST* use ATI, and SV* use VIA. To be totally precise, the model we are looking at today is
the SB51GB, “B” signifying the black version of the case.

The SB51G is running a Shuttle FB51 mainboard, based on the
Intel® 845GE chipset. This
transition brings 3GHz+ Hyperthreading support to their line of “51G” XPC’s. If we look back at the
SS51G running
SIS651 we see a lot of similarities, both aesthetically and functionally. When Intel lifted the
NDA on the now extremely popular 845GE chipset Shuttle was extremely quick to market with the SB51G.
Now the SIS651B chipset brings hyperthreading support to the SS51G V2.0 for SiS fans.

Overall we have a solid feature-set here, with enough expandability to keep this machine ticking for
quite a while. Being an “all-in-one” solution, we have the luxury of integrated audio, video, and
LAN. Serious gamers or power users will want to take a video card upgrade into serious consideration,
though.

Overview – outside

When we look at any case, there are a few distinct issues that we should take into consideration
– the quality of construction, cooling performance, ease of installation and access, looks, and of
course, price. Cooling and ease of access are going to be especially important issues when it comes
to a SFF PC; the small size can easily lend to heat issues and cramped working space.

The Shuttle SB51G is a barebones unit, which means that it comes with a mainboard and CPU cooling
system installed. I say cooling system because the SB51G uses a heat pipe to cool the CPU, as
opposed to the common heatsink/fan (HSF) assembly. This has its advantages and disadvantages, as
we’ll cover later.

The unit came in a well padded box, complete with a soft plastic handle for easy toting. While a
handle on the case itself would make for much easier relocation, this is still a nice little
addition.

Front shot of the packaging

Another minor, but nice addition, are the clear images provided on the back of the box. While it doesn’t
make much of a difference ordering on-line, the close-up shots and feature breakdown is a good
addition for the brick and mortar shops.

Rear shot of the packaging

Opening up the box we find the SB51G accompanied by a few basic extras. Shuttle has included all of
the necessary cables: one ATA100 IDE cable, one floppy cable, and of course the power cord. They
also threw in some double-sided foam tape for securing the cables, which is a nice addition. We
also find an installation manual containing very detailed steps for setup and installation, which
we’ll touch on again briefly.

The case and accessories

The accessories

My first impression of the SB51G was that it is very sleek looking. The deep charcoal case, coupled
with a smoke tinted translucent bezel, and very simple but attractive power and reset buttons,
don’t reek of corny frills like so many new cases do these days. I really enjoy the stark
simplicity of this case, as I’m sure many of Shuttle’s more refined and/or mature customer’s do
as well. We can tell right away that Shuttle isn’t trying to sell this case on a couple LED fans
or window modifications.

The front

Here you can see the power/reset buttons a little better

The front of the case is sporting all of the most common ports you’ll need – 2 x USB, 1 x Line
Out/Headphone, 1 x MIC, 1 x 1394 and 1 x SPDIF. The power and reset buttons flow with the rest
of the design, with just a small LED indicator for each.

Front panel

Front panel access buttons

The back of the unit features all of your standard ports: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, 2 x serial
ports, 2 x 1394, 2 x USB, 10/100 ethernet, parallel port, VGA, and of course the ATX power plug.

Rear shot

Rear ports

You might have noticed the expansion slots have a small bracket above them on the back of the unit.
This is to secure the card externally, which is probably a good idea with a cramped case like this.

Expansion Slot Bracket

Overview – inside

The next step is of course removing the case cover, so we can gain access to those lovely insides.
Removing the housing is as simple as detaching three thumb screws from the back panel, and lifting the
case vertically. I love it when manufacturer’s include thumb screws, it really simplifies access to
the case.

Thumb screws for housing removal

Housing removed

Take note of the power supply (PSU). This is a 200 watt PSU with Power Factor Correction (PFC). PFC,
in general terms, is a method used to increase efficiency of the PSU. This isn’t going to have any
impact on you, your PC, or your power bill, but your power supplier will certainly like you for it.

