Internal musings
Let's take a gander inside, which is as easy as removing three thumbscrews.
The ever-so-familiar internal shot of modern XPC, save for the SN85G4. A removable tray that'll house hard, floppy and optical drives comes away once two screws have been removed.
This shot gives you a better angle on things. Ports on the right, DIMM slots next door, single AGP and PCI slots make up the foreground and the I.C.E cooling system takes up a chunk of the left-hand side, all of which is neatly sandwiched by a revised ACHME mini-PSU.
Speaking of the other side, we see where the two DIMM slots end. Shuttle reckons the SB65G2 holds up 2GB of system RAM. That's true enough, but for most users 1GB (2 x 512MB) will be the economic limit. Remember that this is a Shuttle FB85 motherboard, such that Intel's i865PE chipset powers matters. That leads to dual-channel memory support, so you're best off running a pair of sticks for maximum performance.
Shuttle USB-powered 802.11b Wireless LAN module sits just above the 220w ACHME PSU. Shuttle has done the hard work by incorporating it into the design without the need for user intervention. 6 USB 2.0 ports are available on the SB65G2, and the ICH5 South Bridge provides support for 8 in total; one of the two redundant ones is used here. It's simple, elegant design, and something that's truly appreciated by us.
802.11b has now been superceded by a faster Wireless standard. It, however, has a theoretical speed limit of 11 Mbps (~ 1.4MB/s). That's not trailblazing speed, so if you're looking for speedy transfers the on-board 10/100 LAN would be the way to go. We would have preferred Gigabit LOM (LAN On Motherboard). This XPC deserves it. We'll cover Wireless performance here.
A number of PCs are connected up using a Netgear 4-port Wireless router. The Shuttle PN11 WLAN installed without a hitch. The accompanying CD providing drivers and software support, which was Shuttle's PRISM in this case. The transfer speed appeared to top out at between 450 - 500 KBps (3.6 - 4 Mbps). That's more than adequate for broadband usage, unless you have a mutant home connection. The bandwidth here is less than half the quoted 11Mbps figure, something that's increasingly the case with 802.11b connections. Signal strength was good up to 50 feet away from the Wireless router. At any rate, we're pleased that Wi-Fi has been integrated into the SB65G2.
