Shuttle XPC Zen

For its latest barebones system, Shuttle has tweaked the design to make the quietest XPC yet. It's 20 per cent smaller than its predecessor, the XPC ST6164, thanks to the removal of the standard internal power supply, replaced instead with an external 180w brick. (For a review of the ST61G4 click here.) Combined with the CPU heat pipe and the Bi-Sonic 80mm fan, it's certainly very quiet.

From the outside little else is different. At the front are two USB2 ports and mini-jack audio ports. The rear has the two more USB2, network and S/PDIF input and outputs.

The Shuttle motherboard, built around the ATI RS300 chipset, offers an onboard Radeon 9100 graphics core. It's nippier than anything Intel offers, but is really only suitable for the occasional 3D game. This board has no AGP slot, so a new graphics card can't be installed.

The motherboard supports all Intel Socket 478 processors up to an 800MHz front-side bus including the new Prescott. The latter processor requires a Bios update from Shuttle, though.

As with other Shuttle barebones systems, the inside is a joy to work in. The hard disk bay unscrews and slides out to make working easier. It's all thumbscrews on the inside. Only parallel ATA drives can be used, although Shuttle provides its own IDE cables, so that you don't end up with a box full of cabling.

Finally, there's a single PCI slot for further upgrades. To us this immediately suggests a TV card for a home theatre system. The quiet operation and decent built-in graphics makes it perfect for this job or as a low-performance second PC where noise would be an issue.

Contact: Gemma Computers
www.gemma.co.uk

Specifications:

• Intel Pentium 4/Celeron (800MHz FSB)
• ATI RS300 chipset
• Dual-channel DDR memory
• (200/266/333/400MHz)
• Realtek 5.1-channel sound
• ATI Radeon 9100 graphics
• 2 USB2, Ethernet, S-video, S/PDIF in/out, VGA
• 180w external power supply
• 280 x 170 x 190 (h x w x d)
• 5.2kg