SB75G2 BIOS
Shuttle was also at the forefront of establishing that XPCs needn't skimp on features and BIOS options. Phoenix's familiar setup is a known quantity. It's proven easy to use and has an almost Microsoft-like monopoly on modern boards.
CPUs ratios are only available on unlocked engineering samples. For the tweaker, the Front-Side Bus can be raised to an improbable 355MHz. Increases in FSB aren't just a token measure here. The SB75G2's BIOS allows for a locking of the PCI/AGP buses, so the overclock will be limited by either a motherboard or CPU ceiling. Shuttle errs on the side of caution. The CPU's ranges from 0.825v - 1.5875v in 0.025v increments. DDR sees a top limit of 2.75v, and the AGP voltage can be raised to 1.65v.
System RAM can be set to either 1:1 (synchronous), 5:4, and 3:2 ratios of the CPU's FSB. The three lowest parameters make reference to the board's Canterwood status. It should return some fast numbers. We share Shuttle's opinion that a lack of size isn't detrimental to performance.
As with many XPCs, the SB75G2's BIOS can set the main fan to one of a five speed parameters; Ultra-low, Low, Mid, Full, and Smart Fan. Our testing found that the mid setting was, according to the temperature reporting section, more than able to hold a Pentium 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition CPU at below 60c load. Our advice would be to start off with the Smart Fan setting. It's quiet when idling in Windows or Linux and can be set to speed up when the CPU hits a pre-defined temperature.
Shuttle's had some time to get the BIOS right. We reckon this is as good as any SFF PC's, for there's enough voltage adjustment to gain stability in an overclocked state, yet not enough to cause irreparable damage in the SB75G2's small confines.
