At first we would like to thank Shuttle Europe for offering a sample of their latest XPC Slim DS77U 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. 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.

 

Multiformat card reader

At last – no more searching for missing digital camera leads. Simply insert the memory card and you can access all stored photos and videos immediately.

 

Dual network connection

In this model two gigabit network controllers ensure maximum data transmission rates via load balancing and maximum availability via the failover function.

 

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.

 

Pre-assembled cabling saves time

The most important power and data cables are already routed and just have to inserted into the relevant components. This saves valuable time when setting up the system.

 

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.

 

Anti-theft protection

The Kensington Lock forms part of the anti-theft system. As with many other Notebooks, this Mini-PC can also be safely locked, ensuring long-term enjoyment from your Shuttle product.

 

You can rely on SSD

This is where an energy-saving "Solid State Drive" should be used. This drive technology guarantees extremely short access times, the highest data transmission rates and considerably lower energy consumption compared to conventional hard disks. SSDs have no mechanical components at all, are therefore subject to less wear and tear and consequently benefit from a longer service life.

 

Just 2.5" HDDs

An extremely compact PC housing offers less space for drives, that's why this Mini-PC uses slimline 2.5-inch hard disks. The advantage of this is that there's less noise, less heat generated and reduced power consumption. However small hard disks in a small housing does not have to mean less memory. Modern 2.5" HDDs are every bit as good as their 3.5" brothers.

 

Fan-less external power supply

A highly effective external power supply provides the Shuttle Mini-PC with its energy. And since it works without a fan, it is completely noise-free.

 

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.

 

Connections without all those annoying cables

Data is transferred by WLAN completely without cables. Accessing the Internet and local network resources (e.g. printers) is now child's play when within range of an access point/hotspot.

 

Fanless and whisper-quiet

The fanless technology used in this PC means it is incredibly quiet. Doing away with these mechanical components also reduces the number of wearing parts, making the machine more durable and stable.

 

Low energy consumption

Thrift is a virtue. In terms of power consumption, this Mini-PC sets an example. It is not just good for the environment but for your pocket, too.

 

Fanless and Silent

Passive cooling, no fan noise at all

Perfect to be used in noise-sensitive environments

Fanless, dust-free and thus virtually maintenance-free

 

Low Power Consumption

Power consumption in idle mode under Windows 10: ca. 7~8 W only

 

24/7 Nonstop Operation

This device is approved for 24/7 permanent operation.

Requirements:

- Free circulation of air amongst the PC must be guaranteed.

- Ventilation holes must stay clear.

- If a hard disk is installed, this must also be approved for permanent operation by its manufacturer

 

Chassis

Slim-PC (Nettop) with black chassis made of steel

Without cooling fan, passive cooling only

The bays for memory, 2.5" drive and M.2 card can be easily accessed by removing two cover plates.

Dimensions: 200 x 165 x 39.5 mm (LWH) = 1.3 litres

Weight: 1.43 kg net and 2.13 kg gross

Two holes for Kensington Lock and numerous threaded holes (M3) at both sides of the chassis

 

Operation Position

1) Vertical: Usually operated in vertical position with the supplied feet (DisplayPort output facing up).

2) VESA-mounted: The device can also be mounted behind an appropriate monitor using the supplied VESA mount kit.

Note: From a thermal point of view horizontal operation is permitted, however, there are no rubber feet on the device. The maximum operating temperature is 35 °C then.

 

Operation System

This barebone system comes without operating system.

It is compatible with Windows 10 (64-bit) and Linux (64-bit).

