14 DAY TRIAL // Shuttle has just expanded its XPC barebone product lineup with a new high-performance compact solution dubbed the SZ68R5, which is based on Intel Z68 chipset and supports the company’s LGA 1155 processors.
Despite its small size, the unit can house a fully-fledged desktop system and can accommodate a maximum of two 3.5-inch drives and one 5.35-inch drive.
Furthermore, the SZ68R5 also comes with four DIMM slots, offers dual SATA 6Gbps and a pair of SATA 3Gbps ports, as well as HDMI and DVI-I graphics outputs.
These are driven by the Sandy Bridge on-die GPU via the Intel Z68 Express chipset, but users can also opt for installing a dual-slot PCI Express x16 graphics card, which is going to be powered by the included 500W 80-PLUS certified power supply unit.
Other expansion options include a PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slot (only available when single-slot GPUs are installed), a mini-PCIe port, which can be used for adding a Wi-Fi card, as well as an mSATA SSD slot.
Moving to the back of Shuttle's SZ68R5 barebone, we find six USB ports, two of them are USB 3.0, an eSATA port, 7.1-channel audio with S/PDIF out, DVI-I and HDMI video outputs, as well as a Gigabit Ethernet port.
Two additional USB 3.0 ports, and a pair of USB 2.0 ports (one is Quick charge compatible delivering a maximum of 2A), are placed on the front panel.
"The long-awaited XPC Barebone based on Z68 Express has now landed in Europe," states Tom Seiffert, head of marketing & PR at Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH.
"Not often in our long history has the sales launch of a new model been so keenly awaited. In fact, there were already requests for this development as soon as the first model with LGA1155 was introduced," concluded the company’s rep.
Shuttle's recommended retail price for the XPC SZ68R5 Barebone is set at 301 EUR (including VAT), which translates into about $397 US.
