At first we would like to thank Shuttle Europe for offering a sample of their latest XPC slim Barebone DS20U5 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."

 

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 with 2.5" SSD under Windows 10: ca. 6 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 with black steel chassis

Without cooling fan, passive cooling only

The bays for memory, 2.5" drive and M.2 card

can easily be accessed by removing two cover plates.

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

Weight: 1.5 kg net and 2.2 kg gross

Two holes for Kensington Lock and numerous

threaded holes (M3) at both sides of the chassis

 

Operating Position

1) Vertical: Usual operating 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.

 

Operating System

This barebone system comes without operating system.

It is compatible with Windows 10/11 (64-bit) and Linux (64-bit).

 

Processor

Model: Intel Core i5-10210U (ULV)

System-on-a-chip architecture (SoC) with integrated memory and graphics controller

FCBGA1528 package - directly soldered onto the mainboard

Code name: Comet Lake U (10th Generation Intel Core)

Cores / Threads: 4 / 8

Base frequency: 1.6 GHz

Max. Turbo frequency: 4.2 GHz

Intel Smart Cache: 6 MB

TDP wattage: 15 W maximum

Manufacturing process: 14nm

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

Intel UHD Graphics

GPU clock frequency: 300~1100 MHz

Execution Units (EUs): 24

Supports DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5

Supports full H264, H265 8/10 bit, VP8/9, VC-1, AVC hardware decoding

Supports Quick Sync Video and Clear Video HD technology

Supports up to three independent screens:

1) DisplayPort 1.2 supports Ultra HD @ 60 Hz

2) HDMI 2.0a supports Ultra HD @ 60 Hz

3) D-Sub/VGA supports analog displays

 

Mainboard / BIOS

Shuttle Mainboard FS20

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 und USB devices

AMI BIOS in 16 MByte EEPROM with SPI interface

Supports hardware monitoring and Watchdog function

Supports Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)

Supports Firmware-TPM (fTPM) Version 2.0

 

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 cable length: ca. 170 cm

AC cable length: ca. 170 cm (3-pin Micky MM C6 and Schuko earthed safety plug)

 

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 slot with 260 pins

Supports DDR4-2666 (PC4-21300) SDRAM at 1.2 V

Supports DDR4-3200 at 2666 MHz

Supports Dual Channel mode

Supports a maximum of 32 GB per DIMM,

maximum total size: 64 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

- 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 NVMe SSDs (with M key)

 

M.2-2230E slot for WLAN cards

Interfaces: PCI-Express Gen. 2.0 X1 und USB 2.0

Supports M.2 cards with a width of 22 mm and a length of 30 mm (type 2230)

Supports WLAN expansion cards (optional Shuttle accessory: WLN-M)

2x pre-installed antenna cables

 

Card Reader

Integrated SD card reader

Supports SD, SDHC and SDXC memory flash cards

 

Audio

Audio Realtek® ALC897 or ALC 662 High-Definition Audio

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

1) 2 channel line out (headphones)

2) microphone input

Digital multi-channel audio output: via HDMI and DisplayPort

 

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

 

Prepared for Wireless Network (WLAN)

2x pre-installed antenna cables (WLAN card and antennas not included)

Prepared for the installation of an M.2-2242 WLAN card and two external antennas

 

Front Panel connectors/buttons

2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (red, max. 10 Gbps)

4x USB 2.0

Microphone input

Audio Line-out (headphones)

SD card reader (supports SD, SDHC, SDXC)

Power button

Power LED (blue)

HDD LED (yellow)

 

Back Panel connectors

DisplayPort 1.2

HDMI 2.0a

D-Sub/VGA

2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (red, max. 10 Gbps)

2x Intel Gigabit LAN (RJ45)

Serial COM port (5V / 12V, switchable to RS232 / RS422 / RS485)

DC-input connector for external power adapter

4-pin connector (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 mm

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

Four screws M3 x 7 mm (screws together VESA mount and PC)

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

Two screws M3 x 5 mm to mount a 2.5" storage in the bay

Two screws M3 x 5 mm to mount M.2 cards

Driver DVD for Windows

External 65W power adapter with power cord (with protective-earth contacts)

Optional Accessories

- PCP11: adapter cable for the second COM port (replaces the VGA port)

