At first we would like to thank Shuttle Europe for offering a sample of their latest SH170R6 XPC Cube Barebone for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Shuttle:

 

"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."

 

High-resolution DisplayPort

The DisplayPort connector allows for connections with digital high-resolution displays. Depending on processor and display model resolutions of up to 4K/Ultra HD (3840x2160) can be achieved. Besides picture signal, DisplayPort cables can also lead digital sounds signals in excellent quality.

 

HDMI interface

Goodbye cable spaghetti! Modern flat-screen TVs and large-format TFT screens can be connected to this Mini-PC with just a single thin cable. Often the audio output is also transferred in brilliant quality via the HDMI cable.

 

Dual-slot graphic cards? No problem!

The creative engineers at Shuttle have worked out how to fit large and incredibly powerful dual-slot graphics cards into this compact PC. The special dimensions of the cards and the unusual fan size cause no problems at all in this Mini-PC.

 

Intelligent cooling

Shuttle's patented Heatpipe Cooling technology with variable speed control automatically ensures maximum system stability and quiet operation in this aluminium Shuttle Mini-PC. Instead of swirling around the chassis, as is the case with conventional solutions, the warm air is specifically transferred out of the chassis.

 

Cleverly hidden

In this model the ports and drives are hidden behind moveable panels that offer ideal protection from dust and ensure a clean, harmonious look. Not everyone needs to be able to see just what your Mini-PC can do.

 

Optimal air flow

Warm air is transported out of the chassis by means of cleverly arranged components, which enables a large number of parts to be cooled simultaneously in the air flow. At no time can heat build up and adversely affect the stability of the system.

 

Communication in the fast lane

The integrated gigabit LAN chipset opens up completely new possibilities for communication with no restriction on the speed of data transfer. Say goodbye to information bottlenecks, whether in the company network or for home Internet access.

 

PCI Express technology

A fast X16-PCI-E slot enables the use of modern 3D graphics cards and other expansion cards that have to transfer huge amounts of data at ultra-rapid speeds.

 

External eSATA port

With this interface external hard drives can reach the same speeds as inbuilt versions. Just give it a try.

 

For a longer life and more system stability

All the components of the highly integrated mainboard of this PC are fitted with modern solid capacitors, which offer six times the lifespan of normal capacitors.

 

Shuttle opts for lightweight aluminium

The use of aluminium in Mini-PCs has significant advantages. Aluminium has an ideal balance between weight and strength, does not rust and is not sensitive to magnetism. Its thermal conductivity is four times higher than steel. All in all, it's a perfect material for Mini-PCs.

 

Intel chipset inside

Play it safe with the reliable chipsets from the world's largest chip manufacturer. Intel chipsets have proven themselves over many years, have been presented with awards by the trade press and offer the best possible degree of compatibility.

 

The interface for the fastest of memory media

Internal drives to be used inside this Mini-PC can transfer data at a speed of up to 6 Gbit/s. Hard drives thus run significantly faster and brand-new media technologies such as SSDs can use their full potential. Be sure to look for SATA 6 Gbit/s.

 

The fastest connection to external peripheral devices available to date

The USB 3.0 connectors of this model allow for data transfer of up to 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s). This enables external devices such as USB hard disks to be connected and run at nearly the same speed as their internal siblings. USB 3.0 is downward compatible so that also devices of previous USB generations can be hooked up.

 

Intelligent fan control

The Smart Fan system promises low operating noise with its large, slowly rotating fans, which generate a very large airflow and have automatic variable speed control.

 

Generous supply of USB ports

You can never have enough of those versatile USB ports. This Shuttle Mini-PC offers 10 ports, with further ports for internal expansions located on the mainboard.

 

Space for two hard disks

This Mini-PC chassis provides plenty of space for two 3.5" HDDs that provide many Terabytes of memory. The generous ventilation between the drives ensures there is no build-up of heat.

