Hardwarezone: "Four out of five stars"
 "Coupled with the Shuttle's decent exterior appearance and generous number of SATA and even eSATA ports, the SG33G5 is quite an ideal modern HTPC and media hub," state the editors of the Malaysian website Hardwarezone.com having had a closer look at the Shuttle XPC Barebone SG33G5.
"The usual characteristic of a Shuttle XPC, like its excellent cable management and the quiet ICE cooler are present and the G5 chassis is a familiar sight, especially with the extremely minor facelift that Shuttle has crafted in order to glam it up," praise the editors Shuttle's first barebones PC to support Intel's 3 series chipset G33.
Being designed for every day computing at home, the Shuttle XPC Barebone SG33G5 has "state of the art technologies" on board and "crowd pleasing features like its HDMI output and 7.1-channel HD audio with DTS Connect and Dolby Digital Live," write the editors of the Malaysian hardware website Hardwarezone.com.
Based on Intel’s G33 Express chipset, the SG33G5 is ready for LGA 755 socket processores ranging “from the low-end Celeron 400 series to the quad-core Core 2 Extreme,”note the editors. Basically "all existing Intel LGA 775 processors, along with the upcoming 45nm processors" proving that the SG33G5 is ready for future upgrades. Especially the HDMI output with enabled HDCP makes it "ready for the coming high definition era."
Multimedia capabilities "are decent as it comes with Intel’s new GMA 3100 graphic chipset with Intel Clear Video technology to enhance high definition video playback." Setting up the XPC was easy and went without a hitch when the editors say: "Installation too was generally smooth and trouble free." This "has always been a major advantage of Shuttle XPCs compared to its few competitors," according to Hardwarezone.com. The quick installation guide "details the entire process helpfully with a liberal use of full-color images," writes Hardwarezone.com. |