Review: Shuttle K48 barebones PC

If there’s one thing Shuttle is known for, it’s stylish case designs. And despite sitting in the budget section of Shuttle’s ever-expanding lineup of small form-factor cases, the K48 follows this trend.

Things are kept simple at the front, with two LEDs – one for power, the other for hard drive activity – joining a small, silver power button.

We’re not quite sure what the circles strewn across the front of the case signify, but they’re certainly attention-grabbing.

It’s just a shame shuttle hasn’t included a flip-down door for the optical drive – the black plate you see in the photo has to be removed, with your optical drive of choice quite likely to blight the K48’s good looks.

Round the back you’ll find the usual selection of ports, including DVI, VGA, four USB, Gigabit Lan and audio. There’s no Firewire, though, nor do you get Wifi as standard.

Undoing three small thumbscrews is all it takes to get to the innards and, unsurprisingly, it’s rather cramped inside. The slim PSU is rated at just 100W, which will ward off those planning on building a high-performance system, as will the fact that you can’t improve on the Intel GMA950 integrated graphics.

The proprietary Shuttle motherboard will accept single- and dual-core Socket 775 Intel processors (see Shuttle’s website for a full compatibility list), while a large fan at the rear keeps everything cool.

Along with the 5.25in bay, you get two 2.5in alternatives. However, the 2.5in bays are internal, so you can’t fit accessories such as a card reader.

Despite its limitations, this is a small, attractive and incredibly well-built barebones system that’s ideal
if you’re looking to build a PC for non-intensive applications. And although Shuttle is usually known for sky-high prices, at £99 you’re getting a lot for your money.