Shuttle’s SN41G2 & SK41G: Two Athlon Small Form Factor PCs

A New Power Supply

With the SB51G (i845GE) XPC, Shuttle introduced a new power supply made by Achme, the same folks that provided the power supplies for previous XPC designs. The new power supply is also used in the SK41G and SN41G2, and thus comes outfitted with the same ATX12V connector.

One downside to all of these XPCs using the same power supply is that the hard drive 12V-only connector is still around. Before the SB51G, Shuttle didn’t have a standard ATX12V connector on their XPC motherboards, and instead just used a standard hard drive power connector but without the 5V line.

The 12V only connector can be distinguished from a regular hard drive connector by its lack of any red wires and only 3 connectors

Now that this connector is no longer necessary, you have a useless power connector that carries no 5V line. Shuttle hasn’t done much to distinguish the connector from other hard drive connectors, although if you look at it you’ll notice that it’s missing the 5V wire. The connector is useless for powering any devices as they will most likely not work, thanks to the lack of proper 5V on the cable. The sooner Shuttle gets rid of this connector the better as it will undoubtedly save them some tech support calls; but we’re proud to believe that AnandTech readers will quickly recognize and set the 12V connector aside when setting up their XPCs.

The 200W power supply found in the SK41G and SN41G2 provides a much cleaner signal than the previous unit which debuted with the SS51G. The end result is that stability is improved and the powered Firewire issues have been resolved as well. All in all, not a bad upgrade.