 

8-channel HD audio

The superior high-definition sound not only gives that perfect cinema feeling at home, it also offers optimal sound quality for your Skype VOIP telephone conferencing. Conveniently located ports ensure ultimate user friendliness.

 

Chassis

 

Black aluminium chassis

Front panel: glossy plastic with horizontal line textures

Storage bays: 1 x 5.25" (external), 2 x 3.5" (1x internal, 1x external)

Using the optional accessory PHD3 two 2.5" drives

can be installed into one 3.5" bay.

Front doors for I/O ports and storage drives

Kensington Security Slot at the back panel (also called K-Slot

or Kensington lock) as a part of an anti-theft system

Dimensions: 33.2 x 21,6 x 19.8 cm (LWH), 14.2 litre

Weight: 3.5 kg net / 5.0 kg gross

 

Mainboard / Chipset

 

Shuttle "FH170", Shuttle Form Factor

proprietary design for XPC cube Barebone SH170R6

Dimensions: 270 x 195 mm

Chipset: Intel® H170 Chipset

(Intel® DH82H170 PCH, code name "Sunrise Point")

Platform Controller Hub (PCH) as Single-Chip-Solution

Solid Capacitors for sensitive areas provide excellent

heat resistance for enhanced system durability

 

BIOS

 

AMI BIOS, SPI Interface, 32 MBit Flash-ROM with SPI interface

Supports PnP, ACPI 3.0, Hardware Monitoring

Supports Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)

Supports boot up from external USB flash memory

 

Power supply

 

Built-in 300 Watt mini switching power supply (Shuttle PC61J)

AC input voltage: supports 100~240V, 50~60 Hz

80 PLUS® Bronze compliant: the PSU provides at least

82/85/82% of efficiency at 20/50/100% of load.

Active PFC circuit (Power Factor Correction)

ATX main power connectors: 2x10 and 2x2-pin

Graphics power connector: 6-pin

Other connectors: 4x SATA, 2x Molex, 1x Floppy

 

Operation System

 

This system comes without operating system.

It is compatible with Windows 10 / 8 / 8.1 / 7 and Linux.- 64 bit.

Note on Windows 7 see [7]

 

Processor support

 

Socket LGA 1151 (H4) supports the sixth generation of

Intel Core i7 / i5 / i3, Pentium and Celeron processors

Maximum supported processor power consumption (TDP) = 95W

Codename "Skylake", 14nm process technology, up to 8 MB of L3 cache

Not compatible with Intel Xeon E3 V5 processors with Socket LGA1151 and processors with the older Socket LGA 1150.

Does not support the unlock-function of Intel K-Series processors.

The processor integrates PCI-Express, memory controller

and the graphics engine on the same die (performance features

depending on processor type)

Please refer to the support list for detailed processor support information at global.shuttle.com.

 

Processor cooling

 

Shuttle I.C.E. (Integrated Cooling Engine)

Advanced I.C.E. Heatpipe technology with 3 pipes

Temperature controlled 92 mm fan

SilentX cooling and noise reduction technology with Active Airflow

 

Memory support

 

4 x 288-pin slots

Supports DDR4-2133 memory (PC4-17066) at 1.2V

Supports 2+2 Dual Channel mode

Supports max. 16 GB per DIMM, maximum total size of 64 GB

 

Integrated Graphics

 

The features of the integrated Intel HD graphics function

depend on the processor type used.

Supports DirectX 12, OGL 5.x, OCL 2.x

The PC features three digital video outputs [6]:

- HDMI v1.4 (supports 1080p/60 and 2160p/30)

- 2x DisplayPort v1.2 (support 1080p/60 and 2160p/60)

Supports displays with 4K Ultra HD resolution at 3840 x 2160 [3]

Supports three independent FullHD displays with the integrated graphics function

Supports more displays in combination with a discrete graphics card [2]

Supports Blu-ray (BD) playback with HDCP content protection

Supports multi-channel digital audio over the same cable

Maximum shared memory of 512 MB

 

PCIe Expansion Slots

 

1x PCI-Express x16 v3.0 slot (PEG, for graphics cards only)

1x PCI-Express x4 v3.0 slot

This XPC supports dual-slot (double-width) graphics cards -

in this case the second PCI-Express slot will be occupied.

