Shuttle XPC P2 3700G Desktop PC Review
Overview:
Pros:
- Decent Image Quality
- Ideal for gaming
- Small form factor
- Customizable
- Not noisy compared to competitors like AlienWare
Cons:
- Expensive
- To exploit the full potential of the 4GB HD , a 64 bit OS needs to be used
- Processor and Graphics support used- not latest
Review:
Shuttle Inc. is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of motherboards, complete PC systems, and monitors . Shuttle has been one of the world’s top 10 motherboard manufacturers, and gained fame in 2001 by introducing the Shuttle SV24, one of the world’s first commercially successful small form factor computer.
The XPC P2 3700G - Gaming like never before:
The XPC P2 3700G, the latest addition to the burgeoning family of Shuttle PCS, provides enough features to embarrass most desktops that are twice its size. It takes the SD37P2 Intel i975X - based chassis that adds in with an Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPU, 4GB RAM a single 400GB hard drive, and an NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 1GB graphics card. If a miniature PC with Alienware-type performance is your idea of an ideal gaming machine, you are reading the right review.
One can easily book a Shuttle XPC P2 3700G direct from Shuttle’s Web site, where you configure the specifications to your heart’s delight.
Design:
The Shuttle XPC P2 3700G Desktop PC is based on the XPC Barebones SD37P2 chassis, something that is about half the size of a traditional desktop PC. Do not get disheartened by the size, because what it lacks in size it makes up for in its looks.
The fold down sections:
The front side of the unit is constructed as three distinct fold down sections. Each of these sections has a front panel with a subtle brushed-metal effect that adds to the looks. Design features that add to the looks are a silver detailing down the front right, which makes a great contrast, and the curved disc eject and power buttons. There is a third curved button, which is a hard drive activity LED.
Reveal the ports:
The P2 3700G Gaming PC has glossy reflective sections running along the bottom, top and right-sided front bezel is glossy reflective sections. The section to the bottom opens to reveal a reset switch, microphone and headphone ports, USB ports- 2 in number, and a four-pin FireWire port. The left and right sides of the machine host a set of vents and beautifully engraved Shuttle logos.
The rear side of the 3700G is much more complex. A large circular vent that expels hot air from the CPU and two Digital Visual Interface (DVI) ports from the GeForce 7950 GX2 graphics card are seated in the rear side. One will also find a six pin FireWire port, a LAN port, five discrete 1.5 mm audio ports, six USB ports, two SPDIF inputs and outputs, an external Serial ATA (SATA) port and a LAN port.
Interior Design:
The interior design of the Shuttle XPC 3700G is very clever. The top part of the unit acts as a host to two 3.5-inch drive bays. Banging the top of the PC, just for the fun of it, is not advisable unless you fancy damaging one of the drives.
The CPU is seated near the front of the PC beneath a large aluminium heat sink and an even bigger fan. It is hard to imagine how Shuttle managed to include two PCI Express ports in the same box, but both the slots are occupied, just like all four of the PC’s DDR memory slots, clever engineering one might call it.
Features:
The Shuttle XPC P2 3700G desktop Computer uses a proprietary Shuttle FD37 motherboard along with an Intel 975X chipset. These being very well exploited by an Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 CPU and 4GB of DDR2 667MHz memory, ensure maximum throughput and performance.
Graphics - at its best:
Graphics is totally sorted out on the XPC P2 3700G. It uses a high-end Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 card, which is considered to be the fastest in the world. The Nvidia Geforce 7950GX2 is a dual-GPU making gaming at high resolutions a great experience. A better choice for the 7950GX2 would have been a DirectX 10 Geforce 8800GTS or GTX, but these cards are simply too long to fit into the Shuttle case.
Like a dual-core CPU, the XPC P2 3700G uses two graphics processors, have 16 vertex shaders, a monstrous memory bandwidth of 76.8GB per second 48 pixel pipelines. The card is also HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) compatible. Though it is SLI-capable and can be attached to a second identical card, there is not much space inside the PC to accommodate this.
Multimedia capabilities and Storage:
Shuttle XPC P2 3700G comes with Windows XP Professional Edition, and has opted not to supply the PC with Windows XP Media Center Edition. This does limit the multimedia user experience to some extent, but multimedia file hoarders will love the 400GB hard drive. A 400GB hard drive is all that is required to provide enough room for well over 500 DivX movies or over 100,000 MP3s. Get yourself a decent set of speakers and you can enjoy either through 7.1-channel high-definition audio via the onboard Intel sound card.
One of the inherent problems associated with the usage of 4 GB of RAM in a Windows XP 32-bit based system is the reservation of part of the memory for PCI addressing. In this case, users will only able to see around 3 GB of system memory. To harness the full physical benefits of having 4 X 1GB sticks of RAM in the system, you will have to use a 64 bit OS.
Power Supply:
The 350 Watt power supply is seated internally and is very small in size, actually the smallest that can power such a highly specified system. A lot of hot air is vented out of the chassis, but it manages to remain quiet even under full load for very long periods of time.
Performance:
If you are looking for a PC that will not bat an eyelid at any task, whether it be video encoding, gaming or word processing, the XPC P2 3700G is what you should invest in , it is unbeatable.
Impressive:
The performance of the Shuttlt XPC P2 3700G is undeniably impressive. What is even more pleasing is the ability to integrate so much hardware into a chassis that isn’t even half the size of machines with the same performance capabilities. To be able to cool the components, effectively, in a whisper-quiet mode is also something that has to be appreciated.
