Key Specs
Nvidia GeForce 8200AMD Socket AM2+
Two/yes
4GB
Nvidia GeForce 8200 graphics
One PCIe x16
One
None
One
One
One
300-watt
7.4x8.2x12.8 inches
How much can a manufacturer do with a bare-bones PC? A chassis prestocked with everything a computer needs—except the CPU and RAM—can go in only so many different directions. So it's not especially surprising that Shuttle's $299 SN78SH7 bare-bones PC is practically identical—at least physically—to the XPC SG33G5 bare-bones we reviewed last year around this time.
The SN78SH7, which measures 7.4x8.2x12.8 inches (HWD), boasts microphone and headphone jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, and one four-pin FireWire jack on its glossy-black front panel. The rear panel offers VGA-out, HDMI, and six-pin FireWire connections, two external SATA (eSATA) ports, four more USB ports, an Ethernet jack, and eight-channel audio; unlike the SG33G5, however, there's no S/PDIF out. There are two expansion slots (one PCI Express x16 and one regular PCI), and you get three drive bays (one each of external 5.25, external 3.5, and internal 3.5), all in a removable drive rack. A narrow, 300-watt power supply is nicely tucked out of the way on the side of the case, and pre-tied cables help contribute to the overall interior neatness.
As long as your needs are, and will remain, limited, the SN78SH7 should suffice nicely as the starting point for a smart home-theater PC. You have plenty of options for powering it, as the system uses an AM2+ socket that can run the latest two-, three-, or four-core processors in the Athlon X2 or Phenom series. The two RAM slots can hold up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM (at speeds up to 1,066MHz). The chipset is the new nVidia GeForce 8200, which supports DirectX 10 and is optimized for HD video playback without requiring a discrete graphics card. (If you decide to add a GPU, though, you can use it in concert with the integrated graphics—thanks to built-in Hybrid SLI technology—and boost your video performance.)
While the SN78SH7 has most everything you'll need for taking full advantage of Windows Media Center and HD content, storage could present a problem. Those eSATA ports allow for plenty of external expandability for the television shows you might start recording—if you have external hard drives to use them. But the lack of room for one more internal hard drive might discourage some buyers; external drives haven't quite reached the dirt-cheap price level of the internal variety.