Graphics power connector: 6-pin

M.2 slot

The M.2 2280 BM slot provides the following interfaces:

- PCI-Express Gen. 3.0 X4 with up to 32 Gbps Data Transfer Speed

- SATA v3.0 (max. 6 Gbps)

- USB 2.0

It supports M.2 cards with a width of 22 mm

and a length of 30, 42, 60 or 80 mm (type 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280).

Supports M.2 SATA SSDs, M.2 PCIe SSDs and other M.2 cards

Mini PCIe Slot

Mini-PCIe Half-Size slot

with PCIe 2.0 and USB 2.0 interface

supports one optional Wireless Network (WLAN) card

 

7.1-Channel HD audio

 

7.1 channel High Definition Audio with Realtek ALC892 codec

Analog: line-out (7.1-ch), line-in, microphone, AUX input (onboard)

Digital Audio via HDMI and DisplayPort outputs

 

Gigabit LAN

 

Intel i219LM PHY connected to the MAC of the processor

Supports 10 / 100 / 1.000 MBit/s operation

Supports WAKE ON LAN (WOL)

Supports network boot by Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE)

 

SATA connectors

 

The mainboard provides six Serial-ATA 3.0 interfaces, max. 6 Gbps supported

4x Serial ATA connector onboard

1x External Serial ATA (eSATA) connector at the back panel

1x M.2 slot onboard for flash memory cards

Supports Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST, Raid 0/1/5/10, JBOD)

 

Front Panel Connectors and Buttons

 

Microphone input

Headphone output (line-out)

2x USB 3.0

2x USB 2.0 (1x Fast charge port with up to 2A) [4]

Power button

Power indicator (blue LED)

Hard disk drive indicator (yellow LED)

 

Back Panel Connectors

 

HDMI v1.4

2x DisplayPort v1.2 [5]

6x USB 3.0

GigaBit LAN (RJ45)

External Serial ATA (eSATA 6 Gb/s)

7.1-ch Audio line-out (2x rear/front, bass/center, surround/back)

Audio Line-in

Clear CMOS button

Optional: serial port RS-232 (Accessory: H-RS232)

3x perforation for optional WLAN antennas

 

Other Onboard Connectors

 

2x USB 2.0 (2x 5-pin)

1x RS232 (2x 5-pin) for optional accessory H-RS232

2x fan connectors (4 pin), one connector is occupied

Low Pin Count header (LPC, 2x 10 pin, 2 mm pitch size)

Occupied front connectors: USB 3.0, USB2.0, audio, power buttons, LEDs

 

Included Accessories

 

Multi-language XPC Installation Guide (EN, DE, FR, ES, JP, KR, SC, TC)

32/64-bit driver disk

2x Serial ATA cables

AC Power Cord (with protective-earth contacts)

Heatsink Compound

Protector cap for the CPU socket (do not use if heat-pipe or fan is mounted)

Bag with screws

 

Optional Accessories

 

PHD3: 3.5" to 2.5" adapter

H-RS232: Backpanel COM port adapter for RS232 serial interface

WLN-C: Wireless LAN 802.11n module with external antennas

PC63J: 500W power supply, 80 PLUS® Silver

 

Environmental Spec

 

Operating temperature range: 0~35°C

Relative humidity range: 10~90% (non-condensing)

 

Certifications / Compliance

 

EMI: FCC, CE, BSMI, C-Tick

Safety: ETL, CB, BSMI

Other: RoHS, ErP 2013 Lot 3, Energy Star 5.2

 

Conformity

 

This device is classed as a technical information

equipment (ITE) in class B and is intended for use in

the living room or office. The CE-mark approves the

conformity by the EU-guidelines:

- EMV-guideline 89/336/EWG electromagnetic tolerance

- LVD-guideline 73/23/EWG use of electric devices

within certain voltage-limits

 

