External Front
Once you’re past the cheesy picture on the front of the box you soon realise how action packed this SFF PC is. When shuttle released the SN41G2 with the nforce2 motherboard they altered the appearance of the universal Shuttle casing from the Perspex fascia to the aluminium look. They have done the same with the SB52G2.
Not only has the fascia changed, but also the casing has been anodised black with large grills on either side to allow greater airflow. On previous models such as the SS51G, SB51G, etc. the grills were just a series of small holes. Since the SB52G2 has the new aluminium fascia and the anodised black casing, it looks very elegant and modern along side my Cooler Master 201B SKT.
The physical size of the Shuttle is the same as previous models. Measuring in at 20cm wide, 18.5cm high and 30cm deep. In my mind something that compact and so powerful is quite amazing. Since a lot of devices these days are USB, there are 2 x USB 2.0 ports on the front panel. These are useful if you have devices such as a USB digital camera where it doesn't need to be plugged in permanently. Also on the front panel are connections for headphones and a microphone. These 2 ports are extremely useful for LAN parties when games use voice communication, such as the famous title "Counter-Strike". Although there are a few missing connections compared with previous models. No firewire port and no front SPDIF connector. I understand the SB52G2 is designed as server, where it wont really require a digital audio output, but some people use firewire external hard drives to backup important data. As usual the power and reset buttons are also on the front panel. Next to them are the blue power LED and orange HD activity LED.
