Execution and overclocking
Previously, there has been some lag time between the introduction of a new chipset and its incorporation into an XPC model. With the SB61G2, Shuttle has shown a new commitment to cutting this lag time down to nearly nothing. The 865G chipset on which the SB61G2 is based was released less than a week ago. This is by far the shortest time between the release of a chipset and the release of a corresponding cube.

The second important news item here is the introduction of overclocking features into the Shuttle line. While it's true that previous cubes had features such as an adjustable bus speed, such items were of limited use because of a lack of corresponding tweaks like voltage adjustments and multiplier controls. The SB61G2 is the first Shuttle cube to come into our test labs with a full bevy of overclocking features, including front-side bus and multiplier adjustment, adjustable AGP/PCI speed, and adjustable core, memory, and AGP voltages.

The overclocking features are significant for the enthusiast community, because a large number of hardcore gearheads have said, "I'd have one of those for my main PC if I could just overclock with it." Now you can, and while we'll get into the details later, the short story is that most overclocking geeks will be quite satisfied with the SB61G2's offerings in this area.

The chipset innards: Intel's 865G
The source of a lot of the magic in the SB61G2 is Intel's brand-new 865G chipset. Those of you looking for an exhaustive treatise on the features of the Intel 865G chipset would do well to check out Damage's excellent article on the subject, but I'll hit the highlights here.

The 865G is the graphics-enabled member of the Chipset Family Formerly Known As Springdale. It features the second incarnation of Intel's Extreme Graphics, which for the purposes of 3D graphics are anything but. However, they should satisfy anyone who's not into 3D or CAD work, so if you're building a fast PC for Dad, and Dad doesn't play games, take note.

The big features from a performance standpoint would have to be support for an 800MHz front-side bus, dual-channel DDR400, and Hyper-Threading. In terms of high performance in Intel chipsets, the only thing hotter is the 875P and its Performance Acceleration Technology. Other notable features of the 865G include AGP 8X graphics and support for two Serial ATA channels, as well as support for eight USB 2.0 ports. Add it all up, and you've got a very fast, feature-laden chipset that should satisfy just about anyone.

Tech specs
What do you mean this wasn't here before? OK, fine, it wasn't. I initially neglected to include a tech specs section in this review, and once that fact was pointed out to me, I decided to rectify the problem. So here's a handy table on the SB61G2: