Jørgen Sundgot sits back, puts his feet up and lets Shuttle's XPC G5 8300M small form factor media PC take care of his entertainment needs. Does it pass the mustard?
Review summary of the Shuttle XPC G5 8300M:
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 Shuttle's G5 8300M media PC has several things going for it, including more-than-adequate processing power, decent graphics performance and storage space, comprehensive connectivity and a well-designed case. Unfortunately, sub-par TV output from the analog-only tuner along with excessive fan and hard drive noise mar what is otherwise a solid offering to the extent that heavy TV users should consider looking elsewhere while others should consider their tolerance for audible annoyances before purchasing.
Pros: Powerful; well-rounded connectivity; high quality video output
Cons: Noisy; poor TV performance; keyboard and monitor not supplied
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Full review of the Shuttle XPC G5 8300M:
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Even though it doesn't blend too nicely into a home theater setup, there's a certain charm to Shuttle's rather squat XPC G5 8300M media PC. It's a nice-looking unit with its jet black finish and mirror tinted front, but unfortunately the same cannot be said about its bundled remote control and Infrared receiver - both of which look a tad pudgy next to the main unit despite scoring reasonably high usability marks. Also, keeping in line with Shuttle's barebones heritage, a keyboard and monitor are not included.
Enough power to go around
Despite its omission of external trappings, the G5 8300M is a rather capable beast with a 3 GHz Pentium 4 Extreme, 512 MB of RAM and a 128 MB ATI Radeon X300SE graphics card mounted in a PCI Express slot. More than powerful enough to propel all aspects of the system's Windows XP Media Center 2005 operating system with ease, its configuration even allows for a decent gaming experience - yet is also the cause of the system's most unfortunate drawback: noise.
The G5 8300M is unfortunately a rather noisy piece of kit. First of all, its fan is easily on par with an Xbox or PS2 gaming console when operating at its lowest level - and when combined with unusually loud noise from the adequately-sized 200 GB SATA hard drive makes a mockery of quiet moments in movies or when watching TV. Still, it would only be fair to point out that the Infrared receiver comes with a fair length of cable, allowing users the less-than-ideal option of placing the unit itself out of the way.
In fact, the minimal amount of excercise then required to change DVDs would likely only benefit owners as they walk to and from the 16x Dual Layer DVD writer, which is neatly concealed behind the mirrored front. Here, we also find a collection of handily accessible connectivity options including line in/out ports, two USB 2.0 ports and FireWire, as well as a bright and clear Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) and a 6-in-1 media reader. The display, however, is too small to be of much use with the exception of displaying volume levels.
What, no digital?
Another drawback of the G5 8300M is the quality of its TV output. While other video is reproduced very well indeed through either S-Video, VGA or DVI connections, the single analog-only TV tuner configuration not only yields sub-par results with poor contrast, but also - by nature - negates the possibility of recording one program while watching another
Furthermore, cable or wireless users will be disappointed to learn that switching the TV set itself to another channel while recording takes place on the G5 is not an option if its passthrough capability is used; when switched on, sufficient interference is generated to render watching a thoroughly unpleasant experience. The only way to avoid this issue is to split the signal at the source and run separate cables to TV and PC.
Remaining connectivity is quite comprehensive, with the back of the unit harbouring Gigabit Ethernet; an additional two USB 2.0 ports; one more FireWire connector; a 5.1 channel line out and line in; and optical/coaxial SPDIF out as well as optical SPDIF in. In other words, owners will have the option of digital audio end-to-end - certain to be appreciated by the audibly inclined.
Singing and dancing
Running atop this collection of hardware is Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, complete with both strenghts and shortcomings. Its user interface, although somewhat distracting due to an abundance of animations, is expertly 10-foot friendly and visually pleasing while offering a broad set of functionality from the comfort of ones remote control. Its ability to pause live TV is particularly pleasing, while the inability to easily manage and rename channels is equally frustrating.
Building on the operating system's own capabilities, Ahead Nero 6 and CyberLink PowerDVD 5.0 do a good job of expanding functionality with excellent creation and playback capabilities for CDs and DVDs - and the latter even offers limited compatibility with the bundled remote control.
Availability
The Shuttle XPC G5 8300M is at the time of press available across Europe, selling in the €1,350 EUR range.
Price and availability
The Shuttle XPC G5 8300M will start selling for TBA () in December 1969.
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