System setup and notes
System setup
| System name | Shuttle X100HA SFF | ASUS A6Ja laptop | HEXUS AMD Athlon 64 3500+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core Duo (mobile) T2050 - 1.60GHz, 2MiB L2 cache, 133MHz FSB, dual-core | Intel Core Duo (mobile) T2500 - 2.0GHz, 2MiB L2 cache, 167MHz FSB, dual-core | AMD Athlon 64 (desktop) 3500+ AM2 - 2.2GHz, 512KiB L2 cache, 200MHz FSB, single-core |
| Motherboard | Shuttle i945PM - Napa | ASUS i945PM - Napa | ECS RS485-M-M (ATI RS485 + SB460) |
| Memory | 512MiB (2 x 256) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs | 2GiB (2 x 1024) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs | 512MiB (2 x 256) Crucial PC4200 DDR2 |
| Memory timings and speed | 4-4-4-11-2T @ 533MHz | 4-4-4-12-2T @ 533MHz | 4-4-4-12-1T @ 489MHz |
| Graphics card(s) | ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 128MiB PCIe (445/675) | ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256MiB PCIe (445/700) | ATI Radeon (desktop) X1300 Pro 256MiB PCIe (594/792) | Graphics driver | ATI CATALYST 6.5 | ATI CATALYST 5.10 | ATI CATALYST 6.3 |
| Disk drive(s) | Samsung SpinPoint P120 200GB SP2004C SATA 3Gbps | Hitachi 100GB 5,400PM with 8MB cache (laptop 2.5") | Seagate 160GB 7200.9 SATA 3Gbps |
| Operating System | Windows XP Home SP2 32-bit | Windows XP Home SP2 32-bit | Windows XP Pro SP2 32-bit |
| Current cost | £820 ex. delivery | £1400 ex. delivery | £500 ex. delivery |
Notes
In order to compare performance, we've added in a couple of products that are priced both higher and lower than the Shuttle X100HA's £820 asking price. The X100HA is, essentially, a laptop without a screen: it features a number of components we see on decent laptops today. We've added in a pricier ASUS laptop that features the same Napa platform but beefier CPU, RAM and graphics card. You can see its review here. We appreciate that it's significantly more expensive but it will give you an indication of where the Shuttle X100HA stands.On the other end of the price spectrum, we've included our own low-end graphics-card setup, comprising of a single-core Athlon 64 3500+ AM2 CPU, 512MiB RAM and an ATI Radeon X1300 Pro (desktop card). We figure that a pre-built system would cost around £500. It won't look as attractive as the X100HA or likely to be presented in such a chic form factor, but, again, it's all about comparative performance.
We encountered no problems during a weekend (and it always seems to be a weekend) of testing and tinkering with the Shuttle system. There are no user defineable performance-related parameters in the BIOS, so no tinkering for enthusiasts, just as you would expect.
We bet you don't see that CPU often at the review sites around the web.
Is it a laptop or desktop PC? Something in between, we'd say. On to the benchmarks.
