Shuttle SN45G nForce2 Ultra 400 XPC

Benchmarks III and thoughts

UT2003 demo's in-built benchmark now. Run at 1024x768x32. Just the flyby results to consider.

Quake III wraps it up.

The Shuttle SN45 has stayed remarkably close to the pace-setting EPoX throughout our benchmarks. We surmised that this was a cube destined for pure performance at a slightly lower price point than the incumbent SN41G2. The lack of on-board graphics and the removal of a few features means that this is a slightly skimpy version of what we're used to. Is that necessarily a bad thing ? We don't believe it is. Firstly, NVIDIA dictate the non-use of on-board graphics with their 200FSB-capable nForce2 chipsets. There's simply no IGP version available for either the Ultra 400 or the single channel 400. Secondly, the availability of relatively cheap, high performance video cards should take care of basic video duties. Once we factor in the cheaper price for this cube that does without integrated graphics, the money saved will inevitably go towards a dedicated video card.

Does this then mean that dual channel DDR400 is a little underused by the processor as there's no video to take advantage of the theoretical extra ~ 3.2GB/s ? It does seem a little that way. We've singe single channel nForce2 performance to be reasonably close to dual channel when there's nothing extra implemented that may chew up bandwidth. Still, if you want the fastest AMD platform right now, it undoubtedly boils down to taking your pick from a number of nForce2 boards.

This cube is the fastest AMD one yet. It's stable, fast, tweakable, feature rich and relatively quiet. One almost begins to question the wisdom of large boxes when this little wonder can accomplish so much. If we had to be critical, and we often are, we'd question the return to the tacky-looking fascia. The previous nForce2 (SN41G2) and SB61G2's overall look was classier. This one, it has to be said, does look a little 'cheap' in direct comparison. Other than this, this is another fine example of how to pack speed and features into a small form factor. There's no stopping Shuttle, it seems.

Highs