- CXP01: adapter cable for external power button

- WWN03: LTE adapter kit for the 2.5" bay including two external LTE antennas

- WLN-M: WLAN module (802.11ac + BT) with two external antennas and cables

- PRM01: 2U rack mount front plate for two Shuttle XPC slim

- DIR01: mounting kit for 35 mm DIN-Rail

 

Environmental Specifications

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

Relative humidity, non-condensing: 10~90 %

 

Conformity & Certifications

EMI: CE, FCC, BSMI, RCM, VCCI

Safety: CB, BSMI, cTUVus

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) 2014/30/EU relating to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)

(2) 2014/35/EU relating to Electrical Equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits (LVD)

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

 

It is time to look upon another interesting barebone from Shuttle, taking part of the DS20U series. The new XPC slim barebones come with Comet-Lake-U processors and feature passive cooling for a completely silent experience. The connectivity options are plenty and we can choose from multiple CPU options, depending on the applications you will run:

 

-Celeron 5205U

-Core i3-10110U

-Core i5-10210U

-Core i7-10510U

 

This type of chassis does support easy upgrades in terms of RAM, storage, while the large heatsink which cools the SoC is placed on the opposite side, in order not to add heat to the rest of the components.

 

The barebone is shipped inside a compact cardboard box with the usual box-art from Shuttle:

 

 

 

The box is provided with a plastic handle, for easy manipulation:

 

 

 

On one of the sides, we will note a large sticker with the product technical specifications:

 

 

 

As we have been accustomed before with Shuttle products, these come very well packed, with lots of foam on the inside:

 

 

 

Besides the main product, the DS20U5 barebone we will receive some documentation inside a transparent, resealable plastic bag but also a separate cardboard box with the hardware bundle:

 

 

 

In terms of documentation, we will get the DS10U VESA mount installation instructions:

 

 

 

A separate leaflet covers the hardware installation of the additional components, to transform the DS20U5 into a bootable computer:

 

 

 

Let’s open the box and see what we have inside:

 

 

 

We have the power lead, the power adapter, the VESA mounts, the necessary mounting screws, the vertical mount feet but also a disk with the drivers and documentation (also present online):

 

 

 

The power adapter was manufactured by Asian Power Devices and is rated on the output as 19V at 3.42A, for a total of 65W:

 

 

 

The power adapter cable ends up with a jack plug:

 

 

 

The opposite side of the adapter comes with a status LED:

 

 

 

The vertical mount feet do come with the same paint finishing as the chassis and do require only two screws each for installation:

 

 

 

Underside, we will find rubber, so they won’t slip on the surface:

 

 

 

The DS20U5 barebone is not called XPC slim for nothing…it comes with a compact 1.3-litre metallic chassis with a black paint finish, while the dimensions are 20 x 16.5 x 3.95 cm (LWH):

 

 

 

On the sides, we will note ventilation grills to let the air flow through; since this is a completely fan-less design, the maximum recommended ambient temperature for optimal operation is 40 degrees Celsius:

 

 

 

 

In the front, we will find two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports, two USB 2.0 ports, the Power and HDD/SSD activity LEDs, the Power button, two more USB 2.0 ports, a SD Card Reader, a Microphone and a Headphone jack:

 

 

 

In the back, we will note two WiFi antenna ports, a 4-pin connector for an external power button, Clear CMOS and 5V DC voltage, a HDMI 2.0a port, a DisplayPort 1.2, a COM port, a D-Sub/VGA port, 2x USB 3.2 Gen2, two RJ45 Gigabit LAN ports but also a DC-in connector:

 

 

 

The two compartments in the back can be easily removed with only one screw:

 

 

 

 

The 2.5’’ mount adapter can be easily removed for drive installation:

 

 

 

 

In the M2-2230E slot can be used for installing a Wifi card:

 

 

 

In the same compartment we will note the SATA Data/Power port for installing a 2.5’’ drive:

 

 

 

Two SO-DIMM memory slots can support installation of up to 64GB of RAM, but the frequency supported is different depending on the chosen SKU (Celeron 5205U comes only with 2400MHz support while the others can run 2666Mhz without any other issues):

 

 

 

In the M.2-2280M slot we can install a SSD with different sizes (2280, 2260, 2242):

 

 

 

Nearby, we do have the CPU + memory VRM components:

 

 

 

The top metallic frame can be removed with four more screws; we recommend doing this if we would like to install the WiFi card, since it is not easy to connect the antennas otherwise:

 

 

