Business Benchmarks
For a look at overall business/office performance, we ran Winstones 2004 Business and Content Creation tests. The variance for each test is about 3%, so anything less than that is considered equal performance; even a difference of up to 10% will hardly be noticeable in regular use (unless you're sitting in front of your computer waiting for an audio/video clip to finish encoding).
In terms of performance spread, all of the systems are pretty close to equal. The difference between the systems is at most 5%. In reality, any of these systems is more than fast enough for office work, as the majority of time spent on the computer is going to be user input rather than waiting for the CPU. For content creation work - especially video editing - you will likely want the faster units. For whatever reason, both of the older AGP models took top marks in the CC benchmark.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - link
So I spoke too soon. After finishing this article, I just happend to come across http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">the new Aopen 939 SFF. That actually looks pretty promising, though the IGP isn't going to beat the ST20G5 that I can see (no DVI port). Time to put in a request for that unit....rqle - Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - link
Price of these SFF are getting quite pricey lately. So much to the point when you add the cpu, hard drive, memory, video card, optical drive AND LCD it will comes very close to the price of a good high end laptop on a good day. Dell 17inch 9300 w/6800 on a VERY good sale day comes just over the price of these SFF 'system.' Big fan of these SFF, but prices should be a little bit more reasonable for me to buy again.JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - link
I agree with you on a lot of that, but a SFF with a 19" (or larger) LCD and a 6800GT/X800XL is pretty much going to stomp all over any similarly priced laptop. There's basically a $150 price premium to get a high-end SFF case, which is going to prevent many from buying. Still, some people buy $200 cases just because they look nice, so it's all a matter of taste.If you need portability, though, there are very few options other than getting a laptop. Personally, laptops and gaming are something I just don't care about. I'd get a cheap laptop for the office work I do and then keep a second system at home for any gaming. Some of course feel otherwise, but laptop keyboards and such just don't do it for me.
R3MF - Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - link
love it.BigT383 - Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - link
I have a first-generation SN95G5. I bought it thinking that since it's socket 939 I'd be able to upgrade to dual-core when it came out.Apparently this isn't the case, but I haven't seen anybody say they've tried it yet- so far there seem to be only rumors.
So I know this is a weird request but what I'd like to see right now is an article testing a CPU like the Athlon X2 4400+ on the three different versions of the SN95G5.
I can understand that X2s need a bios update, but the physical motherboard shouldn't be holding me back, right?
dcuccia - Thursday, August 18, 2005 - link
X2 support for the SN25P w/o USB2 issues is now available through a BIOS upgrade:http://www.shuttle.com/share/fae/hq/download/bios_...">http://www.shuttle.com/share/fae/hq/download/bios_...
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 18, 2005 - link
Thanks, I made a quick comment on the SN25P page to mention this.JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - link
I'm going to be dropping an X2 3800+ into the SN95G5v2 just to see what happens. I'll try to get some official word from Shuttle on the matter as well. I really have no idea what the SN95G5v1 will support. I think the main change between it and v2 was a switch from an 80mm fan to a 92mm fan.Zirconium - Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - link
I love the roundup articles. I find them to be the most useful because they allow you to hone in on what you are looking for quickly, and then you can go to other sites and check the reviews that are solely for the products you are looking for.That said, one thing I'm interested is the quality of the integrated graphics on these computers. I have an SK41G and I could tell the difference between the quality of the built-in graphics and the AIW Radeon 7500 that is currently in it. When the integrated graphics were hooked up to a TV (I tried two) you could notice bands moving up the TV.