Review: Shuttle SD39P2 barebones PC

The SD39P2 is a small barebones PC, which includes a motherboard, case and power supply.

The case is made of aluminium and the black and grey colour scheme gives a premium, classy feel to it.

Shuttle says it's designed with gamers in mind, because it can take all of Intel's fastest processors, including its latest and greatest quad core processor, the QX6700.

Be warned though, despite its gaming aspirations it only has one PCI Express slot, so it can't be used for crossfire. The case also isn't long enough to accommodate Nvidia's high end 8800GTX graphics card, but double width graphics cards, like the 8800GTS, will fit.

A single PCI slot is limiting compared to bigger PCs, but to be expected in a case of this size.

The unit is relatively easy to open although we had a little bit of difficult putting the hood back on again. Once inside, you’ll find enough space for two hard disks, which could take advantage of the Raid mirroring or stripping settings that the motherboard supports.

The motherboard uses Intel's high end 975X chipset. Having been around since 2005 it is getting a little old; enthusiasts would be better off with Nvidia's 680i or 650i based motherboards that offer a greater control over system clocks and voltages.

A plethora of ports sit on the back, including six USB, 7.1 sound output, SPDIF in/out, Ethernet, Firewire 400, Sata external. A further two USB ports and Firewire connection sit behind a hinge on the front.

There are two 5.25in drive slots on the front which can hold optical drives or card readers.

The second bay comes with a hot swappable scaffold so you can put a 3.5in hard disk in. The button to open the optical drive is confusing placed beside the hot swappable bay.

Five system fans keep the system cool and overall the system is actually quite quiet – it's a completely different experience from the loud vacuum cleaners Shuttle produced four years ago.

We've tested a full system based on this case recently and proved that it can power some extremely beefy and power-hungry components with a relatively small power supply unit.

This is a very good barebones PC and, as such, at £330 it carries a higher price than many of its competitors.

See also:

Enlight EN-7473 Home Media case

A good quality case for home theatre PCs  04 Mar 2006

Aopen XC Cube MZ915-M

You can have the power and features of a desktop PC in a smaller package  06 Dec 2005

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