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Review: Shuttle XPC P2 3700G

by Tarinder Sandhu on 29 November 2006, 08:42

Tags: Shuttle

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BIOS





Despite being based on a small form-factor design, the Shuttle SD37P2's BIOS is similar to most midrange motherboards'.



Interestingly, the BIOS' maximum memory support is DDR2-667. Shuttle, though, has chosen to run with reasonably tight timings and a DDR2-533 speed. The list of voltage and speed adjustments are shown in the table below:

Item Adjustment
CPU bus frequency 133MHz to 355MHz in 1MHz steps for 266MHz FSB CPUs
DRAM frequency/multis DDR2 533/667
CPU voltage Default + 0.8V in 0.025V increments
DRAM voltage Default +0.3V in 0.1V increments
PCI Express frequency N/A
i975X MCH voltage N/A
FSB voltage N/A
ICH7R voltage N/A
CPU boot FID adjust Yes; depends on CPU
CPU boot VID adjust No
Intel Speedstep Control/EIST No


Not the most comprehensive, but both DDR2 and CPU voltage can be tuned.



The BIOS reports a decent number of parameters, and we've already spoken about the benefits of being able to control the speed of the system's fans. Speeds range from ultra-low, low, mid, full, and Extreme PC mode. The low setting is enough to keep the Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPU ticking along without overheating.

Summary

The options that you'd want are there and we can appreciate why Shuttle has left out some of the more enthusiast-oriented settings.