 

The CMOS battery is easily spotted with the removed cover:

 

 

 

The capsulated BIOS chip is nearby:

 

 

 

For testing purposes, we did install a Intel WiFi card in the designated slot:

 

 

 

A 2x8GB DDR 2400 SODIMM kit from Kingston was also installed inside the barebone:

 

 

 

The previously used Silicon Power A60 512GB SSD was present in this computer as well:

 

 

 

Before starting testing, we have mounted the two feet to allow DS20U5 to function in the correct position:

 

 

 

The UEFI interface for the DS20U5 is not spectacular since it comes with the Aptio Setup GUI. From the Main area, we can check the current BIOS date, Intel ME version, the firmware GUID, the installed processor name, total installed memory but we can also alter the system date/time:

 

 

 

The Advanced menu includes multiple sub-sections:

 

 

The TPM configuration menu comes with a single configuration option:

 

 

From the Hardware Health Configuration menu, we can check out the current system, CPU temperature but also the CPU Core and DRAM voltages:

 

 

The usual Power Management options are next:

 

 

Inside the CPU Configuration menu, we can check out more details on the installed CPU and we can enable/disable some of its functions:

 

 

SATA menu is useful when we do have such devices installed into the slots:

 

 

The OnBoard Device Configuration menu allows enabling or disabling different interfaces such as CNVi, onboard LAN, Intel VT-d or the Serial ports:

 

 

The Security area comes with the usual settings we can configure:

 

 

Same thing we can say about the Boot menu:

 

 

The Exit menu allows the user to Save/Discard or load factory defaults:

 

 

With the help of AIDA64 reporting tool, we have extracted some more details on the test system:

 

CPU

Motherboard

IMC

SB

Network Adapters

iGPU

Audio Devices

The tests were performed with two separate sets of memory kits: a Kingston C17 2400MHz (OEM) memory kit but also a Neo Forza C21 2933MHz kit:

 

Kingston C17 2400MHz

Neo Forza C21 2933MHz

(NMSO416E82-2933E)

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

The DS20U5 barebone from Shuttle does deliver impressive performance for a total package power of about 19W thanks to the Intel Core i5-10210U quad-core SoC with HyperThreading. While the peak core speeds go to around 3.9 Ghz when encountering small workloads, during high workloads it may drop down to 1.4Ghz, while still maintaining a good performance all-around. Considering that we are talking about a fan-less design, we found the maximum temperature of the SoC (59 degrees Celsius) as being excellent, with a distance to TjMAX of 59 degrees Celsius in this case.

 

The AIDA64 stress test does paint the full picture in terms of clocks, temperatures and power consumption:

 

click to enlarge

 

As seen from the benchmark results, i5-10210U SoC seems to take advantage of higher RAM speeds mostly in 3D applications, but less in productivity apps. The iGPU is a Comet Lake-U GT2 on 14nm, with a variable speed between 300 and 1100MHz, four-pixel pipelines, one TMU per pipeline and 96 unified shaders. This combination allows playing older games at decent framerates while using the 1280x1024 resolution and medium to high details.

 

Although the i5-10210U SoC is rated on Intel's website with full support for SODIMM 2933Mhz, our capable Neo Forza kit was limited to 2666MHz. We have requested more details from Shuttle, hoping of an updated BIOS which can run 2933MHz RAM with no issues.

 

Edit:  Shuttle has confirmed that the SoC does indeed support 2933 RAM, but only in LPDDR4 format, no DDR4 and this is why our kit only ran at 2933.

 

In terms of power consumption,  we have recorded in IDLE mode 9.65W, while in Full Load just about 31.2W!

 

The barebone comes with an impressive list of connectivity options including two LAN for failover but also support teaming mode. The barebone can be enhanced even further with a PCP11 adapter cable for the second COM port (replacing the VGA port), the CXP01 adapter cable for an external power button, the WWN03 LTE adapter kit for the 2.5’’ bay, including two external LTE antennas, the WLN-M WLAN module, the PRM01 2U rack mount for two Shuttle XPC slim units but also the DIR01 mounting kit for 35mm DIM-Rail.

 

The price may be a little high for some, at about 783 Euros with all taxes included, but we are talking about a 24/7 operation product, with a very efficient fan-less cooling system and enough performance for most small business and home applications.

Shuttle XPC slim Barebone DS20U5 is Recommended for:

 

 

 

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