Shuttle SZ68R5 Review

SimonMaltby · 24 Mar 2012 at 21:42

JediFragger said:
SZ68R5 + 680GTX looks like an awesome combo

Bradmax57 · 24 Mar 2012 at 22:24

WoZZeR said:
Approx £300 off a well known auction site.

cant see one atm at that price

Bradmax57 · 26 Mar 2012 at 13:55

ah right, now available at a few places I usually get stuff from and also at £289

hmmm tempted

ORDERED

WoZZeR · 26 Mar 2012 at 15:48

Nice one, good price!!

Bradmax57 · 26 Mar 2012 at 15:51

WoZZeR said:
Nice one, good price!!

Cheers, I mailed the people you mentioned but they didnt have stock and then said they could get me one for £319.....

SimonMaltby · 26 Mar 2012 at 20:47

Nice one Brad... hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

Bradmax57 · 26 Mar 2012 at 20:52

Hope so!

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 26 Mar 2012 at 23:56

The SZ77R5 is already available in Canada it seems. It is around £240 excluding tax over there.

More information about the system:

http://data.shuttle.eu/CeBIT/en_sz77r5.html

It seems the SZ68R5 might be a short lived model.

SimonMaltby · 27 Mar 2012 at 00:11

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
The SZ77R5 is already available in Canada it seems. It is around £240 excluding tax over there.

More information about the system:

http://data.shuttle.eu/CeBIT/en_sz77r5.html

It seems the SZ68R5 might be a short lived model.

There were sites claiming to have SZ68R5's over a month before it really hit, they tend to jump the gun somewhat. It will be Late April / May by the time we really see them arrive.

The SZ77R5 is not much different really, same VRM, case and layout... just the Z77 chip instead of the Z68, which will be nice to have. I expect the SZ68R5 will drop in value a bit and the Z77 will take over at arround the £300 mark

Bradmax57 · 27 Mar 2012 at 09:33

Hmmm do I cancel and wait for sz77 .....

SimonMaltby · 27 Mar 2012 at 10:21

Bradmax57 said:
Hmmm do I cancel and wait for sz77 .....

If you are going to keep the machine for quite a while I would not worry about Z77 over Z68. The Z68 will support Ivy Bridge and as I say, there really is no difference between the chipsets really.
You could be waiting and waiting if you delay for the Z77 and then something else will be just around the corner, so you will end up waiting forever.

Bradmax57 · 27 Mar 2012 at 10:38

SimonMaltby said:
If you are going to keep the machine for quite a while I would not worry about Z77 over Z68. The Z68 will support Ivy Bridge and as I say, there really is no difference between the chipsets really.
You could be waiting and waiting if you delay for the Z77 and then something else will be just around the corner, so you will end up waiting forever.

Yeah I guess your right, thing is I like the look of it and as its mobo is upgradable I could always just buy a z77itx or something else, ah stuff it, ill be waiting for ever like you say

SimonMaltby · 27 Mar 2012 at 12:18

Bradmax57 said:
Yeah I guess your right, thing is I like the look of it and as its mobo is upgradable I could always just buy a z77itx or something else, ah stuff it, ill be waiting for ever like you say

I'm also going to keep the pressure on Shuttle to supply motherboard upgrades at a reasonable price. So it maybe that you will be able to upgrade the Z68 motherboard to a Z77 in the near future without needing to buy a new case, PSU and heatsink.

WoZZeR · 27 Mar 2012 at 14:39

Just bought the todays special i5 2500K for mine, just RAM to get now, I shall use my 5850 for a short while until the GPU prices settle down.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 27 Mar 2012 at 14:50

Bradmax57 said:
Hmmm do I cancel and wait for sz77 .....

I would. Reason?? Firstly the Z68 based version will drop in price and secondly I would rather get the Z77 for the same price as the Z68.

Also,Haswell will be the next socket change next year,so the SZ77R5 will be the top model together with the SX79R5 for the better part of a year.

The only reason this is happening is that it took yonks for Shuttle to get the SZ68R5 released. It should have been out a very long time ago and not in 2012. This is why the SZ77R5 is arriving so near to the SZ68R5!!

SimonMaltby said:
I'm also going to keep the pressure on Shuttle to supply motherboard upgrades at a reasonable price. So it maybe that you will be able to upgrade the Z68 motherboard to a Z77 in the near future without needing to buy a new case, PSU and heatsink.

The better option would be to just get the SZ77R5.

BTW,the site which advertised the SZ77R5 is NCIX which is one of the biggest computer parts retailers in Canada.

Even Crucial is starting to list compatible memory on their website. The SZ77R5 is being released soon it seems.

Waiting a few weeks makes more sense than wasting money down the line on a new motherboard.

Bradmax57 · 27 Mar 2012 at 15:11

well its shipped now, ill have a ponder over it, tbh z68 will do everything i need but like you say if it arrived in a few weeks id be kicking myself, unless of course there was some crazy premium to pay

SimonMaltby · 27 Mar 2012 at 15:11

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
BTW,the site which advertised the SZ77R5 is NCIX which is one of the biggest computer parts retailers in Canada.

Even Crucial is starting to list compatible memory on their website. The SZ77R5 is being released soon it seems.

Waiting a few weeks makes more sense than wasting money down the line on a new motherboard.

Its a difficult call... but i would just add that Shuttle have not shipped the SZ77's yet and actually the Z77 chipset is not even launched until mid April. So they may be advertising it, but they wont have stock for a while. Also remember that the UK did not get stock of the SZ68 until quite late and its only just come down in price. So actually to get an SZ77 at under £300 will probably not happen until June.

I also ask, what does SZ77 give that SZ68 does not?

Bradmax57 · 27 Mar 2012 at 15:15

The only thing I know is native usb 3 and pci-e gen3? both of which i guess mean very little to me

SimonMaltby · 27 Mar 2012 at 15:18

Bradmax57 said:
The only thing I know is native usb 3 and pci-e gen3? both of which i guess mean very little to me

Then my advice, for what its worth, is to just enjoy your new system and stop worrying about what might be comming

I'm not changing to the Z77

WoZZeR · 27 Mar 2012 at 15:28

I'll second that. Mine is an upgrade from a C2D E6700, I shall enjoy it, lots.