A look inside

The really interesting thing about this PSU is the 200W power rating. For a full-fledged P4 rig you
might be inclined to laugh at this shrimpy unit. Well, if you’ve read anything about PSU technology
you probably realize that a power supply is only as good as the quality of manufacturing. A 500W
PSU of cheap quality is bound to perform on par or worse than a high-quality 300W PSU. If this is a
high-quality device, we should be able to run everything we need with that 200W limitation. But, we’ll
see about that in a bit.

The SB51G has a device tray that holds the 5 1/4″ and 3 1/2″ bay devices. The tray is removable so we
can gain access to the motherboard, DIMM slots, and free up some room for running cables.

Notice the device tray

The tray can be removed with four small screws on the top of the tray.

Pops out with a few screws

With the tray removed, we can now see the entire motherboard, including the CPU heat pipe cooling
system, northbridge, DIMM slots, etc.

Much more spacious

At first glance it looks like Shuttle did a great job of organizing the SB51G. No obvious problems
present themselves, such as crowding around the AGP/PCI slots and DIMM slots. The DIMMs are certainly
going to be cozy in there, but we can tell that nothing obvious is in our way.

DIMM slots

The only obvious cooling mechanism present in this system is a heat pipe assembly that extracts
heat from the CPU and exhausts it from the rear of the unit. The northbridge has a standard fin
heatsink mounted on it, and all of the heat from the northbridge should move directly over the CPU
and out the rear fan. There is, however, another fan in the PSU. If we look closely, we can see a
40mm Sunon exhausting heat from the power supply.

Sunon 40mm cooling PSU

I believe the cooling mechanism to be an important part of SFF design. It is critical that heat is
dealt with very efficiently in a crowded space like this, so let’s take a minute to look at the method
Shuttle used in the SB51G.

Cooling Analysis

Shuttle uses what they call “I.C.E. heat-pipe technology”. This is just the name Shuttle has given to
their particular heat pipe design. Heat pipes are just another method of cooling, but a very efficient
one in comparison to air or even copper. An efficient heat pipe can carry about 100 times as much heat
as an equivelant piece of copper. So, what exactly is a heat pipe?

A heat pipe is a sealed tube containing a small amount of fluid and a “wick”. The fluid is usually
water, and the wick isn’t necessarily what you would imagine. A wick can be metal powder, fine screen,
or even grooves carved on the inside surface of the heat pipe. The sole purpose of the wick is to
transport the working fluid from one end of the tube to the other. The capillarity of the system is
what allows it to provide such efficient cooling.

When one end of the heat pipe is heated up, the liquid evaporates and travels upwards along the wick
where it condensates at the other end. By using heat pipes in parallel like the I.C.E. system, a good
deal of heat can be transported away from the heatsink this way. In the I.C.E. system, this heat is
then absorbed into a second heatsink where it can be exhausted from the chassis with an active fan.

The I.C.E. system “starts” with an aluminum heatsink for direct application to the CPU. The heatsink
is secured with a clip mechanism, and has no active fan cooling.

I.C.E. heatsink

The base of the heatsink is copper, with a pretty decent finish for a mill job. Remember, the smoother
the finish on the heatsink, the better contact we are going to be making with the CPU. This increases
contact area, which is directly related to heat transfer efficiency from the CPU to the heatsink.

I.C.E. heatsink base

Four heat pipes carry heat from the passive heatsink to an aluminum heatspreader and fan mounted on the
rear of the case.

Heat pipes

Finally, the 80mm Sunon fan pushes air across the heatspreader and out of the
case. Some of you modders out there might feel inclined to chop the rear fan grill up to allow for
better airflow, but as it stands the grill design used by Shuttle doesn’t seem to restrict a whole
lot of air.

