Shuttle MB11 BX Socket-370 microATX

The Bad

Does Shuttle get the recommendation?   Unfortunately, no.  Usually AnandTech refrains from making comments on a motherboard's performance, simply because of the fact that most motherboards perform within a few percent of one another.  However the MB11 performed noticeably worse than even the slowest of Socket-370 motherboards AnandTech has reviewed.  This could be partially attributed to the 2D performance of the on-board ATI Rage Pro Turbo accelerator. 

If the performance isn't a discouraging factor for you, there are a few design issues that need to be addressed.  The placement of the electrolytic capacitors around the Socket-370 interface make it quite difficult to clamp a heatsink/fan combo onto the processor, especially for those users with slightly larger fingers. 

Secondly, the pseudo-jumperless configuration has been a feature that Shuttle has stuck with for quite some time for very little reason.   It is time that the company pursues an entirely jumperless configuration for those users that do want to experiment with higher FSB settings, while the CPU PnP features are implemented, it's about time to get rid of the jumpers. 

The Installations Guide is a helpful tool if you want a quick spec sheet on the motherboard, however it would be preferred if the motherboard were to come with both a quick guide as well as a hard copy of a full fledged user's manual.

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: Mushkin SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM; Memory Man SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 256MB Corsair PC100 SDRAM DIMM (for compatibility testing only)

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.mushkin.com

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: Mushkin SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM; Memory Man SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 256MB Corsair PC100 SDRAM DIMM (for compatibility testing only)

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.mushkin.com