Shuttle's bread and butter is SFF PC's, so it's no surprise the company has it down pat. There's a lot of SFF competition from companies like AOpen and MSI, but I think Shuttle is successful because it looks at the long haul, not just one quarter here or there.

The Shuttle XPC SG33G50 is based on Intel's comprehensive and affordable G33 Express chipset.

It supports Intel's new 1333 MHz FSB processors, the Intel GMA 3100 integrated videocard, and best of all HDMI output. Team those features up with HDCP and the system's small size, and the XPC SG33G50 has the potential to be a killer HTPC!

As the XPC SG33G50 is a barebone computer, all you need to do is supply your own processor, hard drive, memory and optical drive and you're set. With the Shuttle XPC SG33G50 coming in such a small package, you can easily place it in a discreet location.

The best feature of the Shuttle XPC SG33G50 is its ability to output an HDCP video signal through HDMI with audio. With HDMI you only need to hook up one cable to the television.

Internally the Shuttle XPC SG33G50 is nice to work with, as mentioned earlier the design is simple yet user friendly. The drive cage is as basic as it gets but it does the job well without any fuss. Shuttle runs cabling and wiring throughout the case for you, so everything has been positioned at its most ideal location.

About the only complaint I have with the XPC SG33G50 system is the positioning of the PCI Express x16 videocard slot. Located at the outer edge of the motherboard, it prevents you from installing higher performance videocards which employ dual slot cooling solutions... or quiet videocards with dual slot heatsinks even.

PCSTATS typically use an nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 320MB videocard to test integrated systems, but in this case we could not. The videocard has a dual-slot heatsink which will not fit in this system because the aluminum chassis gets in the way. Bummer.

Equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor, the Shuttle XPC SG33G50 was a quick performer. From the workstation and data crunching benchmarks, the Shuttle XPC SG33G50 can handle it.

When it comes to gaming the onboard Intel GMA 3100 videocard was woefully inadequate. Do yourself a favour and install a DirectX10 videocard before attempting to play 3D games... Integrated videocards aren't made for that kind of punishment.

On the whole, the Shuttle XPC SG33G50 was a pretty decent overclocker. It achieved a top speed of 440 MHz FSB! Of course without CPU clock multiplier adjustments I'm sure the system was held back by the processor. With a retail price of $333 CDN ($333 US, £165 GBP), the Shuttle XPC SG33G50 small formfactor PC is moderately priced. If you pick up one of these bad boys for the home office, or a media PC project you'll be happy with what you get.

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