Rear exhaust

As we can tell, the heat pipe system focuses on cooling the CPU. Although, the 80mm rear exhaust fan is also
responsible for cooling the rest of the case. The SB51G has exactly zero intake fans. That means no
cold air being blown into the case. In order to adjust for that, Shuttle has dozens of tiny airholes
along each side of the case, and the negative pressure created by the exhaust fan draws cool air in
each side of the unit.

While this is a pretty efficient design overall, the northbridge does pump out a pretty good level
of heat. When I popped the top mid-benchmark and got physical with the northbridge heatsink, I could
tell it was really pushing out a lot of heat. Just hot enough to be uncomfortable to the touch, it did
make me wonder how this affected CPU temps and whether a more efficient design could be in order.

Here is a shot of the entire cooling system so you can see exactly how it comes together. You can
see the heatsink/heat pipe/heatspreader unit, the housing with the 80mm fan, and also the retention
clip.

The whole shebang

I’ll wrap up cooling performance at the end of this article, for now let’s dig in and start putting
this sucker together!

System Installation and Setup

As I mentioned, Shuttle included a nice installation manual, that in stark contrast to what a lot of
manufacturer’s provide us, is quite thorough and descriptive. Shuttle even went so far as to include
steps on placing and securing your ribbon cables.

Included with the SB51G are a few small pieces of foam tape for securing the ribbon cables in a
neat and orderly fashion. Our first step is to secure the floppy cable, so we don’t have to fight
to get it in later. Applying a piece of foam tape in the corner and routing the cable around the
PSU we can have it tucked neatly away in the corner.

Securing the floppy cable

Now we will install the CPU and secure the heat pipe assembly. In this case we’re going to
throw a Celeron 1.7 in there. Plenty of clearance for this one, and as we can see the Celery is
more than happy in its new home.

Now that’s a happy CPU

Now we apply some thermal paste to the surface of the CPU (and tint the heatsink if you fancy the
method). Installing the heat pipe system is actually a snap; the only difficulty is getting the
clip to secure, but even that was pretty simple given the small space. No complaints here.

With the cooling assembly in place we can throw a stick of RAM in, and as you can see we’ve still
got a decent amount of clearance around the DIMM:

Could be better, could be much worse

We also have two ATA100 cables, one of which is split and bound so we can route it to the back
of the case for the 5 1/4″ bay drive.

The manual describes routing methods for each cable

Speaking of bay drives, remember that tray we took out a while ago? This is going to hold two 3 1/2″
drives (one internal, one external), and one 5 1/4″ drive. Presumably, you’ll be installing one
floppy drive, one 3 1/2″ hard drive, and an optical drive (CD-ROM, CD-R/W, DVD, etc.).

Since we can install the bay devices on the tray first, we can just drop them into the unit and
plug in our power and data cables. I did run into a slight mess getting the ribbon cable positioned
well enough to cooperate with the CD-R/W drive, but all in all it was a painless procedure. If you
plan on installing an AGP or PCI card, I would recommend you do it at this point. Once the drives
are in, space becomes very limited.

Drives are in and space becomes limited

With everything in place we can now sit back and admire our new creation. The SB51G isn’t the
flashiest case around, but it’s very slick, and decent enough to compliment any home. A lot of people
are looking at these cases for LAN parties, and while it doesn’t light up and flash and do a little
dance, it would go very well with a nice Armani or a ninja suit. There is some class in its
subtlety.

Assuming we got to this point okay, we can do the just-finished-the-new-rig-jig, and then proceed
directly into the pray-this-sucker-boots phase.

Driver Installation and BIOS

The Shuttle SB51G comes with a driver disc including all of the necessary mainboard drivers, as well
as the Award BIOS flashing utility:

• Intel Chipset driver
• Intel Ultra ATA driver
• Intel VGA driver
• Realtek Audio driver
• Install USB2.0 driver
• Realtek LAN driver
• Award Flashing Utility

Before we can start installing platform and peripheral drivers, we need to get an OS on our new
machine, and a lot of us will be tempted to jump right into the BIOS setup to see what we have
control over. Thankfully Shuttle gives us quite a bit of flexibility in BIOS setup.

