14 DAY TRIAL // Shuttle has already made a habit of releasing intriguing nettops and barebone PCs, but its latest creation may come out as more than just a new addition to its line of such devices. In fact, though it stays true to the space efficiency standard that the company adheres to, the new barebone is unlike other because, depending on how end-users approach it, it can become not just a HTPC, but even a decent gaming system. The product is known as the SH55J2 and is based on an Intel H55 motherboard.
The system is an XPC barebone that supports central processing units compatible with the Intel socket LGA 1156. This, in itself, means it can house Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 chips. Shuttle knows that the CPU cannot make a PC powerful on its own, of course. As such, it threw in the possibility of outfitting the barebone with up to an impressive 16GB of RAM. The company also provided a PCI Express x16 slot and enough space to fit a dual-slot graphics card.
Needless to say, since only one PCI Express slot is present, multi-GPU setups are out of the question. On the other hand, there are quite a few cards capable of handling even the latest games all on their own. Granted, if one really does decide on turning this PC into a gaming system, they will likely have to go for a better PSU than the 300W 80Plus-rated model included. Other specifications include four SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, an eSATA/USB combo connector, a Gigabit Ethernet interface and a 4-in-1 memory card reader, among other things.
Shuttle was sure to implement the HDMI interface, which will be activated upon the addition of a CPU with integrated graphics. This will provide good multimedia capabilities at low power draw, suitable for the role of a mini PC. The new XPC barebone is already shipping in Europe, priced at 251 Euro.