All-in-one PC by stefan @ 2010-10-27
The XS35 GT Barebone from Shuttle, after equipping it with the necessary hardware, can be used as a media center, little server or seedbox; its main advantages are that it is completely silent and consumes very little power, so we can leave it on 24/7 without caring about the energy costs.
The XS35 GT Barebone from Shuttle, after equipping it with the necessary hardware, can be used as a media center, little server or seedbox; its main advantages are that it is completely silent and consumes very little power, so we can leave it on 24/7 without caring about the energy costs.
At first I would like to thank Shuttle Europe for offering me a sample of their XS35GT Barebone for testing and reviewing.
"Shuttle Inc, founded in Taiwan in 1983, is specialised in development and production of innovative mini PCs. The joint-stock company is represented worldwide by a network of branch offices in Germany, the US and Japan. Since 2001 the attractive cube-shaped PCs have conquered nearly any field of application and have become the core business of the company headquartered in Taipei / Taiwan. Widely acclaimed by customers and press across the globe, Shuttle founds its success on effective management and long-term experience in making mainboards of highest quality standards. Since years Shuttle's mini PC barebones and fully-configured systems are the first choice of many system integrators, VARs, OEMs and ODMs banking on the high reliability and build quality. With appealing mini PC solutions Shuttle meets the requirements of consumers excellently and seeks to provide further user-friendly solutions of consumer electronics for the digital home environment."
The XS35 GT barebone from Shuttle is shipped in a rather small sized box (about the same size of a power supply box). On one of the box sides, we can find a drawing of the product, but also some words written in circles that are meant to describe the main product features:
Also, on the box we can also find a little sticker that shows us a photo of the main product, its model, the components and compatible hardware to be installed, but it is also specified the net weight, dimensions, available bays and the fact that it comes with a 40W power brick:
On the top part of the box, we can find a plastic handle, which helps us a lot to carry the product, if we have bought it from a shop:
Inside, we can see right from the beginning the product fully protected from shocks during transport, but also another little box with the rest of the bundle:
The accessories box is split into multiple compartments, and each component can be found in its own plastic bag, to avoid scratches between them:
Along with the power brick and the power lead, we can also find the HDD retention mechanism, some screws, the installation DVD with the latest drivers and manuals, but also a stand to mount the unit vertically:
The stand that comes with the product has some little plastic feet and a central screw, to be able to mount it on the bottom of the product:
On the bottom of the stand, we can see 4 rubber feet, a sticker which informs us about the company name, the product name, model number, power input (19V DC at 2.1A), but also the company address; in the center we can find a small adhesive tape, that must be removed to be able to access the central black screw:
The power brick is really small, and is rated on the output with exactly the same values we have seen on the stand:
Here is a photo of the DC connector:
Along with the HDD retention plate, we can also find a little metal adapter, which is used when mounting an optical disk drive into the barebone:
The retention plate does have a black protective material on its back, to avoid short circuits between it and the HDD electrical board:
The product does also come with manuals written in different languages, which explain us step by step how to install the rest of the needed components inside the barebone:
Besides the protective foam, the barebone is further protected inside a bag, which looks similar to the ones used at their Mini-PC series:
On both sides of the XS35 GT barebone, we can see nice textured plastic covers, with a metallic mesh behind, to allow ventilation; the company logo is also present on both sides. On the sensitive parts, Shuttle has put a transparent plastic film, to avoid scratches; these must be removed before the first use, because they obstruct some of the ventilation holes:
Here is a close-up on the lateral cover:
The lateral covers look even better with the transparent plastic films removedJ:
On the top part, we can see another mesh, to allow faster heat evacuation:
On the opposite side, we can find, unsurprisingly, some other ventilation holes, along with the place where the stand goes in:
In the back of the device, we can find most of the available ports: the microphone and headphone jacks, a hole for the Kensington lock, a RJ-45 Ethernet port, 4 spare USB 2.0 ports, 2 VGA connectors (the one covered with a black cap by the manufacturer is not active, because the barebone features Nvidia ION graphics), a HDMI port and a DC-in port:
The frontal part features a little card reader, the HDD activity and power LEDs on the left, the power button, a spare USB port and the place to mount the optical disk drive:
Through the power button we can see the bright white power LED on the right, along with the blue HDD activity LED on the left:
To install the needed components, we need to get access inside the barebone; to do that, the manual instructs us to remove a little screw located in the back of the barebone; after a further inspection, if we look more carefully, we will find that the little screw hides in the back of a black rubber button, with adhesive on its opposite side:
Right after opening the first cover, we can see that there is a lot of free space remaining inside, which is a good thing and prevents overheating; on the left side there is a large radiator that covers most of the PCB:
The radiator has also a heatpipe on it, colored in the same black color:
Near the HDD data and power connectors, we can see the memory slot, in which we can install either a 1GB or 2GB SODIMM memory module:
The WiFi adapter can be also seen on this side and it is a Realtek RTL8191SE, with the antenna already attached:
The CMOS battery can be found separately, and it is linked to the motherboard with two wires:
The card reader module is also separated from the motherboard:
The frontal USB port is located on a separate little board:
