System Setup and Notes
Hardware and Software
Test Platforms
| Shuttle SB86i System | HEXUS Comparison System | |
| Processor(s) | Pentium 4 560 | |
| Mainboard | Shuttle FB86 | Tyan Tomcat S5120 |
| Memory | 2 x 512MB Corsair Xpert XL DDR-400 2.0-2-2-5 @ 400MHz |
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| BIOS Version | FB86IS16 - 8th April 2005 | V1.05 (5120_105) - 29th March 2005 |
| Disk Drive | 36GB Western Digital Raptor | |
| Graphics Card | ATI Radeon X800 256MB CATALYST 5.4 |
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| Operating System | Windows XP Professional, SP2 | |
| Mainboard Software | Intel INF Update Utility 6.3.0.1007 | |
Benchmark Software
HEXUS.in-house Cryptography Benchmark
HEXUS Pifast Benchmark
ScienceMark 2.0 (7th February 2005)
Realstorm 2004
Cinebench 2003
HEXUS.in-house MP3 Encoding Benchmark using LAME 3.96
PicColor 32-bit v4.0
Kribibench v1.1.9
Notes
I built a comparison system around a i915G mainboard, using otherwise identical components, to see if the SB86i was in the same ballpark in terms of performance, compared to a solid, established i915G performer. A chopped version of the newest HEXUS benchmark suite was used to determine platform performance. Note that a discrete graphics card was used to test both systems, rather than the onboard GMA900 graphics. While that solution is fairly servicable on the Tyan due to fairly decent analogue filters before hitting the VGA port, the Shuttle enjoys no such luxury and therefore, for this reviewer, its on-board graphics remains a backup VGA solution at the very best, for when you're in the middle of an upgrade or RMA of discrete graphics and you can't afford any downtime.BIOS
The SB86i's BIOS gives you CPU voltage up to 1.45V with a Pentium 4 560, up to 2.9V for the memory modules, front-side bus adjustment up to 350MHz. As far as overclocking the system went, using the unlocked multiplier on the P4 560 let me run 241MHz front-side bus frequency before instability kicked in, with a 15x multiplier. Dropping down to 14x multiplier saw the ceiling rise to 248MHz. So it looks like 3600MHz is all it likes to cope with, heat wise (15 x 241) and ~250MHz is all you'll get in absolute terms from the i915G chipset.There are options in the BIOS to control the amount of memory allocated, both for the fixed framebuffer and dynamically to grow as needed, to the GMA900 graphics core. There's also an option to control the intensity of the LED bar on the SB86i, although anything less than the 75% setting seemed to do nothing, for me, apart from the 0% setting, which obviously turns it off.
