Review: Shuttle XPC G5 6801M desktop computer

While Shuttle is best known for its barebones computers, it is increasingly producing more complete computers.

This one, the XPC G5 6801M, is firmly pitched at the home entertainment market, containing as it does a combo Blu-ray and HD DVD drive (an LG GGW-H20L drive).

This accounts for much of the computer’s cost, which is otherwise relatively high, considering what it contains.

The Shuttle uses the familiar XPC SN68SG2 case, so is square at the front, extending around a foot or so back to form a compact cuboid.

While that is less suitable for slotting into an existing living room setup than the more compact computers made by other companies (and by Shuttle) its size does provide more efficient cooling.

That in turn allows it to use faster, hotter processors. It’s possible to use the company’s online configuration tool to customise the PC to your liking, but the one we looked at came with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3GHz CPU, along with 2GB of Ram and a 500GB hard disk.

The 6000+ is 18 months old now and Intel’s Core CPUs are usually faster and more efficient, although the G5 6801M’s power draw of just above 100W isn’t bad at all. Benchmarks were fair: the Shuttle clocked a respectable 6,071 in PCMark05, although its 3DMark05 score of 3,797 was much less impressive.

That’s understandable given the video card, which is a passively cooled ATI Radeon HD 3450 with 256MB of Ram, and both VGA and DVI outputs. Any kind of recent game is going to tax it to the point of not being usable, but the 3450 is very good for Blu-ray viewing, since it’s silent and contains AMD’s UVD decoder, which will smooth and sharpen high-definition content.

There’s no HDMI socket on the board but a DVI-HDMI adapter is supplied, plus you get a Media Center remote control for simple TV navigation.

The G5 6801M is being sold by several UK retailers, but buying it requires using Shuttle’s novel purchasing system – once you’ve put together a system on the Shuttle website you then fill in your details and select one of the company’s authorised resellers from a dropdown list, and they will contact you to give you a quote.

The configuration we looked at costs around £830 (including Vat and after converting the price from euros). It’s a capable entertainment computer that has everything you need for watching Blu-ray movies, albeit one without a keyboard or mouse.

The box looks good – there is a bright LED display in the metallic front panel – and there are six USB ports, two Firewire, full surround sound with optical S/PDIF input and output, a digital TV tuner and 802.11b/g connectivity.

Both the expansion slots are taken (with the graphics card and the TV tuner) but pretty much everything else can be fitted into a USB port, so perhaps that’s no great loss.

The only question in our minds is whether it is any better than buying the appropriate barebones case and building a similar system from scratch. By our reckoning the DIY option comes out a touch cheaper, but that’s without factoring in the convenience of having the computer delivered to you in one box.

Anyone who is after a one-stop Blu-ray shop for their lounge will certainly find that the G5 6801M lives up to the challenge, but dedicated tinkerers will find better value elsewhere.

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