Shuttle XPC Prima Series SX48P2 E - SFF - RAM 0 MB - no HDD - no graphics - Gigabit Ethernet - Monitor : none Tests (PC Systeme)

Mike Jennings takes Shuttle's latest gaming chassis for a test drive. It looks great, but is it practical?

The Shuttle XPC Prima SX48P2 Deluxe bare-bones PC delivers plenty of integrated functionality and connectivity, but make sure your build won't run aground on its scarcity of expansion slots.

Highly compact; prerouted cabling; supports 1,600MHz front-side bus; Intel Turbo Memory slot; CrossFire support

Requires pricey DDR3 memory; no onboard graphics; no legacy PCI slots; only two PCI Express slots; tight spacing between slots; two of three hard drive bays can't accept IDE drives

Double your display real estate by adding a second monitor. It's a snap: Here's how

So, I get this shiny little sucker in the mail and proceed to carefully insert my components to it. First boot up, seems to work fine.. I'm watching the mother board and seeing it come to life for the first time. I begin hearing this high pitched...

A bare bones system that potentially can work with your parts

A bare bones system that will become your fault even if it's their fault

I normally run 2 VMs in VMware on boot, & this has been running them well. The only problem is my HDD. Its a bit slow for Win7 & VMs. Mai Rig: CPU: Intel Q9400 2.66GHz [@ 2.9GHz] RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB [8GB Total] OS: Windows 7 64bit GPU: Nvidia...

Wireless internet [Realtek] allows me to shove the PC in a closet ; This thing is smaller than I thought! I fit the PC in a suitcase to game at my friends' house ; Prettyful

Fingerprint Reader software unsupported on my OS. I dont blame Shuttle though. MS is making so many OSes, its hard to keep up ; Included Bluetooth adapter doesnt support a few of my devices. Again, it might be the driver not compatible with the OS

If you plan to use this Corsair XMS3 like I did (I got 8GB, it's on Shuttle's compatibility list) save yourself a week of random BSOD's and set the voltage to 1.8V in your BIOS. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145198 See...

SFF, obviously. DDR3 support. 2 x eSATA. Low noise heat pipe CPU cooler. Stealth drive lever to operate your optical disc open/close button works much better than my older Shuttle. It never could really work with my drive so I always used software...

No onboard video or Firewire. Fan slightly louder at idle than the older Shuttle that this SX48P2 Deluxe is replacing