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After offering the AGP slot in several versions of the XPC for the P4, Shuttle ramps up their selection for the AMD platform with a VIA KM266-based model. Featuring AGP 8X (internal graphics) and UATA 133 and an external AGP 4X slot, the SK41 has, at least on paper, everything the AMD afficionado could desire from an overgrown cigar box. I.C.E. heat pipe technology, spring-loaded this time, is sufficient for cooling and adds a new meaning to the term "ease of installation". Often frowned upon, the VIA chipset turned out better than its reputation, especially showing solid UATA133 performance. Paired with an ATI RADEON 9700, the SK41G delivered excellent gaming performance. Using the integrated graphics takes up some bandwidth but how bad is it? "It Depends" means that there is much more to that story than we can put into a single paragraph.

Amongst the sparse highlights of the PC area of 2002 was the enormous success of Shuttle Computer's XPC series. Belittled and frowned upon in the beginning, the shoe box-sized miniature PCs have become a household item in the PC world, not only because of the small form factor but also because of their hardly matched quiet mode of operation. Success always generates followers and, thus, it is not surprising that, aside from other "original" SFF manufacturers like MSI, more and more brands are churning up what looks like knock-off versions of the XPC series. Notable mentions go to Iwill and Soltek here, with the latter even coming up with a larger version of the cube, which probably will find its followers, even though it almost defies the purpose of the SFF concept.

Shuttle XPC, accept no imitations regardless of how creative they may look ..... and click for full view

One peculiarity of the XPCs has been that most of them were geared towards the Intel processor platform, supporting either the original Socket370 PIII (or VIA C3) or else the P4 on either SIS or Intel chipset-based mainboards. The latest additions were to integrate the AGP slot in addition to the mandatory PCI expansion slot and, thus, the tiny ones were capable of running with the best out there when it came to raw performance. AMD fans, thus far, had to wait or content themselves with PCI-based graphics that are adequate for a number of tasks but when it comes to high-end 3D gaming or CAD applications requiring professional graphics cards, the SS40 was somewhat out of its league.

This is all changing now, AMD fans are going to have their hands full, with the SK41 featuring the VIA KM266 chipset and, a few weeks down the road, the SN41G2 based on the nForce2 chipset. While the latter is the one to really watch out for, there is no reason to disregard the VIA-based solution, after all, there is an AGP slot in the system which means overcoming the limitations of the onboard graphics and associated performance issues.

As with all XPCs, there are two different part numbers, one for the entire system which is the SK41G and the other one for the mainboard which is FX41. Being based on the KM266 chipset brings support for AGP 8X and ATA 133, courtesy of the VT8375 SouthBridge. Keep in mind, though that AGP 8X is only supported internally, the external AGP slot is interconnected via the older 2.0 (2X, 4X) standard.

More severe is the lack of support for DDR333 or a 166 MHz FSB that would mostly need the 1/5 PCI divider. But then, we are not sure that the integrated graphics controller could handle the higher speed. On the up-side is the price, the latest we heard was that the SK41 sells below the $300 mark which makes it the probably most affordable high performance PC out there.

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