Shuttle MB11 BX Socket-370 microATX

Around 10 years ago, everyone envisioned the year 2000 as being the time when we'd all be driving around in flying cars and talking to robots about last night's basketball game. While that may be a stretch, everyone envisioned the turn of the millenium being the point at which technology would truly become more of an integral part of our lives. Depending on the type of computer user you are, this may or may not have already come true. The point is this, computers are becoming an increasingly popular presence in the home, and with that the fight over using a single computer in a home where more than one person is interested in using it is becoming increasingly popular as well. The solution?

For many, the solution has been building a second system. Usually, when constructing a secondary system you don't want to spend an incredible amount of money, so cutting corners is encouraged. The most popular way of doing so, instead of going out and buying the latest in crap-peripherals, seems to be turning towards the idea of a motherboard with integrated sound/video.

Shuttle, a company that is notorious for releasing enough products to tend to the needs of virtually any consumer, has jumped on the highly integrated motherboard bandwagon, especially with their latest release, the MB11. Let's have a look at those specs...

New Anand Tech Report Card Rating
79/C-

The Good

The MB11 features Shuttle's standard pseudo-jumperless CPU setup, which basically allows for the CPU to be configured either via jumpers or once inside the Award BIOS setup. Fortunately, the Socket-370 standard does have its benefits in this area. Since all Celeron processors are multiplier locked, they cannot possibly run at any frequency other than what they're designed to operate at unless you change the FSB setting. Because of this, as long as the MB11 remains at its default setting of 66MHz, you can just stick in any Celeron and boot 'er up at the proper speed without spending a minute of time on configuration.

Building on the trend of integration, the MB11 features an integrated Creative ES1373 audio controller, which is a welcome change from the poor quality integrated sound controllers that dominated the market just a year ago. The ES1373 is a PCI audio solution, and is definitely able to provide for your basic needs, although it's not the latest in 3D audio, it'll pump the sounds you want at a cost that is quite affordable (due to the decrease in manufacturing costs vs a full sound card).

Shuttle provides a complete set of drivers included on a bundled CD for the Rage Pro, and the ES1373. Also included to supplement the CD-ROM is Shuttle's standard Quick Installations Guide and the full set of written documentation on the CD-ROM.

The stability of the MB11 seemed to be average during AnandTech's torture tests, but that can be expected from a motherboard directed at the low-cost market. Nevertheless, the MB11 comes through as a motherboard that is able to produce the bare minimum for a low-cost second system, with a decent feature set.