Everything is not the Latest:
Although it is a reasonably good performer, size and power considerations dictate that the P2 3700G does not cater for the very latest hardware. It is in fact one step down from the best in each area - Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 is being used instead of QX6700 , NVIDIA’s GeForce 7950GX2 instead of GeForce 8800 GTX, DDR2-533 instead of DDR2-1066 to name a few. Hardware enthusiasts should possibly look for a better machine with the latest in the market.
Noise and Power:
As mentioned before, the system is quiet. The CPU fan (CPU + 92mm exhausting fan) is set to operate in Smart Fan mode and the system fans (rear 60mm fans) are operated as an ultra-slow fan speed. It is one of the quietest high-end systems, and no component overheating or CPU throttling was in evidence with these cooling settings.
Shuttle’s stout 400W PSU may be small on size but big on performance, even after a 12-hour burn-in test, the system just works fine.
Heat:
The temperature of the warm air being pushed out from the PSU fan is around 48 degree C with an ambient temperature of 21 degree C. Kudos to Shuttle for having developing a SFF XPC that makes use of high-end components but still somehow manages to keeps the noise down.
Warranty:
Shuttle’s live support is available through a toll free telephone number. Shuttle also offers a 2-year collect-and-return service that begins on the date of invoice and which aims to turnaround systems, from initial pickup to return delivery, within 7 working days.
We, however feel that a 3-year warranty should be standard for high-end systems, especially when a lot of money has been invested.
Verdict:
The Shuttle P2 3700G is without doubt an excellent performer and has a design that is eye catchy. But as mentioned before, all the parts inside are not necessarily the latest and the 4GB system memory is of no use unless used with a 64 bit Operating System, which is, we believe a huge disadvantage. However, even if we consider all these disadvantages, the advantages make them negligible. We are sure and confident that this Shuttle PC will do well because it is aimed at a young market that requires impressive performance in a small form-factor system.
Our final verdict would be that, if you are the kind of person who would not mind spending a lot of money on a quality machine that has amazing gaming capabilities, the Shuttle XPC P2 3700G is a definite impresser. Starting with great looks to awesome graphics, this machine is definitely WORTH YOUR MONEY.
Check reviews, specs of Asus Desktop PCs, Dell Desktop PCs in our website.
Shuttle XPC P2 3700G Gaming Desktop PC - Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Shuttle |
| Model Name | Shuttle XPC P2 3700G |
| PC type | Gaming Desktop PC |
| Series | XPC |
| DIMENSIONS AND DISPLAY | |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 8.3 x 8.7 x 12.8 |
| Colour | Black |
| Display | Not Included |
| PROCESSOR, MEMORY, STORAGE | |
| Processor type | 64 bit- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 |
| Clock speed | 1.86 GHz |
| Multi-Core processor technology | Dual-Core |
| DVD-Writer - IDE | Intel Execute Disable Bit Intel Virtualization Technology Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology |
| Chipset | Intel 975X Express |
| Cache | 2MB L2 Cache |
| RAM | Installed: 1GB Max: 8GB |
| RAM type | DDR2 SDRAM |
| RAM details | Memory speed: 533 MHz Memory specification compliance: PC2-4200 RAM form factor: DIMM 240-pin Configuration: 2 x 512MB |
| WLAN Standard | Network adapter - Integrated |
| Storage Controller Type | 1 x RAID - Integrated, Serial ATA-300 |
| Storage Controller Second Type | 1 x IDE – Integrated, ATA-100 |
| Hard drive size | 200 GB |
| Hard Drive type | Standard - Serial ATA-300 |
| Spindle speed | 5400rpm |
| Optical drive | DVD-Writer - IDE |
| GRAPHICS, VIDEO AND SOUND | |
| Graphics Processor | ATI Radeon X1600 XT |
| Graphics Controller | PCI Express x16 - Plug-in card |
| Sound output mode | 7.1 channel surround |
| Sound Card | Integrated |
| Audio Input | Headphones |
| Audio output compliant standards | High Definition Audio |
| COMMUNICATION FEATURES | |
| Ethernet | Broadcom BCM5789 |
| Modem | No |
| Networking-Data link protocol | Ethernet , Fast Ethernet , Gigabit Ethernet |
| Networking-Features | Wake on LAN (WoL) |
| Memory card reader | optional with 22-in-1 card reader |
| CONNECTIVITY | Microphone Headphone (Line-out) 2x USB 2.0 Firewire (4 pol. mini port) VGA Sub-D connector (analog) DVI-I connector (digital/analog) TV connector (S-Video/Composite) 6x USB 2.0 Firewire (6 pin) GigaBit LAN (RJ45) External Serial ATA Hotplug (eSATA) 8-ch Audio line-out (2x rear/front, bass/center, surround/back) Audio Line-in SPDIF: optical in/out, coaxial out CMOS button optional Wireless LAN module (PN18) |
| SOFTWARE | |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition |
| Other software | Nero 6 , CyberLink PowerDVD 6 |
| POWER | |
| Power device type | Power supply |
| Voltage Required | AC 120/230 V |
| Power provided | 400 Watt |
| Cooling technology | 4th Gen. I.C.E. heatpipe cooling with linear fan control, improved airflow dynamics with 3 cooling zones |
| COMPLIANCES | EMV-guideline 89/336/EWG electromagnetic tolerance, LVD-guideline 73/23/EWG use of electric devices within certain voltage-limits |
| Box contents | Shuttle XPC P2 3700G PC Software and drivers Instruction manual |
| WARRANTY | Limited warranty - 2 years - Pick-up and return |
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