For a full list of BIOS features you can refer to the manual (if you own this unit), or look for
the product manual for the FB51 mainboard on the Shuttle
website.

For all of us overclockers in the world, we can sleep easy knowing that there are a bevy of tweakable
settings on the FB51. On top of all of your standard BIOS settings, AwardBIOS’ Advanced Chipset Features give us access to
CAS Latency,
Tras (Active to Precharge),
Trcd (RAS-to-CAS),
Trp (Precharge to Active),
and AGP Aperture Size.
The Frequency/Voltage Control menu lets you push the front side bus up to 165MHz (or 660MHz quad-pumped).
The manual has lengthy descriptions on all of the other BIOS configuration options. As long as you
aren’t buying through a proprietary vendor, most of these overclocking options are present on other
mainboards though, anyway.

Software installation is as straight forward as it can be, assuming that you are using Windows.
Shuttle only provides drivers for Windows users, so those of us on Linux or any other alternative OS
will have to look for the device’s respective drivers, or some equivelant. The manual also provides
detailed instructions on installing the drivers off the CD, but it’s pretty much a matter of
inserting the disc and clicking “OK” for 10 minutes. Everyone should upgrade to the newest
drivers available from Shuttle’s site after installing.

The SB51G doesn’t come with any additional software, so at this point your new machine should be
ready for you to slap on some games, office apps, or whatever else you fancy.

Conclusion

In the beginning of this review I mentioned that we would be discussing installation, access,
cooling performance, design, and quality of construction of the Shuttle SB51G XPC Mini Barebones.
After working with this case for a day, I could tell that the design was well thought and
engineered to be a good investment.

Looking pretty sharp

The final product is pretty attractive.

Those matching drives really top it off

Every component of the SB51G felt sturdy and well constructed, and the design let me move around
the case with ease. The SB51G passed my unofficial “cheap-squeaky-case” test with flying colors.
Cheap, generic, POS hardware always seems to squeak a lot. You pick it up, or flip it over, and
half of the time it squeaks as the cheaply assembled parts shift around. In a good manufacturing
process the unit should be solidly built, and the parts engineered to fit properly. The Shuttle,
thankfully, was a pretty quiet little case.

After playing with the glorified I.C.E. cooler, I still felt that the SB51G left something to be
desired in the way of cooling. For the first evening of use, the system experienced some instabilities
(blue screens and crashing). After opening the case up and shifting a lot of things around in order
to open up airflow from the sides of the case over the northbridge, it was fine. But this tells me it
was somewhat borderline. Ambient temps were probably pushing 28-30c, but a lot of people in warm
climates see more significant temperatures regularly.

On the other hand, these observations should be taken with scepticism, as I have seen some folks
with nice overclocks running the stock cooler. If you can control your ambient temperatures this
shouldn’t be any concern. I would, however, have liked to see an intake fan mount somewhere in the
case. A few spots would have been decent for a little 40mm to bring a little more fresh air in, as
well as balancing out the pressure inside of the case to reduce dust buildup.

Overall, I had no complaints working with the SB51G. Installation was smooth, the manuals were clear
and concise, the design is pleasing to the eye, it’s very space conscious, and in my unofficial
opinion performance was more than decent for the CPU and RAM I had installed.

To sum it up, there are some drawbacks, but this could very well be the case for you:

Pros:

• Attractive and functional design
• Good documentation
• Easy installation and access
• Good expandability for a SFF

Cons:

• Costly, about $240 USD
• Case cooling could be improved
• A handle or place for easy upgrade to a handle would be nice for mobility

That about wraps it up for our look at the Shuttle SB51G XPC Mini Barebones. Thanks for reading
and as always, feel free to give your feedback, good or bad. You can discuss this article in Fury-Tech
Forums.

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