System setup and notes
| System name | Shuttle P2 3700G | Alienware Area-51 7500 | MESH Elite Fire X1950 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Xtreme X6800 (2.93GHz, 4MiB L2 cache, 1066MHz, dual-core) | Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.67GHz, 4MiB L2 cache, 1066MHz, dual core) | |
| Motherboard | Shuttle FD37 | ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe | ASUS P5W DH Deluxe - Intel i975X |
| Memory | 4GiB (4 x 1024) takeMS DDR2-667 | 2GiB (2 x 1024) Patriot PC6400 | 2GiB (2 x 1024) OCZ PC2-7200 |
| Memory timings and speed | 4-4-4-12-2T @ 533MHz | 4-4-4-12-2T @ 800MHz | 4-4-4-15 2T @ 890MHz |
| Graphics card(s) | NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 1GiB (500/1200) | 2 x ATI Radeon X1950 XTX in CrossFire | |
| Disk drive(s) | 400GB Samsung HD401LJ SpinPoint T133 | 1000GB (2 x 500GB) HGST Deskstar 7K500 | 600GB (2 x 300GB) Maxtor 6V300F0 |
| Chassis | Shuttle SD37P2 XPC SFF | Alienware P2 | MESH plastic/metal |
| PSU | Shuttle SilentX 400W | Alienware 650W | HEC-550TD-PTE |
| Graphics driver | ForceWare 91.47 | ForceWare 91.31 | ATI CATALYST 6.8 |
| Chipset driver | Intel Inf 8.1.1.1001 | ||
| Operating System | Windows XP Pro SP2 | Windows XP Home SP2 | |
| Price (base unit) | £2049 (28/11/06) | £3112 (28/08/06) | £1643 (02/10/06) |
| Benchmarks |
ScienceMark 2.0 HEXUS Pifast Benchmark HEXUS.in-house MP3 Encoding Benchmark using LAME 3.97a (Intel HT compiler) - 701.5MB WAV HEXUS.in-house DivX encode using DivX 6.4 and VirtualDub on 416MB DV file CINEBENCH 2003 v9.5 multi-CPU render HDTach 3.0.1.0 Far Cry v1.33 - HEXUS custom benchmark Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory v1.05 - HEXUS custom benchmark Quake 4 v1.04 HEXUS Custom Benchmark |
|---|
Notes
We're taking a look at the Shuttle P2 3700G's performance against a couple of decent base units we've reviewed in the past. The Alienware Area-51 7500 PC uses the same processor and graphics card but faster memory than the pre-configured Shuttle, so performance should be broadly similar. The comparison MESH PC utilises the slower Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 but adds in significant 3D punch from a pair of ATI Radeon X1950 XTXs in CrossFire mode.On we go.
