Thoughts
The Shuttle ST61G4 XPC system is a strange character. We previously knew that ATI had the upper hand in the onboard video stakes. It would be hard not to when your main competition arrives in the form of the mediocre Extreme Graphics 2 from Intel's i865G chipset. It was almost a given that any ATI dual-channel chipset would feature integrated video, and decent video at that. Looking at our benchmarks from the gaming section, it becomes quite clear that the ST61G4's ATI Radeon IGP has the comfortable beating of the i865G's onboard performance. The ATI design reminds us of a Radeon 9200 graphics card with some of the trimmings lopped off. There's no DX9 compliance, for that would undoubtedly push the price above what most partners are willing to pay. There's also no hardware transform and lighting. Even without these, Shuttle has produced an Intel-based XPC that features more than adequate video.The real problems start as soon as we look at the performance of the chipset in isolation. Memory bandwidth and latency isn't what we'd expect from a cutting-edge design. The RS300 Northbridge just doesn't deliver the goods. That forces Shuttle's ATI XPC down a rung or two. It's not ridiculously slow in comparison to a decent i865G Shuttle SFF system, but there's enough of a performance gap to put off more than a few potential buyers. The ST61G4's forte seems to be in leaving the AGP slot bare and using only the onboard graphics. In that case, 2D is excellent and 3D quality is adequate for the occasional gamer. The system also used an updated PSU that's extremely quiet in use. All of that leads to one of the quietest, if not the quietest, SFF system we've seen and head thus far.
What we'd like is a revised BIOS that takes the enthusiast into account and better basic performance from the dual-channel chipset. It may not be as fast as the SB62G2 or SN85G4, but it has enough going for it to be considered as an alternative, especially to a set of buyers who look for quietness, decent 2D and acceptable 3D performance in one box. We feel that it will also need to be priced lower than the comparison SB62G2 to secure sales. Sheer performance isn't great with a discrete AGP card. However, the combination of the factors listed above raise it from being a poor system to one that has merit. This could have been the killer S478 SFF platform. As it is, and at the risk or repetition, it's good in certain areas and weak in others. It's worth a look if its talents match your requirements exactly. We'd probably opt for a SFF system without integrated graphics and add a cheap discrete card instead.
Our final rating is reflective of how we see the ST61G4. It should have been the best S478 SFF available. It's not quite lived up to its promise.
