Mini PC Grows Up? Shuttle XPC Reviewed

Bender writes "The Tech Report has done a comprehensive review of the just-redesigned Shuttle XPC. These toaster-sized systems, sold with motherboard but sans CPU, memory, and storage, are becoming a very attractive alternative to the standard DIY system that's over twice the size. This latest PC 'cube' has everything: PCI Express, a BTX-inspired chassis design, room for a small RAID array, and pre-routed cables. The only snag is a Pentium 4 thermal throttling problem discovered through some nice investigative work. If Shuttle can fix this problem, this thing could be a killer personal workstation box."

Comments

Athlon 64 versions as well

[CdBee]

According to This Page an Athlon 64 XPC of similar appearance is either available or pending - the Shuttle site appears to be under heavy load and is glitching badly so I can't give any further detail.

It's good to see that users who jib at Intel's excessive prices are looked after by Shuttle.

work well in portable application

[SadPenguin]

I work for an event staging company and we use about 20 of these shuttle pc's to run our portable media (powerpoint, dvd's, mpeg video etc.). For standard presentation fare, and general use, over very long periods of time (sometimes on for days) these little boxes perform very well. we've never had a heat problem (though it doesn't seem outrageous that there could arise such an issue, as they tend to run *very* warm, but not to the point of anything critical).
i didn't rtfa (c'mon, i'm a busy man....) but regardless of what they say, by experience, i say that these get the job done, and take up a hell of a lot less weight/space in shipping.

Re:Cool Network Appliance

[nkntr]

True that, unless you planning to run GRE tunnels over IPSEC, (add to that snort) which I do, and have.. needs lots of memory, and your dusty box downstairs won't do it, at least it won't do it easily

Nice PC's

[PeterChenoweth]

These PC's are pretty sweet. My wife has one that's about 6 months old - AMD 2800+, 1GB RAM, Radeon 9800 Pro graphics, XP Pro, etc. We've never had any trouble with overheating, but the thing is rather noisy. The CPU/Case fan ramps up and down depending on CPU load.

They're great PC's, but not for quiet environments.

Re:Nice PC's

[Darth Maul]

My fan would ramp up sometimes as well under heavy CPU load. Here are two things that you can do to make it silent:

1) Change the BIOS setting for the Smart Fan speed up temperature cutoff.

2) Order and install a Nexus 80mm fan in place of the stock one. I got mine from endpcnoise.com.

My main Shuttle is even packed in a crowded entertainment center with minimal airflow and it still stays really quiet with low temps under high CPU load. The only sound I can hear is the hard drive, and even for that I have to get down to within a foot of the box.