 

Processor

Model: Intel Celeron 3865U (ULV)

System-on-a-chip architecture (SoC): no chipset required

BGA1356 package - directly soldered onto the mainboard

Code name: Kaby Lake-U (7th Generation Intel Core)

Cores / Threads: 2 / 2

Clock rate: 1.8 GHz

L1/L2/L3 Cache: 128 kB / 512 kB / 2048 kB

Memory controller: DDR4-2133 Dual Channel (1.2 V)

TDP wattage: 15 W maximum

Manufacturing process: 14 nm

Maximum Tjunction Temperature: 100 °C

Supports 64-bit, VT-x (EPT), VT-d, Enhanced SpeedStep, NX bit, AES-NI, SSE 4.1/4.2

Integrated graphics engine

 

Integrated Graphics

Intel HD graphics 610

GPU clock frequency: 300~900 MHz

Execution Units (EUs): 12

Three digital audio/video ports support three independent screens:

Supports Ultra HD / 4K resolution at 3840 x 2160 Pixels

1) DisplayPort 1.2 [2,7] supports Ultra HD @ 60 Hz

2) 2x HDMI 1.4b supports Ultra HD @ 30 Hz

Note: the DisplayPort of DS77U does not support audio output

 

Mainboard / BIOS

Shuttle Mainboard FS77

All capacitors are high quality solid capacitors

Supports resume after power failure

Supports Wake on LAN (WOL)

Supports Power on by RTC Alarm

Supports boot from M.2 SSD cards, USB devices and SD card reader

AMI BIOS in 8 MByte EEPROM with SPI interface

Supports hardware monitoring and watch dog function

Supports Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)

 

Power Adapter

External 65 W power adapter (fanless)

Input: 100~240 V AC, 50/60 Hz, max. 1.6 A

Output: 19 V DC, max. 3.42 A, max. 65 W

 

DC Input connector

DC Input Connector: 5.5 / 2.5 mm (outer/inner diameter)

The DC-input of the computer supports an external power source with either 12V±5% or 19V±5%.

 

Memory support

2x SO-DIMM slots with 260 pins

Supports DDR4-2133 (PC4-17000) SDRAM at 1.2 V

Supports Dual Channel mode

Supports a maximum of 16 GB per DIMM, maximum total size: 32 GB

Supports two unbuffered DIMM modules (no ECC or registered)

 

2.5" Drive Bay with SATA connector

Supports one Serial ATA hard disk

or one SATA SSD drive in 6.35 cm / 2.5" format

Device height: max. 12.5 mm

Supports Serial-ATA III, 6 Gb/s (600 MB/s) bandwidth

Supports Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)

Note: no Serial ATA cable is required

 

M.2 Slot for SSDs

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)

It supports M.2 cards with a width of 22 mm and a length of 42, 60 or 80 mm (type 2242, 2260, 2280).

Supports M.2 SATA SSDs (with B+M key) and M.2 PCIe SSDs (with M key)

 

Card Reader

Integrated SD card reader

Supports SD, SDHC and SDXC memory flash cards

Supports booting from SD card

 

Audio

Audio Realtek® ALC 662 High-Definition Audio

Two analog audio connectors (3.5 mm) at the back panel:

1) 2 channel line out (headphones)

2) microphone input

Digital multi-channel audio output: via HDMI

 

Dual Gigabit LAN

Dual network with two RJ45 ports

Used network chips:

1) Intel i211 Ethernet Controller with MAC, PHY and PCIe interface

2) 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)

Supports Teaming mode

 

Wireless Network (WLAN)

Built-in M.2-2230-A/E WLAN card and internal antenna

Single-Chip 1T1R WLAN Controller Realtek RTL8188EE

Supports IEEE 802.11b/g/n, max. 150 Mbps up-/downstream

Security: WPA/WPA2(-PSK), WEP 64/128 bit, IEEE 802.11x/i

 

Front Panel connectors

2x USB 3.0

2x USB 2.0

2x RS232 serial ports (5V / 12V, 1x switchable to RS422 / RS485) [1]

covered with black plastic caps

SD card reader (supports SD, SDHC, SDXC)

Power button

Power LED (blue)

HDD LED (yellow)

 

Back Panel connectors

DisplayPort 1.2 [2,7]

2x HDMI 1.4b

2x USB 2.0

2x Intel Gigabit LAN (RJ45)

Microphone input

Audio Line-out (headphones)

DC-input connector for external power adapter

4-pin connector "SW2" (2.54 mm pitch) for power button, Clear CMOS and 5 V DC

 

Always-On Jumper

By removing Jumper J9 (please refer to the quick user guide)

the system will start unconditionally once power is applied.

