Here you can find compatible components for the Shuttle SG33G5M

Next you have to select graphic cards that are HDCP compliant! I decided to go for one that requires as little resources (power) as possible and is silent=without a cooling fan. Remember: I am not interested in games. Blu-Ray display is the primary goal here.

My choice: Asus EN8500GT/HTP/256 Silent

• hardware decoding of blu-ray content
• passive cooling for a low noise system
• power consumption is LOW: about 40 watts (max.).
• low budget.
• software for adjusting speeds (processor, memory, shader2) and to monitor the temperature.

After correctly installing all the drivers it was time for the ultimate test.

Full HD display of Blu Ray!

Both Nero Showtime 4 (with blu-ray plugin) and PowerDVD 7.3 show the same result. Blu-Ray movies look fabulous!

There are some differences between PowerDVD 7.3 and Nero 8.

• CPU stress is lower with PowerDVD: 35% compared to 40% with Nero (playing directly from blu-ray disc)
• Nero has more options to improve display quality. I used the maximum quality settings which may explain why Nero puts more stress on the CPU
• PowerDVD does NOT support Windows ICC-colormanagement! This means you cannot get full advantage of a display calibration!

Update january 2009:

WinDVD9 Plus blu-ray is a great DVD-player! For playback of standard DVD's it's the best thanks to 'All2HD' upscaling function. Blu-ray quality equals PowerDVD 7.3 (and that's a compliment). The support for BD+ is much better compared to both Nero and PowerDVD.

Can the Shuttle handle the extra stress?

Shuttle system and cpu temperatures

To ensure an adequate airflow inside the computer I raised the rpm of the cpu-fan. Default setting is 'smart fan' which starts the cpu-fan at about 850 rpm. This is not adequate for the system and temperature can rise considerable. Of course the 'smart-fan' will compensate eventually but it makes the noise levels changing all the time. Also I think the temperatures rise a lot before the fan picks up speed. Therefore the 'ultra-low' setting (BIOS) is better and starts the cpu-fan at about 1100-1200 rpm.

With XPCtools you can fine-tune the cooling system.

System idle

system idle for 30 minutes (after operating 8 hours)

(room temperature: 22 Celsius)

System + Blu-Ray playback (from blu-ray disc or HDD)

With Blu-Ray playback and an average of 35-40 % CPU-activity:

• Shuttle system temperature about 42 C
• cpu-temperature: about 60 C (from disc)
• cpu-temperature: about 53 C (from HDD)

system + BLU-RAY playing for 45 minutes from disc

system + BLU-RAY playing for 90 minutes from HDD (ISO)

Graphic card Asus EN8500GT/HTP/256 Silent

WARNING: The ASUS 8500GT comes with software for monitoring and adjusting GPU, Memory and Shader speed. This software (Smartdoctor and GamerOSD) can cause lots of problems! Also: after removing the software some programs on your computer may NOT function anymore! (in my case: Acronis True Image 11).

My advise: only install the display drivers. For Blu-Ray you don't need the monitoring software.

First I tuned the graphic card using SmartDoctor and opted for the lowest settings:

• Processor: 407Mhz,
• memory: 700 Mhz,
• shader: 818 Mhz

Temperatures

The graphic card processor gets pretty hot (I think) but this seems quite normal:

• GPU idle: 59 C
• GPU + blu-ray playback: 68-72 C

According to Asus and what I read about the 8500GT GPU these values are OK. And SmartDoctor confirms.

idle

Windows Scores

Windows Score with Asus settings: Engine 409 mhz - Shader 818 mhz - Memory 700 mhz :

Windows Score with maximum Asus settings: Engine 509 mhz - Shader 1518 mhz - Memory 900 mhz :

Conclusion

With a low-budget NVidia 8500GT graphics card the Shuttle SG33G5M turns into a beautifull low-noise multi-media system producing high quality playback of Blu-Ray full HD 1920x1080p movies with surround audio.

The Shuttle is capable of adequate cooling at a low noise level thanks to the cpu-fan running at about 1200 rpm. The system can maintain low-noise operation for hours at a stretch without significant stress to components.

Note: I found 1 blu-ray disc causing so much stress on the cpu that it made the cpu-fan spin-up... Meaning: extra noise. The blu-ray: Nature's Journey.

Note: The Pioneer BDR-202 bd-drive is NOT the best choice... When playing 'typical' BD's (those using VC-1 video compression) the Pioneer is SILENT. But other BD's with different video compression techniques (mpeg-2 and mpeg-4) cause the Pioneer to make noise which in soms situations can be annoying. Noisy examples: Planet Earth, Australia, Antartica, Alaska, Ice Age 2, Nature's Journey, Batman Begins.

Update January, 2009

I read about the ATI Radeon HD 4550 and it seems to be a good alternative for the nVidia 8500GT.

The Radeon HD 4550 is a passive cooled graphic card with low energy consumption. It has a hdmi-output and support for HD-audio over HDMI. Here you can read about image quality, media performance, power consumption and more.

Unfortunately I don't know about the picture quality: how do the Asus 8500GT and Radeon HD 4550 compare?

Important to consider: is there blu-ray player software support for the Radeon? WinDVD 9 PLus Blu-Ray does support the Radeon.

When selecting a graphic card you might also want to consider the 'decode ability' of the graphics processor. Here you can find some interesting information.

Update Februari 1, 2009

Here you can read about Shuttle SG33G5M + Radeon HD 4550 !!!