Shuttle XPC SB86i Review by Hexus.net

digerati · May 29, 2005, 08:41 PM

Personally, it's still early doors for the form-factor, with Intel pushing it slowly, AMD only working on BTX if and when one of their major customers request it, and it having no contact with the mainstream enthusiast space bar some faux-BTX chassis made by basically turning an ATX design on its head. However, people need to start thinking about BTX's thermal philosophies as we approach next generation processor designs from AMD and Intel.

Heat output, and not just of the CPU, but the core logic and memory subsystem too, is ever rising. Even if it's as slow as possible, due to innovative use of low-K substrates in silicon designs, silicon-on-insulator, strained silicon and research into the eventual replacement for the silicon-based transistor and full wafer, we're going to see the first mainstream 100W+ processors from AMD in due course, with Intel there for months already with various Pentium 4 designs.

So when Matt's main bugbear in his CTS article, Shuttle's SB86i, which is a full picoBTX design in a brand new chassis, dropped into the HEXUS Review Dungeon for me to poke, prod and evaluate, I wondered how well Shuttle would do with the form factor in a chassis design they've had to engineer from the ground up to support it. And support it literally, which will make sense if you understand how the Type I and Type II cooling modules work.
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Read The Review: Hexus.net

May 29, 2005, 08:41 PM	#1
digerati Everyones life has worth Join Date: May 2003 Location: My Yellow Bug Posts: 3,779 Rep Power: 0	Shuttle XPC SB86i Review by Hexus.net Personally, it's still early doors for the form-factor, with Intel pushing it slowly, AMD only working on BTX if and when one of their major customers request it, and it having no contact with the mainstream enthusiast space bar some faux-BTX chassis made by basically turning an ATX design on its head. However, people need to start thinking about BTX's thermal philosophies as we approach next generation processor designs from AMD and Intel. Heat output, and not just of the CPU, but the core logic and memory subsystem too, is ever rising. Even if it's as slow as possible, due to innovative use of low-K substrates in silicon designs, silicon-on-insulator, strained silicon and research into the eventual replacement for the silicon-based transistor and full wafer, we're going to see the first mainstream 100W+ processors from AMD in due course, with Intel there for months already with various Pentium 4 designs. So when Matt's main bugbear in his CTS article, Shuttle's SB86i, which is a full picoBTX design in a brand new chassis, dropped into the HEXUS Review Dungeon for me to poke, prod and evaluate, I wondered how well Shuttle would do with the form factor in a chassis design they've had to engineer from the ground up to support it. And support it literally, which will make sense if you understand how the Type I and Type II cooling modules work. __________________________________ Read The Review: Hexus.net