 

Scope of Delivery

Multi-language user guide

Two metal feet with four screws M3 x 7

VESA mount for 75/100mm standard (two metal brackets)

Four thumbscrews M3 x 5 mm (screws together VESA mount and PC)

Four screws M4 x 10 mm (to fix the VESA mount to the external surface)

Rack (to mount a 2.5" storage in the bay) with two screws M3 x 4 mm

Driver DVD for Windows 10 (64-bit)

External power adapter with power cord

 

Environmental Specifications

Operating temperature range: 0~40 °C [5]

Relative humidity, non-condensing: 10~90 %

Conformity & Certifications

EMI: FCC, CE, BSMI, C-Tick

Safety: ETL, CB, BSMI

Other: RoHS, Energy Star, ErP

This device is classed as a technical information equipment (ITE) in class B and is intended for use in living room and office. The CE-mark approves the conformity by the EU directives:

(1) 2004/108/EC relating to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC),

(2) 2006/95/EC relating to Electrical Equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits (LVD),

(3) 2009/125/EC relating to ecodesign requirements for energy-related products (ErP),

(4) 1999/5/EC related to Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (R&TTE)

 

In this article we will concentrate our views at another XPC Slim mini-PC barebone from Shuttle, with the DS77U code name, which incorporates the newer Kaby-Lake-U Celeron processor. These mini-PCs are approved for 24/7 operation, do come with an industrial design for durability purposes, have a large number of interfaces for multiple use patterns and are completely fanless in order to attain zero-noise operation (when suitable components are installed such as SSDs instead of 2.5’’ HDD).

 

The product is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard box, which does sport the usual Shuttle designs:

 

 

 

On one of the box laterals, we will learn in more detail regarding the DS77U technical specifications; here, the manufacturer does also include the product serial number, the System ID along with the dimensions and weight:

 

 

 

After lifting the top box cover, we will get to see that lots of foam material surround both accessory box and the actual mini-PC:

 

 

 

Let’s take a look what bundle is shipped with this particular barebone:

 

 

 

 

We do have one power brick, feet for vertical mount position, a power lead, VESA mount components, but also an assortment of screws:

 

 

 

The included VESA mounts are handy for installing the product in the back of a monitor, in order to be utilized in offices and take little to no space on the table:

 

 

 

The vertical mount feet do sport a rough black texture and orifices are available for different mounting positions:

 

 

 

On the bottom of these feet, we can see rubber material, so the miniPC will stay secure the surface we will place it on:

 

 

 

The power brick is supplied with a small green status LED, so we would know if it does operate correctly:

 

 

 

This particular PSU was manufactured by Asian Power Devices Inc. and is rated on the output as 19V at 3.42A:

 

 

 

A driver disk is also available inside the box, but we always recommend downloading the software from the Shuttle support website:

 

 

 

The documentation is supplied separately, inside a re-sealable plastic bag and is available in multiple languages:

 

 

 

Shuttle made sure to include all the necessary instructions so the installation procedure will go smoothly:

 

 

 

Besides the foam material we have described some rows up, the barebone is also wrapped inside a transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

The chassis of the DS77U is very sturdy, in order to fit many usage patterns such as digital signage, POS, Kiosk, Thin Client, Cloud Computing and more. The side that is marked with the Shuttle logo is hiding a large heatsink underneath for the soldered BGA Celeron processor, so it will get a bit warm during normal operation; here the manufacturer has also placed a small sticker with the product serial numbers and power rating:

 

 

 

In the frontal area of the unit, we are welcomed by a lot of interfaces:

 

 

 

From left to right, we do have two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0, the Power and HDD/SSD activity LED but also the Power button:

 

 

 