One of the oldest mini-PC manufacturers in business, Shuttle is not standing still and has prepared for its customers one of the latest refresh to the XPC cube, SH170R6 which is now able to house the latest Skylake processors up to 95W TDP, while having the H170 Intel chipset at its core. The product is shipped inside a rather large cardboard box, which features the usual Shuttle box art styling. A plastic handle is quite welcome for an easier manipulation:

 

 

 

On one of the box sides we will be able to see some of the main product features listed, in different languages:

 

 

 

An additional sticker will give us an idea of the hardware specifications regarding the XPC cube:

 

 

 

The contents inside are protected with lots of foam material:

 

 

 

The Quick Installation Guide is available in multiple languages and each step is described clearly with photos, written explanations:

 

 

 

As extra bundle, we will get the power lead along with a secondary cardboard box:

 

 

 

Let’s check the contents here too:

 

 

 

We do have some mounting screws, two red SATA cables, thermal compound to help with CPU cooler installation, the original CPU socket plastic cover but also the installation disk:

 

 

 

XPC cube format factor is quite familiar to us since we have checked multiple versions before:

 

 

 

The top metallic cover does have a brushed aluminum finish for keeping a modern and professional aspect:

 

 

 

A first look at the frontal interface may seem a bit unclean at first, but this is because it is covered by a very thin layer of plastic for additional protection; removing this layer will reveal the real aspect of the product. On the top Shuttle has placed the optical drive bay, with an external Eject button:

 

 

 

 

The middle area holds a 3.5’’ bay:

 

 

 

On the bottom we have two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 along with the headphone and microphone jacks:

 

 

 

Near the Power button we do also have the Power LED along with the HDD activity LED:

 

 

 

The left side of the case does also feature some ventilation holes which will help with cooling the expansion cards:

 

 

 

Next we are going to have a look at the back side of the case; as before, Shuttle allows us to install dual slot graphics cards which is a great feature since most now have this type of cooling, no matter if they are from the low end or mainstream performance segment:

 

 

 

Under the power supply connector, we do have some extra cut-outs for optional interfaces:

 

 

 

On the I/O we do have from left to right two DisplayPort outputs, one HDMI output along with two USB 3.0 ports, two other USB 3.0 ports along with one External SATA, another group of two USB 3.0 with one LAN port, one Clear-CMOS button along with five audio jacks:

 

 

 

The bottom area of the unit does come with four silicone feet so the chassis would stay stable on the table:

 

 

 

By only removing three thumb screws on the back, we will have the internals accessible right away; great news is the fact that Shuttle expands the capabilities of the R chassis by including support for Mini-ITX mainboards. Upgrading the motherboard would be a breeze this way without the need to replace the whole chassis:

 

 

 

The removable support can hold one optical drive and two 3.5’’ HDDs (or double the number of 2.5’’ HDDs/SSDs with adapter):

 

 

 

 

A plastic component is available on the bottom of the support to help with cable management:

 

 

 

The CPU cooler is very familiar to us and comes with a three heatpipe design; Shuttle likes to call it I.C.E. heatpipe technology and succeeds to keep the processor at very acceptable temperatures to a maximum TDP of 95W:

 

 

 

 

 

The radiator has its heat expelled by a single 120mm fan, which is mounted to a small aluminum cage in order to help with the airflow:

 

 

 

It was manufactured by AVC, with the rating of 12V at 0.41A and comes with “hydraulic bearing” technology:

 

 

 

The included Shuttle motherboard occupies most of the lower layer of the chassis and the frontal panel cables are already connected to it in order to speed up the installation process:

 

 

 

For extra expansion, we have to our disposal one PCI-E x16 3.0 slot along with one PCI-E x4 3.0 slot:

 

 

 

This is not all! We also have one M.2 2280 Slot nearby along with one Mini-PCIe Slot Half-Size; the Half-Size Mini-PCIe Slot is intended for WiFi adapter cards while the M.2 slot supports M.2 cards with a width of 22mm and a length of 80mm, but also 2230, 2242 and 2260 standard cards are supported:

