Overclocker Cafe - Shuttle XPC SB81P

Shuttle XPC SB81P SFF System

New Chipsets and CPU

Since this Shuttle XPC is the first SFF to incorporate Intel's new chipsets and CPU architecture, let's take a moment to touch on both.

915G Chipset - Grantsdale

When Intel released the Alderwood and Grantsdale chipsets, they made some rather sweeping changes. Aside from the CPU socket change, both platforms supports only PCI Express graphics slots with no legacy support for your old AGP card. Thankfully, however, the 915G chipset utilizes and onboard graphics engine powered by Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator 900 which provides full DX9 support. Now while this doesn't mean that you'll be playing Doom III or Half-Lif2 using the onboard graphics, it will play some of the older games in lower resolutions fairly well, which we will find out about shortly.

While the 925X (Alderwood) chipset supports DDR2 exclusively, the 915 does offer legacy support for the standard DDR modules in dual channel format. Also, anyone who uses SATA is going to be very happy with the four SATA ports. Those of us still using the IDE drives will be disappointed with the single IDE channel offered.

Look Ma...No Pins!

Both the Alderwood and Grantsdale chipsets utilize Intel's new CPU, the LGA775. And while the CPU is based around the Prescott core, it is very different from previous versions of the P4 Northwoods and Prescotts.

While being slightly larger than previous P4's, the real difference shows itself when the chip is flipped over. The CPU itself has no pins on it. All the connection pins are on the motherboard itself. This makes the chip more robust and resistant to damage, but it means that the motherboard is now the weak point, physically speaking. I have bent CPU pins before, and was able to straighten them using a small non-conductive tool, or a mechanical lead pencil works just fine as well. Now we have to wonder if it will be so easy to fix if the motherboard pins get bent.

The LGA775 CPU is built on the 90nm process with the integration of strained silicon. Putting it as simply as I can, the integration of strained silicon lattice will let the electrons flow faster. As I understand the technology, the silicon atoms used to manufacturer these CPUs form a tightly weaved pattern through which the electrons have to flow. By straining the silicon, the pattern that they form is stretched open slightly to allow the electrons to flow more easily through the pattern of silicon. While this is a very oversimplified explanation of the process, more information can be found either on Intel's website, or over at New Scientist.

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