Final Words

Looking at just the performance of the SK83G, for now we can conclude that it is simply mediocre. Future BIOS updates from Shuttle and new drivers from VIA may change that, even if we don't hold out a great deal of hope. The low performance and mild instability in SPECViewperf 7.1.1 was also disheartening. But with that all said, the performance and reliability in all other programs and benchmarks were just fine, and perfectly comparable to the best Athlon 64 SFF chipsets on the market, such as the nForce3 150/250Gb.

The SK83G's feature set was acceptable, and relatively competitive with offerings from many other SFF manufacturers. The few things that it lacked compared to nForce3 offerings (Gigabit LAN, native FireWire, lower overclocking ability) were somewhat made up for by its onboard video capability and more aesthetically pleasing style. That said, the Shuttle SK83G's price is about the same as the competition from other manufacturers, and as a result, doesn't necessarily warrant a recommendation in this regard.

Overall, we were most impressed with the quiet and cool operation of the SK83G, its well thought-out exterior and neatly organized interior, and the little additional features (rubber washers, tied down PSU wires, well positioned card reader, etc.) that made it a more pleasing build. In the end, though, if you want to stick with Shuttle, we suggest that you make up your mind by comparing Shuttle's SN85G4V2 (nForce3 150 chipset) with the SK83G and determine what style and features fits you best before deciding on what Athlon 64 SFF you want. If you're an overclocker, the SK83G is the last thing that you should consider. If you're just someone looking for a solid SFF, then this could be your baby.

For more information on these products, as always, you can read our previous SFF reviews by clicking the "Systems" tab at the top of this page.

Integrated UniChrome II Graphics Gaming Performance
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  • cosmotic - Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - link

    Am I the only one that wants to know how they got NVIDIA IDE controllers on VIA chipset motherboards? Ether that, or your specs are wrong.
  • Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - link

    #3 - You might be surprised at how some use their SFF machines. For example, the Shuttle SFF based on the 875 chipset has become a darling of the Extreme Overclocking crowd. In fact, I know 2 users who run their 875 SFF with mobile processors for low heat, the FSB at 300FSB, and top-end video. They take the machines to LAN parties.

    We always publish stock performance metrics as our baseline. If you don't personally care about overclocking an SFF, then just skip that information. We understand overclocking info is not important to some, but it does matter to others.
  • ggnl - Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - link

    Good review. Very informative, but I have a problem.

    The pictures are just fugly! I don't understand why you couple great analysis of the hardware with blurry, out of focus, poorly lit photographs.

    And it's not just this review, most of the reveiws on this site have the same crappy pictures. Please...pretty please with sugar on top...send one or two of your tech gurus to a basic studio photography class at the local community college and get a camara with decent macro ability. What did you do with that Canon 10D you reviewed a few weeks ago?

    This from the site that's going to be bringing you camera reviews...
  • overclockingoodness - Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - link

    nserra #3 - I can't disagree with you more.

    1. These systems are mainly designed as portable LAN machines for enthusiasts. And since AT is an enthusiasts, it makes sense to overclock the systems. Almost every site posts overclocking reslts, which makes complete sense.

    2. Why not? Many enthusiasts want best performance from these little PCs. If you want the best gaming performance, it makes complete sense to include a 6800 Ultra and/or 9800. I think you are the one with a messed up mind. So you are saying that having an Athlon64 chip is right, but having a high-end video card is wrong? Why the heck would someone want a high-end CPU if they are not going to do gaming? Your arguments are useless.

    3. Yeah, I agree with that BUT these systems are not for small businesses and schools who are not going to do anything with it. Don't forget that these systems are tragetted towards enthusiasts and nicely enough SFF proves be to a good form factor for space conscious users.

    4. Yep, agreed.

    5. You are wrong again. AnandTech has a selected benchmark suites which they use everytime to compare performance against competitor's products. If they were to start using new gaming and new testing methods for each product review, we, as readers, won't be able to understand the difference between each product and/or AnandTech will have to review 10 systems over and over again, which is a huge time wastage.




    I give you some credit for your post but all the important points are bogus and utterly useless. Please check your facts and by the way if these reviews are getting boring...then why in the world are you even reading them. Stop complaining and do not ask AnandTech to change the testing methods upside down just because you. You are not special, in fact, you are one of the ignorant readers who doesn't know a thing about computers.
  • nserra - Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - link

    Guys, these reviews are starting to get boring.

    1st - I don’t see the point of testing over clocking capabilities on "cube" PC's, it's ridiculous. The people at the market these products are aimed, this is not important, especially on such small systems, who want to do that.
    2nd - I don’t see the point of buying a such small system and put a Geforce 6800 or even an ati 9800, the person that does that is not in it right mind.
    3rd - the review of a system like these is more important sound quality and video quality playback as 2D display quality, and specially functionality or "extras" that systems like these have.
    4th - The noise the system make while is working is also very important.
    5th – And really these charts that always look the same are getting boring, or you start choosing applications/games that show “significant” differences between the various chipsets or these review get boring to read.
  • Jeff7181 - Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - link

    I don't understand why this is "AMD's shot at SFF."

    Shuttle has had AMD based SFF computers for a while now... is the processor a special SFF processor or something?
  • Sonic587 - Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - link

    On the Quake 3 Arena w/Unichrome benches, could you move the FPS results further to the right? You've got some text overlapping there and it's quite hard for me to read what FPS was obtained.

    Other than that, nice review.
  • Gbugmenot - Thursday, October 17, 2013 - link

    The difference between you and the others like the ones who make posts at http://www.stackfront.com is not much. You must be a 12yr old child who think know everything about computers, have you ever come out from your house and see the true world, the true reality? Have talked with other people non computer fanatics like your self? Regular PC users? Do you know about their needs? What they really want?

    From all the video cards in the world how many you do think are overclocked? 1/10000 1/1000 1/100? 1/10?

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