 

 

 

Near the H170 chipset which is covered by a small aluminum heatsink we do also have the headers for the USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 frontal ports which are already populated:

 

 

 

A single CR2032 keeps the CMOS settings saved when the system is not powered:

 

 

 

Nearby we will get to see an ASMedia ASM1442K TMDS level shift IC for the HDMI interface:

 

 

 

The CPU VRM area is also cooled by a small aluminum heatsink:

 

 

 

In the vicinity of the CPU socket we do have four SATA 3.0 ports, one LPC header but also one extra fan header:

 

 

 

The memory channels are color coded:

 

 

 

The audio interface is provided by the Realtek ALC892 CODEC:

 

 

 

The included Shuttle PC61J 300W power supply comes with one 20-pin power connector, one 4-pin for the CPU, a single PCI-E 6-pin power connector for the VGA card, 4x SATA, 2x MOLEX but also 1x Floppy power connectors:

 

 

 

 

The 4-pin power connector is already plugged in:

 

 

 

CPU installation is a breeze after removing and re-mounting the push-pin CPU plate:

 

 

 

We can also go ahead afterwards installing the memory inside the suitable slots:

 

 

 

After installing the storage drives we can carefully position the frame inside the case:

 

 

 

For the sake of testing, we have also installed a HIS R7 360 VGA card into the x16 slot and attached the PCI-E power connector from the power supply:

 

 

 

There is plenty of space left between the back side of the VGA PCB and the frame which holds the drives:

 

 

 

Shuttle SH170R6 comes with a regular Aptio Setup Utility which does not contain a lot of settings we can adjust since this product was not thought as a gaming or overclocking machine. The Main section of the setup allows us to look at the BIOS date, installed CPU details along with the total quantity of installed memory. Here we can adjust the system date and time:

 

 

 

Next we have the Advanced menu with the following sub-sections:

 

 

 

The Power Management Configuration area does come with some of the usual PM options:

 

 

 

The Hardware Health Configuration sub-menu will allow us to regulate the speeds of both fan headers but also show the System and CPU temperatures along with the Fan RPMs and voltage of the CPU and DRAM:

 

 

 

The CPU Configuration menu will show its characteristics along with the ability choose the number of active cores, enable Intel VT, EIST, Turbo Mode or C States:

 

 

 

 

The SATA Configuration area does show connected storage devices and here we can also select the operating mode of the controller:

 

 

 

USB Configuration menu will only show connected devices:

 

 

 

From the Onboard Device Configuration area, we can enable or disable certain interfaces, dedicate memory buffer for the integrated graphics, while the Serial Port Configuration has a separate sub-section:

 

 

 

Frequency & Voltage Configuration sub-menu only allows us to select the memory speed:

 

 

 

The Security area will allow us to set the supervisor and user passwords:

 

 

 

From the Boot menu we will be able to establish the boot priorities, along with the boot modes and more:

 

 

 

Save & Exit menu will let us discard, save or load factory defaults in case something goes wrong:

 

 

 

In order to start testing the SH170R6 Barebone from Shuttle, we equipped it with a Intel I5 6600K Retail CPU, Patriot Viper 2x4GB DDR4 2400MHz @ 2133MHz memory kit, but also an OCZ Vector 150 SSD; as we have mentioned before, a HIS R7 360 was also installed in the supplied PCI-Express x16 3.0 slot. We installed the latest Windows 7 x64 from scratch and got the tests going. Here is some information that we could obtain on the internal hardware, thanks to the specialized programs:

 

CPU-Z CPU Information Tab

 

 

CPU-Z CPU Caches Tab

 

 

CPU-Z Mainboard Tab

 

 

CPU-Z Memory Tab

 

 

GPU-Z Graphics Card Info Tab

 

 

AIDA64 gives us even some more details regarding the computer components:

 

CPU Information

 

 

Motherboard Information

 

 

 

 

