Exclusive: SLI Head-to-Head: Monarch Micro-ATX vs. Shuttle SFF

Introduction

There are as many different philosophies on what goes into the creation of an ideal computer as there are individuals in the world. They range from "whatever my friend tells me" to "the best performance money can buy." While the merits of the individual philosophies can be debated ad nauseum, that is largely a fruitless endeavor. People like what they like, and that's perfectly okay as far as we're concerned. What we're here to look at today are a couple of systems that satisfy the desire for maximum gaming performance in the smallest space possible. Yes, we're talking about Small Form Factor systems, though this time, with a slight twist.

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The twist comes in the inclusion of a system that isn't a Small Form Factor design in the strictest sense of the word. We have the latest Shuttle SN26P SLI-capable unit, and we also have Monarch Computers' latest foray into the small computer world, the Hornet Pro SLI Revenge. Both are quite a bit smaller than your typical mid-tower ATX case, but where the Shuttle is targeted primarily at reaching the smallest size possible while still offering competitive performance, Monarch goes with a micro-ATX (uATX) form factor. In exchange for size, you get some other options, which we'll discuss more during the course of this review.

There are quite a few items to discuss with both systems, but we've already covered much of the information on the Shuttle in our look at the SN25P. If you're unfamiliar with the Shuttle P chassis, you will find it helpful to read that review first, as we will mostly focus on what changes are present in the SN26P rather than repeating all of the previous material. We'll start by looking at the Monarch Hornet design and then we'll compare that to the Shuttle SN26P and look at the different philosophies. We'll also have our typical battery of benchmarks to show whether or not these diminutive cases really can hang with their bigger brother ATX cases, particularly when SLI is added to the equation - we've shown in the past that SFFs don't have to give up anything in the way of performance, but until recently, dual GPUs have been a feature reserved for the highest-end ATX systems.