Moving on, we will get to see one COM port that does support RS-232/422/485, a second COM port with RS-232 support, but also a SD Card reader:

 

 

 

 

The back side of the unit does also come with plenty of interfaces:

 

 

 

Here we do have a perforation for the optional WLAN antenna, a Pin connector for external power button or CMOS button or even a 5V DC voltage supply, one DisplayPort Video output, two HDMI 1.4b interfaces but also one microphone and one headphone jacks:

 

 

 

Further, we could remind of the two USB 2.0 ports, 2xRJ45 Gigabit LAN ports but also the DC-IN port; in the upper corner, we do also have a second WLAN antenna perforation:

 

 

 

On both top and bottom area of the chassis, we have got perforations, for allowing air to circulate; these holes must not be obstructed, while the ambient temperature must remain between zero and 40 degrees Celsius. Shuttle does also recommend the use of SSDs instead of HDDs if the ambient temperature does frequently pass 35 degrees Celsius:

 

 

 

 

The other side of the unit does come with two separate covers, which do protect different compartments:

 

 

 

By just removing the screws, we can check the internals of the machine:

 

 

 

The 2.5’’ HDD/SSD bracket is preinstalled into the machine; on the DS77U we can install drives up to 12.5mm in height, so compatibility is not a problem!

 

 

 

 

When jumping from the Skylake-enabled Shuttle miniPCs to Kaby Lake models, we have seen an interesting switch to DDR4, so make sure you also read the specs and have some DDR4 SODIMM handy; this particular model does support DDR4-2133MHz at 1.2V with a maximum capacity per module of 16GB (for a total of 32GB!):

 

 

 

A preinstalled M.2-2230-A/E WLAN card can be found inside the machine, with a single-chip 1T1R controller solution, which has at its heart the Realtek RTL81898EE:

 

 

 

This PCB side does also expose the power phases of the CPU:

 

 

 

Nearby we will also find the Intersil ISL95857 voltage regulator for Intel CPUs:

 

 

 

In addition, here we will be able to spot two ASM1442K TMDS level shift ICs but also the BIOS chip:

 

 

 

 

 

The M.2 slot for SSDs does come with the following compatibility:

 

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

-SATA v3.0 (max. 6 Gbps)

 

The slot does support cards with a width of 22mm and a length of 42, 60 or 80 mm:

 

 

 

For the testing purposes, we will use the same Transcend TS128GMTS400 SSD, also supplied by Shuttle from the previous projects:

 

 

 

 

Shuttle was nice and has included two 4GB SODIMM DDR4 2133 1.2V modules, manufactured by Crucial, in order to use with the current and future test systems:

 

 

 

 

 

After re-mounting the protective metallic covers, we have installed the feet in order to use the product vertically:

 

 

 

Here is how the finished installation does look like:

 

 

 

 

With the DS77U we can see again a regular Aptio Setup Utility, which provides the necessary configuration options for the system; inside the Main menu, we can take a look at the currently installed BIOS version and build date, the processor code name and operating frequency, but also the total RAM installed. This are does allow the user to change the system date/time:

 

 

 

The Advanced menu presents itself with several sub-sections:

 

 

 

First, we could remind of the Hardware Health Configuration area, which does display the CPU/System temperatures, along with the CPU and DRAM live voltages:

 

 

 

The Onboard Device Configuration menu allows the user to enable/disable several interfaces such as the audio (provided by Realtek ALC662 High Definition CODEC) and the LAN interfaces. We can select the operating mode of the M.2 slot, configure how much RAM should be allocated for the integrated GPU, enable Intel VT-d but also work with the configuration of the Serial ports:

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we do have the Power Management Configuration options, that do allow the user to set the Wake Up by USB (S3) option, but also enable or disable the EuP Function:

 

 

 

Moving further to the CPU Configuration menu, we can check in more detail the installed CPU technical specifications, but also modify some of its features such as the number of active cores, virtualization, C state support or EIST:

 

 

 

The SATA Configuration menu will only display the connected storage devices to the SATA and M.2 interfaces:

