14 DAY TRIAL // Home-theater personal computers usually fit the same mold, with a small case and modest performance capabilities, good enough for multimedia but not games. The new one from Shuttle does that too, to an extent, but it has some unusual traits.
The system is called Shuttle XH97V Slim PC and has a much higher video display capability than most of its kind.
And we don't just mean that it can attain a greater resolution than normal. That's a given after all. What we mean is that it can extend the image over three displays at once.
Multi-display capability isn't unusual, but for the most part, it has different “desktops” on each monitor. The exceptions are AMD's Eyefinity technology and NVIDIA's 3D Vision Surround (and derivatives). The latter doesn't always work with a single video board, or didn't work in the past.
Now, though, Shuttle has created an HTPC, more of a Barebone really, that can do the same without any NVIDIA or AMD graphics at all.
The Shuttle XH97V
The computer is built around the latest Intel Haswell/Haswell Refresh central processors with Intel HD integrated graphics processors (IGP for short).
Since it's a barebone, it doesn't have any pre-loaded storage, or even RAM, so you'll have to go hunting for the HDDs/SSDs and DDR3 modules yourself.
And no, you won't be able to eventually install DDR4 in this thing, because the chipset is an H97 which only supports up to Intel Core-Series 4000 chips, not Haswell-E 5000 series (the only ones with DDR4 capability).
Not that anyone should expect anything other than the highest-end PCs to adopt the new standard before 2015, but it's the principle of the thing.
Moving on, the newcomer supports 4K monitors and TVs as well (3840 x 2160 pixels), though you'll still be limited to Full HD per display when in triple-screen mode (1920 x 1080 pixels, via one HDMI port and two DisplayPorts).
The only “drawback” that the newcomer has is the rather large volume of three liters, which makes it a fair bit larger than other mini PCs. Almost enough to be seen behind the monitor. There's a good part though: you can still mount it at the rear of a monitor, completely out of sight.
Availability and pricing
The Shuttle XH97V, complete with four USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports and three 2.5-inch bays (or one 3.5-inch bay), should be available worldwide. The price hasn't been mentioned, but it's probably less than the memory and storage you'll have to get separately.