On the opposite side, we can see another large heatsink that covers the PCB, the optical disk drive connector, along with another heatpipe and a little radiator that helps dissipating the heat more efficiently:
The first component that we can install is the SODIMM memory module; this one must be inserted in a 45-degree angle, and after that it must be pushed carefully down, until it snaps into the locking mechanism (the same installation procedure as notebook/laptop memory installation):
Before inserting the 2.5’’ HDD inside the barebone, we must first secure it on the HDD retention plate:
The next step would be to plug in the HDD and secure it further with 3 included little screws:
After the installation is complete, we have to put the covers back and fix the computer on the provided stand:
The BIOS that comes with this barebone is very simple and has very few options that we can modify; in the Info tab, we can see the currently installed BIOS information, the processor name and the speed at which it operates, but also the manufacturer (which is named for an unknown reason “Standard”) and product name:
In the Main tab, we can set the time/date, modify SATA operation as IDE or AHCI, but we can also see the installed HDDs/optical disk drives:
The Advanced tab allows us to enable/disable the Execute Disable Bit function, but we can also set the wireless card to be controlled by the included “ControlAP” utility; unfortunately, this ControlAP application is Windows-only and people that install Linux on this computer will need to wait a little more till they will be able to activate the onboard Wireless LAN adapter:
In the Security tab, we can set a supervisor or user password:
In the Boot tab, we can enable LAN Boot, but we can also set the priority for the boot devices:
Finally, in the Exit tab, we can choose to save our changes and exit, discard them or load the optimal defaults:
For testing out the XS35 GT barebone from Shuttle, I have installed in it a Hynix PC2-5300S-555-12 SODIMM DDR667 module for the tests with 1GB RAM, and an Avexir AVD2S08000502G-1S DDR800 module for the tests with 2GB RAM.
The installed OS was Windows 7 Enterprise Edition, with all updates installed and the drivers I have used are the ones from the installation DVD.
With the help of the AIDA64 utility, I was able to extract some more information regarding the product and its internal components:
After installing all the drivers in Windows, you will be surprised to find out that the Wireless LAN card is not detected by Windows (it is not even listed by Device Manager). To make it work, we must make sure that the "Control by AP" option is selected in BIOS and also the ControlAP application is installed in Windows; after clicking the ControlAP icon, its simple interface will appear:
By clicking the Wireless button, we can enable/disable the wireless card and when it is enabled, it will be also shown in Device Manager.
I have ran some benchmarks and compared them with the Foxconn Netbox ntT330i tested previously with 1GB RAM. There are noticeable differences in the 3D benchmarks, the Shuttle XS35 GT is a real winner; in the productivity benchmark, the Shuttle XS35 GT gets a boost after installing a 2GB SODIMM module:
To determine the IDLE temperatures, I have first used the Shuttle computer to browse the Internet for about one hour and then I left it in IDLE mode for about 30 minutes and noted the temperatures down, with the help of the AIDA64 utility. The 720P Clip and 1080P Clip temperatures were obtained by running each of the respective video files for about 10 minutes and noted down the highest obtained temperatures. After each test, the system was left in IDLE mode for about 30 minutes, to let it cool down.
The power consumed by this little computer is amazing and I can say that it can be left on 24/7 without any problems at all, considering that I have seen devices in standby consuming almost the same amount of power.
This system can be used also for playing older games, in this example, Mafia 1. The game ran decent on both 1280x1024 and 1920x1200 resolutions, with low details.
The XS35 GT Barebone model I have reviewed comes with almost all the hardware installed, it is only missing a HDD/SSD and a DDR2 SODIMM memory module to function; optionally, we can also install an optical disk drive. Shuttle can also equip it with the extra hardware and even add an operating system:
It is completely silent , thanks to its internal fanless cooling system; if we decide to install a SSD into it, the product will remain dead silent; when a 2.5'' HDD will be installed, the extra noise will be generated only by the disk drive, which depends on the model, rotation speed and manufacturer.
The power brick that powers it takes up very little space and can be hidden easy.
Activating the WiFi card is a little unusual and a similar activation method can be found on laptops; the needed application to activate it is Windows only so Linux users won't be able to use the internal Wireless feature. This problem will be fixed in the future by Shuttle, by adding in the BIOS one more option for the Wireless adapter: "Always ON"; the BIOS was present on the Shuttle website a little while, but it was removed afterwards, because it needed a little more testing.
Besides wireless, the computer can be connected on the RJ45 port, but we are offered only a 10/100Mb solution, not Gigabit. This is not a real problem, because most of the applications and videos we would stream on the cable from the network won't reach the bandwith limit.
Compared to the ATOM 330/ION 1 combo that could be found in the Foxconn Netbox nT330i, this product has better 3D performance, so we can even play some older games like Mafia 1, enjoying an extremely low power consumption (about 31.5W).
The little Shuttle barebone has a reported MSRP of 238 Euros without taxes, not the cheapest solution out there and I would have really preferred the manufacturer to include the VESA mount kit and adapter to install the second HDD for the same price. The VESA mount kit can be obtained separately for about 23 Euros (including taxes).
I would really recommend the product to people that want to have a small PC in the room where they watch movies, browse the web, chat, or even play old games, without having to worry about the power consumption!
At first, would like to thank again to Shuttle for allowing us to test their latest products!
I would also like to thank AVEXIR for providing the DDR800 Single Channel SODIMM DDR2 (Avexir AVD2S08000502G-1S DDR800) module used in this review.
