Shuttle XPC Glamour SN68PTG6

If you’ve previously seen a Shuttle XPC barebones PC, the SN68PTG6will be instantly familiar. It follows the firm's standard smallform-factor system design that resembles two cubes attached one to theother, but this time with some design highlights and the firm's Glamourlabel.
The main cover is retained by three thumbscrews and lifts away toreveal the innards. Undo two more screws and the aluminium drive baycomes out to give access to most of the components. Whip out four morethumbscrews to release the ICE cooling fan, which blows air through theremote CPU cooler, and then release the four screws that retain the CPUheatsink and you’re ready to build your new PC.

Shuttle's XPC SN68PTG6: DIY PC

Just about the only part of the Shuttle that stays in place in thechassis is the 110W mini power supply that's located on the right-handside but it doesn’t obscure any of the connectors to which you need togain access.
The layout of the SN68PTG6 is assisted by the nature of the NvidiaGeForce 7050PV chipset, which is a unified piece of silicon much likethe chipset used in the Biostar TF7150U-M7 - reviewed here.That particular motherboard accommodates an Intel Core 2 processor witha GeForce 7150 chipset, while the Shuttle is a Socket AM2 design thatuses a slightly lower spec GeForce 7050PV to connect to AMD CPUs.Beyond that the two chipsets are essentially identical.

The main feature is the integrated graphics which supports DirectX 9so you can have the joys of the Aero interface in Windows Vista. On themultimedia side of things, you get hardware decoding that supportsBlu-ray and HD DVD along with the HDCP anti-piracy system and a properdigital output. Shuttle has equipped the SN68PTG6 with VGA and HDMIoutputs along with a dongle that converts the HDMI feed to DVI.
If you’re considering the Shuttle as a Media Centre PC we feel thatthe ICE cooling system is too noisy. It’s an effective system thatworks with a range of processors in different models of Shuttle bymoving the heat from the CPU heatsink through some heatpipes to a largeradiator at the rear of the case. This radiator is covered by a 100mmfan which blows air through the radiator and out of the case.
However, the fan is quite noisy. An Athlon 64 X2 6000+ will demandall the cooling that you can throw at it but a more sensible processorsuch as an X2 4200+ or 5000+ requires less cooling. We've no doubt thefan on the SN68PTG6 could be quieter but as things stand the Shuttleproduces a similar level of noise to an Xbox 360. No problem for agames console but too high for a Media Centre.

Glamorous?

The alternative scenario is that you want to build a dual-core PCthat has the capability for regular day-to-day tasks such as email,eBay, music playback and movies. The Shuttle works well enough at thesetasks but it’s hard to see why you’d go down the AMD route instead ofsticking with an Intel processor. You can buy an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ for£45, although the X2 5000+ that we used in testing costs £70, but youcan buy a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo E4500 for £80.
There's no doubt in the mind of your reviewer that the Core 2 Duo iswell worth the extra cash, but if you're on a tight budget then the AMDoption might be tempting. The problem is that the SN68PTG6 isrelatively expensive because it carries a number of high-end features.
At the bottom of the front panel is a cosmetic flap that covers twoUSB ports, a mini Firewire port and the audio jacks for a headset. Allstandard stuff, but the shuttle also carries a fingerprint reader foradded security as part of the Windows log-on procedure. It’s an unusualextra for a budget PC and we found it to be effectively useless as wewere unable to register a fingerprint in ten attempts. This kind ofthing works well on a laptop, where the reader can be placedhorizontally, but not on a desktop where it's mounted vertically.
Shuttle quite reasonably includes 802.11g Wi-FI in this model butthe inclusion of Bluetooth must surely add cost for little tangiblebenefit.
On the rear of the Shuttle there are five audio mini jacks, digitaloptical output, four USB ports, one Firewire and two eSATA ports, andthere are internal expansion slots in the shape of a PCI Expressgraphics slot and one PCI slot.

3DMark06 Results

Longer bars are better
Shuttle has successfully built a nice-looking barebones that uses anAMD processor, but the SN68PTG6 is aimed at the luxury end of themarket. This is a strange combination of features, as the performancecould be improved by using Intel hardware. A better approach is tobuild a quiet, cheap AMD Media Centre using a Micro-ATX AMD 690motherboard with HDMI output.