Latest XPC from Shuttle Is a Gaming Bomb

Every time I think of Shuttle, my mind associates the brand with HTPCs. And that's quite good reasoning since Shuttle have produced a lot of good HTPCs in the last years. However, this time it's an actual gaming rig called XPC Barebone SD37P2 that comes to my attention. And if the name doesn't say much, the insides will reveal a lot more.

The HTPC looks stylish with 2 adjustable small feet that can be used to raise up the front. A plethora of cables, such as S-ATA, IDE and power converter cables comes with this tiny PC unit. But what's inside the little box is what matters. An Intel i975X motherboard using a Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPU running at 2.93 GHz provides the power along with 4GB of DDR 2 SDRAM, an Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 dual GPU graphics card (Woo-Hoo!), a 400GB S-ATA HDD used for storage and even a 16x DVD Writer.

The front of the box leaves access to the DVD Drive and for two USB ports. A mini Firewire port header and audio connectors are placed discretely behind the black panels. On the back, you'll find two DVI connectors, another six USB ports, five analogue audio jacks for 7.1 output as well as a SPDIF Optical and Coaxial I/O, one full-size Firewire port and a Gigabit Ethernet port with an RJ45 connector. There is also an eSATA port for connecting an external SATA drive and even a small button to clear the CMOS in case your overclocking attempt fails.

3DMark05 scores nearly 14000 3DMarks at default settings while Far Cry runs at an average of 160 FPS across several demos with all the setting maxed out. General multitasking performance is in par with a full size PC equipped with the same hardware.

The performance of SD37P2 is indeed superb. However, at a cost of about $4000 only for the XPC itself, it doesn't come cheap. And, in case you still want the sleek box, you can choose the P2 3700G based on the same SD37P2 but with less capable hardware. You could end up paying as less as $1500. A two-year warranty comes with all Shuttle's HTPCs.