Specification
| Shuttle XPC SB81P | |
| CPU Support | All LGA775 processors |
| Northbridge | Intel i915P 'Grantsdale' |
| Memory Support | 2 slots, DDR400, 2GB max, dual-channel |
| AGP | None |
| PEG16X | One slot |
| Southbridge | Intel ICH6/R |
| Audio | Realtek ALC880 HD Audio CODEC from ICH6/R feed |
| Audio Connectivity | 8 port backplane speaker, 2 S/PDIF optical input and output, coax digital input |
| PCI | 1 x 32-bit 33MHz PCI 2.1 slot |
| PCI Express | None |
| IDE | 1 ATA133 compliant port from ICH6/R |
| IDE RAID | None |
| SATA | 4 ports from ICH6/R |
| SATA RAID | All 4 ports using Intel Matrix Storage |
| Networking | Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Controller, 10/100/1000Mbit |
| USB | ICH6/R, 2 x backplane USB2.0, 2 x front panel I/O USB2.0 |
| FireWire | FireWire400, 1 backplane port, 1 x front panel port, from VIA VT6307 |
| Other I/O | VGA (GMA900), PS/2, 1 x Serial |
| Possible Storage | 1 optical and 3 HDD, or 1 opt, 2 HDD and a floppy drive |
As you can see, the SB81P packs a lot in. Realtek HD Audio CODEC with digital input and output, with 7.1 speaker support is great, the full 4-port Matrix Storage implementation is there, FireWire gets a nod, Gigabit Ethernet is present and LGA775 CPU support complements the DDR memory interface and PEG16X graphics slot.
Think of it as an ABIT AG8 in a tiny package, with on-board graphics, and you're not far off.
Packing in all that's great and good with Intel's new P4 platform has its obvious upsides. That the Matrix Storage controller has scope to be used effectively by the ability to stuff three hard disks in the chassis is also good. Single Raptor boot drive and a pair of RAID'd large AHCI SATA disks anyone?
But there's also the obvious downsides too. CPU and graphics card availability isn't brilliant and the CPU choice on LGA775 isn't really compelling. DDR memory support softens the blow though.
Swings and roundabouts, depending on how you view the platform. I personally remain unconvinced at the time of writing.
Device Manager
