Opening 'er up

Removing the SB775G5's outer shell reveals a packed interior, but it's easy to open things up by removing the cube's drive cage.

As you can see, it's much easier to work on the SB775G5 with the drive cage removed. Like most cubes, the SB775G5's AGP slot is located on the outside edge of the system, making it incompatible with double-wide graphics cards like the GeForce 6800 Ultra without extensive modification. Let's pull out the motherboard for a closer look at the layout.

The cube's FB77 motherboard is pretty packed, but that's to be expected considering the form factor. Given the SB775G5's carefully routed internal cabling, motherboard layout isn't a huge concern. I do like seeing a large passive heat sink on the north bridge chip, though. Passive north bridge cooling is not only quieter than active cooling, it's also immune to fan failure. Shuttle also gets extra credit for equipping the board's VRMs with beefy passive heat sinks, which are pictured below.

One thing that immediately jumps out about the SB775G5's FB77 motherboard is its lack of a heat sink retention bracket. Shuttle uses a Pentium 4-style bracket on nearly every one of its recent cubes, but with the SB775G5, they're doing something a little different.

Rather than relying on Shuttle's previously excellent heat sink retention clip, the SB775G5's updated ICE cooler screws directly into the motherboard. The screws aren't quite as convenient as the old clip, but they only add a few seconds to the heat sink removal or installation process. Best of all, the screws are just the right length, so it's next to impossible to over-tighten them.

Other than its new screw-on design, the SB775G5's ICE cooler is similar to previous models. The cooler still has a smooth copper base, four heat pipes, and a massive array of cooling fins. A rear-mounted 92mm can keeps the fins cool, and thanks to handy rubber spacers, vibration-induced rattling is kept to a minimum.