[1] The new Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro AGP became available in UK online stores just before Christmas and I was [2] lucky enough to be able to grab hold of one. It may be a blessing to those who are not ready yet to move on to the PCI-Express platform. That may sound fine and dandy to those with a tower or desktop system, but what about Small Form Factor (SFF) owners, namely the Shuttle XPC?

In [3] my previous post, my initial research led me to believe that the Leadtek WinFast 7600GT AGP would be the best solution for my Shuttle SB65G2 (with a G2 case). With the release of the Sapphire X1950 Pro AGP at only £30.00 extra, the answer has never been clearer. However, with it’s length almost covering an A4 sheet and the presence of two molex connectors, I was worried that I may have made the wrong choice. Have I?

Well if you haven’t noticed the pictures already, you can see that I’ve successfully fitted the Sapphire X1950 Pro into my Shuttle G2 case. I’d like to point out an important fact here:

IT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO FIT THIS CARD INTO A SHUTTLE G2 CASE.

If it’s impossible, how the heck did I do it? Before I give out my little secret, let me tell you how I wept and wept and wept when my attempts at trying to fit this card into my Shuttle kept ending in vain. There was absolutely no way it would get in. It was just too long and too big. It took me a while to realise that I could possibly unscrew the motherboard off and move the AGP slot slightly forward to allow the card to get in. That didn’t work as well since the backplate end was not going into the case bottom slot. It then occured to me that I should take the backplate off. So off comes the standoffs and backplate… voila! It went in!

With the huge card in place now (don’t forget to put the backplate back on), putting the Shuttle back together was very difficult since the only opening left was from the top (left side blocked by the Sapphire X1950 Pro AGP and right side blocked by the Shuttle power supply). It took me a while to properly plug the cables back in the drives.

With everything plugged back in, my next concern was whether the card would actually work with my SB65G2’s 200W PSU. A quick press of the power button and… it came to live!!!

A quick download of the latest Catalyst drivers and a restart later, I was ready to put the card to the test.

Running with an Intel Prescott 3.4GHz @ 3.65GHz (216MHz FSB) with 2Gb Kingmax SuperRam PC3200 Dual Channel memory. Here are some benchmark scores (click the scores for details):

• 3DMark03 = [4] 15082
• 3DMark05 = [5] 8183
• 3DMark06 = [6] 4423

This card absolutely rocks! Just look at the 3DMark scores above! I haven’t encounter any problems so far (running for almost a week now). A word of advice, I think the 200W power supply won’t be enough for the Sapphire X1950 Pro AGP. Shuttle owners might want to invest in the 300W PC50 to give it more juice, eventhough it’s still way below the 450W that was recommended by Sapphire. I have no idea what the implications are after prolonged use.

I think this one’s definitely a keeper. Wouldn’t you agree?

[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

P/S: There is [16] a thread going on at Sudhian.com forum with different people reporting their experiences in fitting a Sapphire (and other makes) X1950 Pro AGP into various Shuttles. The ones that have been confirmed are the following Shuttle XPC models:

• SB65G2 (yours truly, needed backplate off before fitting)
• SN95G5 (user removed card holding bracket at the top)
• SB75G2 (user removed card holding bracket at the top)
• SK43G (direct fit, no modding)
• SK21G (direct fit, no modding)
• SN45G (direct fit, no modding)
• ST20G5 (direct fit, no modding)

I will update the list as more confirmation is given.