The Inside
Your probably wondering how all of this fits into such a small case, well have a look inside.
As you can see the motherboard is very busy, with nearly every mm occupied by electronics. What a design headache to fit all this in such a confined space and yet here is another generation each more complex than the last. My only concern here is the connectors next to the AGP slot are in an awkward position and interfere with the graphics card.
The last AMD system I used was nearly a year ago when my trusty xp1500+ moved on to a new home, and I migrated to P4's, one of the reasons being that as I'm always taking my pc apart I didn't enjoy refitting the heatsink afterwards with the historically fragile core. Aware of this Shuttle have redesigned the mounting system for their ICE heatsink (Integrated Cooling Engine) and included a copper shim helping stabilise it during fitting.
Notice the 4 mounting holes on the motherboard? Well to make it easier the new mounting system screws directly into the chassis, just make sure you hold it down in the centre whilst screwing it down to stop it rocking and damaging your CPU.
I wont got any further into the insides as it is nearly exactly the same as the last 2 Shuttles reviewed by ourselves. The only difference being that the cables connecting the front panel are rounded rather than ribbons. But if you want to see more of the internals have a look here:- http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=439&page=4
Lets look at the bios settings and test bed next
