The motherboard is a Shuttle model based on Intel's G33 chipset. On paper, this is a decent basis for a media centre as the internal chipset isn't cooled by noisy fans, and its onboard GMA 3100 graphics will support HDMI/HDCP, which is required for playing Blu-ray or HD DVD movies.
Unfortunately drivers for enabling HDMI/HDCP weren't available at the time of assembly, so Shuttle has chosen to install a separate (fully HDMI/HDCP-ready) graphics card, designed for gamers. This is a fairly pointless addition since although the card allows HDMI/HDCP, the PC doesn't have a Blu-ray or HD DVD drive. More damagingly, the card makes noise -- the last thing you want in a media centre PC.
Although the XFX GeForce 8600 GTS graphic card adds the ability to play games that the Intel graphics can't touch it also bumps up the noise levels significantly and must add about £100 to the cost. We were told that the XFX graphics should include a DVI-to-HDMI adapter so you can connect the Shuttle to your HDTV. However, there was no adapter in the package.
The other media centre features are also suspect as we didn't get a Windows MCE remote control -- not to mention a mouse or a keyboard -- and the PCI TV card didn't work properly. It's a Compro VideoMate DVB-T220 with Philips SAA7130HL chip and while Windows Vista appeared to scan the airwaves successfully, we couldn't find any TV channels to watch. Switching to a USB Terratec tuner connected to the same roof mounted aerial gave a full selection of channels so the VideoMate would definitely seem to be the guilty party.
Performance
Performance
was good. The 2.67GHz Core 2 Duo is the fastest dual core CPU that
Intel makes. The Shuttle has plenty of memory, as well as a decent
500GB hard drive, even though the XFX 8600 GTS is a middling gaming
graphics card.
If you didn't know the 3300M used a small form factor then the benchmark figures would suggest that it was a regular gaming PC. It scored an overall 6,940 on our PCMark05 test and 5,444 on our 3DMark06 test. With the Intel graphics, the overall PCMark05 score drops to 4,877.
Conclusion
If the Shuttle used the integrated Intel
graphics to provide near silent support for high definition movies then
we'd very likely be impressed. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Instead, you pay a hefty premium for a small, attractive PC that is too noisy to earn a place in your living room. The fact that we had problems with the TV tuner merely adds an extra straw or two to the overloaded camel's back. Try Shuttle's XPC mini X 200MA instead for your multimedia home setup.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday
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