 

 

 

Same goes with the USB Configuration menu:

 

 

 

If we do have a TPM device connected, we can configure it in the next section of the Advanced menu:

 

 

 

The Security main menu does allow the user to specify Admin/User passwords, adjust where the password should be used for login purposes, enable BIOS Flash Protection, or enable the Secure Boot feature:

 

 

 

From the Boot menu, we can choose the boot priority of the connected devices, allow boot straight from the USB or even the card reader, but also select the boot mode (UEFI/Legacy):

 

 

 

 

Finally, we do have the Save & Exit portion of the BIOS, from where we can save, discard or load factory defaults:

 

 

 

First hardware monitoring program we have fired up is CPU-Z, with its multiple information tabs:

 

CPU

 

 

Caches

 

 

Mainboard

 

 

Memory

 

 

SPD

 

 

GPU-Z will give us a summary on the integrated GPU:

 

 

We have also fired up the latest AIDA64 for finding out more details regarding the internal components:

 

CPU

 

 

 

Motherboard

 

 

 

CPU IMC

 

 

 

Integrated Graphics

 

 

 

AIDA64

 

Cinebench R15

 

 

 

Blender Ryzen Render

 

 

PCMark 7

 

 

PCMark 8

 

 

SuperPI XS [2M]

 

X265 Benchmark 1080P 64-bit Normal

 

GeekBench 4

 

 

3DMark Vantage

 

 

3DMark 2013

 

 

Tomb Raider

Andrenaline Action Benchmark Presets

 

Hitman: Absolution

Andrenaline Action Benchmark Presets

 

Sleeping Dogs

Andrenaline Action Benchmark Presets

Shuttle has updated just recently its XPC Slim and XPC Nano series with the new Kaby Lake generation from Intel, which does not only have an increased IPC versus the previous Skylake but also higher clocks. The DS77U series does pack a durable 1.3L metallic chassis, is approved for 24/7 operation and can be purchased in four different variants (DS77U with Celeron 3865U, DS77U3 with Core i3-7100U, DS77U5 with Core i5-7200U but also DS77U7 with Core i7-7500U). This configuration scheme gives more flexibility, so the companies/end users can go for the model that is able to run their desired applications optimally.

 

The DS77U series does not use active cooling, so if we also go with a SSD (M.2 or regular 2.5’’ SATA) for storage purposes, the device will be virtually noiseless.

 

This XPC Slim model does feature two Gigabit LAN controllers, which do support load balancing but also maximum availability via the Failover function.

 

The Intel HD Graphics 610 GPU can control three independent displays via the DisplayPort 1.2 and dual HDMI 1.4b; it is worth mentioning that the DisplayPort of the DS77U does not transport audio signal.

 

Shuttle recommends the user to operate the DS77U vertically by using the provided feet or in the back of the monitor thanks to the included VESA mount. The product can be also mounted horizontally, even if there are no rubber feet underneath, but in this case the maximum operating temperature is 35 degrees Celsius.

 

Speaking of the operating temperatures, we have conducted a stress test thanks to the AIDA64 utility and have observed that the CPU cores have remained well under the rated TjMAX (at an ambient of 28.1 degrees Celsius).

 

 

 

Regarding the system performance, we could clearly see that the DS77U can surpass the previous systems without any issues at all; we were impressed to see that not only the CPU performance has increased but also the graphics performance is considerably better. For example, at resolutions such as 1280x1024 and lower details, we can consider Sleeping Dogs almost playable and the same can be said about Tomb Raider.

 

Power consumption….well for this model we have a very small power consumed from the wall, even in maximum stress environment: in IDLE we have recorded about 9.15W and in Full Load about 18.3W, so you can easily turn it on and forget about it.

 

The DS77U barebone, as tested can be found online for about 227 Euros. Considering the multitude of product features, performance and very low power consumption, it is surely worth it!

Shuttle XPC Slim DS77U Barebone is Recommended for:

 

 

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