World's First BTX Mini-PC

CTZ writes "We have direct information from CES 2005 show floor that covers Shuttle's first BTX Mini-PC. It's also the world's first BTX system ever displayed. "Shuttle also had a rather sizable booth with an entire line of their products displayed, as it can be seen from the images throughout this article. Perhaps the most important interesting product they had on the show floor was the world's first XPC based on Intel's BTX standard. Shuttle is looking to make the system affordable, so they have decided to use steel for the chassis instead of aluminum. According to Shuttle, this will bring the cost of the XPC system down by $130.00. The only downside, as some may perceive it, is that the BTX XPC system will be 1" wider than regular XPCs, but regardless, you can expect the same quality from Shuttle."

Comments

Thanks editors for doing your job!

[garcia]

Throughout the article? Either you are exaggerating beyond the normal limits of exaggeration or I am missing something here... I see exactly TWO images. One of a LCD panel and one of a square box that has some sort of tray (DVDRW/CDRW?). Woohoo!

Let's not forget that the "article" is little more than a press release about a product that saves you $130! Saves me $130 from what? $1000? $2000? $more? Let's make sure that the editors do some weeding out of blatant advertising of crap next time.

This "article" didn't tell me much about the product, really didn't like anywhere but to other advertisements, and left me guessing.

Thanks for posting this to the main page. I really appreciate it.

Re:Thanks editors for doing your job!

[slaker]

Since most XPCs run between $250 and $400, $130 is a very substantial savings. I like the XPC form factor for some things (not as HTPCs - I want components that match my AV equipment, but as office machines), but I've found the cost off-putting compared to traditional case, PSU and motherboard arrangements.

Steel saves $130? WTF?

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

Shuttle is looking to make the system affordable, so they have decided to use steel for the chassis instead of aluminum. According to Shuttle, this will bring the cost of the XPC system down by $130.00.

Can someone explain to me how in the hell this can be so? Even with a 3x markup, that's $43. There is absolutely no way that a switch to steel can save that much money. $10 maybe, but not $130. Someone is pissing on our backs and telling us it's raining.

"You can expect the same quality from Shuttle..."

[dpbsmith]

That's Slashvertising plain and simple.

"Small Form Factor"???

[jo42]

Is it me, or are not these so called "small form factor" machines getting bigger and bigger? To the point that they take up as much room, if not more, as compared to what we used to call a "medium tower case"? Hmmm??

Now worldwide?

[mccalli]

From the article:

In North America alone, Shuttle retails around 10,000 XPC systems per month and now they are getting a demand from consumers throughout the world. Because of the demand, Shuttle has decided to retail their XPC systems to the European and Brazilian markets.

I've had a Shuttle system on my desk for the last two and a half years, and I'm in the UK.

I always liked the idea and looks, but dislike the noise - I don't know how more recent models compare (I have an SB51G) and would be interested to, err, hear...

Cheers,
Ian

you can expect the same quality from Shuttle.

[commo1]

Quality? From SHUTTLE? These are the guys who send wave after wave of CPU destroying VRMs on their boards. 6 months, dead CPU...

Production costs?

[dhakbar]

Maybe it has nothing to do with the material costs, and everything to do with the actual production of the case?