All-in-one PC by stefan @ 2023-06-11
The DS20U7V2 trades punches with the previously tested SKU featuring the i5-10210U SoC and frequently we noted wins as well due to higher boost clocks, which can go up to 4.9GHz for a single core! This boost does not take long though due to SoC power limitations, power we did not see exceeding 19W, which shows that we are dealing with a better binned SoC in the case of the i7-10510U.
At first we would like to thank Shuttle Europe for offering a sample of their latest XPC slim Barebone DS20U7V2 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."
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 litres
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 degrees Celsius 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 i7-10510U (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: 1.8 GHz
Max. Turbo frequency: 4.9 GHz
Intel Smart Cache: 8 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: 300~1150 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)
Supplied thermal pad for cooling M.2 SSDs.
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 / WLN-M1)
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 LAN (2.5G + 1G)
Dual network with two RJ45 ports
Used network chips:
1) left: Intel i211 Ethernet Controller supports 2.500 / 1.000 / 100 Mbps operation
2) right: Intel i219 Ethernet Controller supports 1.000 / 100 / 10 Mbps operation
Supports WAKE ON LAN (WOL)
Supports network boot by Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE)
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 RJ45 LAN (left: 2.5 Gbps and right: 1 Gbps)
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
Thermal pad for cooling M.2 SSDs
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 / WLN-M1: WLAN module (supports WLAN/Bluetooth) 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 degrees Celsius
Relative humidity, non-condensing: 10~90 %
In this article we will revisit the DS20U XPC slim Barebone series from Shuttle, but this time with its second iteration, which features a Dual LAN configuration with connectivity options of 2.5G+1G instead of 1G+1G as we have noted previously. The SKU we have been sent from the manufacturer does now come with an i7-10510U Gen. 10 Comet Lake-U SoC, with a power limit of 15W TDP, which is completely passively cooled, thanks to the large heatpipe cooling system the chassis does integrate. Due to this aspect, the maximum ambient operating temperature is 40 degrees Celsius, and it is recommended to place it inside an environment where air circulation is not obstructed (such as in a closed cabinet).
The DS20U7V2 is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure, with the usual box art we noted from Shuttle mini-PCs in the past as well:
On the side, Shuttle has attached the product serial number, the internal code name, the main product highlights, but also a small QR code:
The box is provided with a handle, for easy manipulation:
Plenty of protective material can be observed inside, after lifting the top cover:
The accessories box is separate, while the documentation is offered inside a transparent plastic bag:
For mounting the DS20U7V2 with the VESA mount, we have an instruction leaflet just for that:
The barebone Quick Start Guide is available with lots of drawings, and in multiple languages:
The accessories are carefully packaged individually as well:
Here we do have the following:
-the PSU power lead
-the actual PSU
-a large thermal pad
-screws for mounting
-the vertical mount stands
-the VESA mount components:
The PSU does come with a small activity LED on top:
On its back, we will note a large sticker with the technical specifications, which mentions 19V at 3.42A, for a total of 64.98W:
The PSU cable ends up with a jack plug:
An interesting, bundled item is the very large thermal pad, which acts as an interface between the M.2 SSD and the top cover, to help further with cooling:
The vertical stand feet do feature pre-drilled holes, and each will make use of two screws for mounting purposes:
Rubber is used on the bottom area, to avoid surface scratches and unwanted movement:
It is great that we receive free VESA mounts to place the mini-PC in the desired position:
A driver disk is also supplied, but we would recommend downloading the latest versions from Shuttle’s Support website:
The top area of the 1.3 litre chassis does represent a huge heatsink with heatpipes, to keep the motherboard and SoC components temperatures at bay; this will become quite hot at high loads:
In the front, we will note two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, four USB 2.0 ports, the Power button, the Power and HDD/SSD activity LEDs, a SD card reader (with support for SD, SDHC and SDXC standards), but also microphone, line-out jacks:
The top area does have attached small sticker as well, which highlights the product power rating and the list of supported standards:
The bottom area comes with a ventilation grill, from where cold air will be collected, if the DS20U7V2 is placed in a vertical position, a Kensington port can be spotted on the left as well:
The top area is pretty much identical, with a secondary Kensington lock port:
On the back, we will note a 4-pin connector which comes with contacts for the Power button, Clear CMOS and a 5V DC, a HDMI 2.0a port, a DisplayPort 1.2, a Serial COM port, a D-Sub/VGA port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, 2x Intel RJ45 LAN ports (left 2.5Gbps, right 1Gbps), the DC-in port, but also two WiFi antenna gold-plated ports:
The internals of the DS20U7V2 can be easily accessed thanks to the two small removable covers:
The bottom area which we are seeing in the picture does hold the 2.5’’ drive compartment, but also the M.2-2230E WLAN card slot; on the top we will get to see the NVMe storage compartment (which is also compatible with SATA v3.0, but also the memory slots:
The 2.5’’ drive compartment does come with a bracket which is held secure with one screw:
To install the optional WiFi card, we’ll need to remove the bottom frame:
After removing this layer, we can have a closer look at the motherboard components:
The two memory slots do support DDR4 RAM up to 2666MHz, with a maximum of 32GB per DIMM; nearby we will note the Realtek ALC888 audio CODEC close nearby:
The SSD M.2 slot does support drives with formats of 2242, 2260 or 2280:
The MegaChips MCDP2800 series IC takes care of converting a DisplayPort 1.2a interface to HDMI 2.0:
The SPI Flash chip is placed in a protected socket:
Nearby, we will get to see the VRM components for the SoC:
The red Always-Power-On jumper is located near the populated CMOS battery connector:
The M2-2230E slot for the LAN card does have the antenna cables close nearby:
The CR2032 battery for keeping the CMOS settings is capsulated; nearby we will spot a small USB 3.0 4-pin connector:
The SATA/Power connector for the 2.5’’ drive helps with easy installation:
Shuttle were nice and have also included the WLN-M1 WLAN kit accessory to install on this barebone:
This one comes with the WiFi card, the necessary external antennas, the antenna cables with ports, but also the installation manual:
The guide will show the installation procedure on barebones which require to have installed the antenna cables as well (in our case these have arrived pre-installed):
The WiFi card is made by Intel and sports the AX200NGW code name:
The antenna cables must be carefully attached to the ports from the card:
Here is how the finished installation should look like:
For testing purposes, we will use a Neo Forza 2x32GB DDR4 3200MHz SODIMM memory kit:
Our trusty Silicon Power A60 512GB PCIe 3.0 drive will be used as the boot drive:
The installation is quite straight-forward:
The last step would be to attach the feet:
The DS20U7V2 does come with a simple Aptio Setup interface; in the Main area, we will find out information regarding the installed BIOS date, Intel ME, the installed SoC, quantity of system memory, but we can also modify the system date and time:
The Advanced area comes with different sub-sections:
The TPM Configuration area allows working with the Security Device Support option:
The Hardware Health Configuration menu does only display the system/CPU temperatures, but also the CPU Core and DRAM voltages:
Some usual Power Management menus are available in the next section:
The CPU Configuration area does allow multiple features to be enabled or disabled; this section does also offer in-depth information on the SoC:
From the SATA Configuration area, we can choose the operating mode for the SATA interface:
The Onboard Device Configuration area does allow the user to select the operating mode for the M.2 slot designated for storage, the option to enable/disable HD audio interface, the CNVi function, to disable or enable the LAN interfaces, select how much RAM should be reserved for the iGPU, but also configure the Serial Ports:
The Security area allows setting passwords for the configuration interface, we can enable Flash Write protection, and also check if Secure Boot is set to On (mandatory for W11 installation):
The Boot area does house the usual options:
Same thing we can say about the final, Exit menu:
With the help of AIDA64 reporting tool, we have extracted some more details on the test system:
As mentioned by Shuttle, memory kits over 2666MHz will run at the same frequency; in this case, the Neo Forza 2x32GB DDR3200 kit has booted at 2666MHz:
Andrenaline Action Benchmark Presets
Andrenaline Action Benchmark Presets
Andrenaline Action Benchmark Presets
The DS20U7V2 trades punches with the previously tested SKU featuring the i5-10210U SoC and frequently we noted wins as well due to higher boost clocks, which can go up to 4.9GHz for a single core! This boost does not take long though due to SoC power limitations, power we did not see exceeding 19W, which shows that we are dealing with a better binned SoC in the case of the i7-10510U.
When testing the system in a maximum stress environment, we noted that the core temperature did not exceed 59 degrees Celsius (and this shows how efficient the passive heatsink with heatpipes built by Shuttle is), while the speed has dropped to the exact all-core frequency noted with the i5 version as well: 1.4GHz; the performance difference will come this time from the increased Intel Smart Cache (8MB vs 6MB), but also the 50MHz difference when talking about the iGPU maximum dynamic frequency:
Since we are dealing with a fully passive chassis, it is quite recommended to place the system in a well-ventilated room with no obstructions, otherwise we will run into issues with throttling of the SoC, but also decreased life of the installed RAM modules and the SSD.
In terms of power, we noted in IDLE about 11.7W, while in Full-Load, just about 30.5W, so you can set this as an always-on machine without thinking at the increased power bill!
The barebone comes with an impressive list of connectivity options, now with a 2.5Gbit + 1Gbit LAN for future proofing. 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 barebone can be found online for about 777 Euros, and we really think that it is worth it for multiple applications which require zero noise operation; could we also add that this range of Intel SoCs are one of the last from Intel which does support headless operation, so you will get image when remoting to it without the need of having a monitor connected to it and turned on?
We would like to thank again to Shuttle Europe for making this review possible!