A closer look at the little beastie
I could keep blathering on about synergies and bus bandwidth, but you'd probably rather see some pictures of this thing, so let's segue into a little photo essay action. The SN41G2 is best appreciated in pictures, so let's have a look at the goods.


Front ports include a digital audio output, mic in, headphones, dual USB 2, and Firewire


A closer look at that port cluster

You only get one PCI slot and one AGP slot for expansion, so it's crucial the SN41G2 include nearly everything one might need. The only major omissions here are a parallel port and a second serial port—if you consider those things major. The SB51G lacks an S-Video out, which is a shame, since these cubes make excellent media PCs. The SN41G2, however, has an S-Video output on board.


With the cover off, the cubes leave a surprising amount of room to work


Remove the drive cage for full access

The SN41G2 is, like the other XPC systems, surprisingly easy to work with. You will have to disconnect your drives and remove the drive cage to swap out a processor, but doing so is relatively painless, all things considered, thanks to a smart design. With the exception of the drive cage screws, all of the SN41G2's major retention points are occupied by thumbscrews, which make pulling off the case and removing the heatpipe/fan assembly easier than with many mini-tower enclosures.

However, the SN41G2 is a little less friendly than the SB51G. Overall, the insides of the SN41G2 seem more crowded. A particular sore spot is the area around the AGP slot. The SPDIF and USB headers there, along with their associated cables, made fitting our Radeon 9700 card into the box for testing a real chore. The Radeon 9700 may be very fast, but it's not a particularly large AGP card.

Also, I had the SPDIF cable get stuck under the metal lip of the cube's outer case as I tried to replace the case, and the metal nearly cut through the wiring. Of course, I am a clumsy goof, but still—the SN41G2 is a little crowded.


The SPDIF and USB headers and cables crowd the AGP slot