IMC

 

 

 

 

H170 PCH

 

 

More in-depth information regarding the HIS R7 360 video card can be explored with the help of AIDA64:

 

 

Temperature tests

 

To test the computer thermals, we have first left the computer in IDLE for about 30 minutes and then we fired up the AIDA64 stress testing module, for an additional 17 minutes, basically till the temperatures did stabilize. The minimum and maximum temperatures of all internal components were recorded by the latest HWINFO utility. During the time of testing, the ambient temperature was 19.4 degrees Celsius:

 

 

Power consumption test results

System Full Load measurement was also recorded while running the AIDA64 System Stability Test and checking on Stress CPU, Stress FPU, Stress Cache, Stress System Memory, Stress GPUs.

In IDLE, we have recorded a value of 35.87W, while in Full Load about 145.53W.

Noise test results

With the system built in the stated configuration and with an ambient of 28.7dBA, we have recorded in IDLE about 30.4dBA and in Full Load after the AIDA64 Stress Test run the sound meter has recorded 39.6dBA.

Synthetic Benchmarks

 

AIDA64

 

Memory

 

CPU Queen

 

CPU PhotoWorxx

 

CPU Zlib

 

CPU AES

 

CPU Hash

 

FPU VP8

 

FPU Julia

 

FPU Mandel

 

FPU SinJulia

 

Cinebench R11.5

 

Cinebench R15

 

Crystalmark

 

PCMark Vantage

 

PCMark 7

 

PCMark 8

 

SuperPI XS

 

Wprime

 

X264 Benchmark 5.01

 

3DMark 2006

3DMark Vantage

3DMark 11

3DMark 2013

Games

 

Crysis 2

F1 2012

Metro Last Light

 

 

Shuttle has released the latest XPC cube Barebone, SH170R6 based on a proven formula, which contains the R chassis, a three-heatpipe cooling system, one 300W power supply but also an updated motherboard which comes with the latest H170 chipset from Intel. We can install any Skylake processor with the single exception that we should not exceed the recommended TDP of 95W; several expansion options are available like the PCI-E x16 3.0 slot for mounting video cards (even dual slot configuration), one PCI-E x4 3.0 slot, but also one M.2 2280 along with a Mini-PCIe Half-Size slot. Optional accessories can be also purchased like the 3.5’’ to 2.5’’ adapter, the backpanel COM port adapter for RS232 serial interface, the WLN-C Wireless kit or the PC63J 500W PSU which allows installation of even beefier video cards.

 

The system can be built with a clean cable management for optimal airflow and even if we do have one powerful K-series CPU like the i5-6600K, the cooling system will succeed to keep its temperatures at bay. With the H170 chipset though we do not have the option to overclock, and it is not necessary to invest in a high speed DDR4 memory kit since the frequency will be limited to 2133MHz max.

 

The system can also house two 3.5’’ drives and one optical drive in its stock form; with the purchase of an adapter, we will be able to mount up to four 2.5’’ drives (HDDs or SSDs) so it is quite flexible; additional storage or devices can be connected to the SH170R6 via the USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, while video can be output from the HDMI 1.4 port or via the two DisplayPort connectors. If we have a separate videocard installed, then we will depend on its outputs.

 

As a negative point, we only have to remind of the quite high temperatures we have obtained with our low-end HIS R7 360 video card while running the AIDA64 Stress Test for all the system. This card was designed to expel the hot air back into the case so we would rather go with a blower-type video card which redirects all hot air to the back of the chassis.

 

These XPC cubes are designed to be quite durable (we still have a live example of a LGA775 unit which runs to this day without any issues at all at one of our friends) and the added flexibility of replacing the motherboard with another Mini-ITX board from another manufacturer is really spot-on.

 

The SH170R6 XPC cube Barebone has a recommended retail price of 258 Euros ex VAT and if we need to check the current compatibility list we can do so right HERE.

 

Shuttle SH170R6 XPC Cube Barebone is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Shuttle Europe for making this review possible!