Shuttle X27D

Verdict: The extra core of the new Intel Atom 330 does little to improve performance.

The Shuttle X27 proved that small packages don't always yield good things. While it's relatively cheap and much smaller than the average PC, it proved to be no match for our benchmarks and was very slow. Part of the problem was its Hyper-Threaded1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, which struggled to cope with anything more demanding than web browsing and word processing. The Shuttle X27D is identical to the X27 apart from the CPU, which has been upgraded to the new dual-core Atom 330. This still runs at 1.6GHz, but we hoped the extra processing core would make the X27D a more practical choice for a quiet, low-power PC.

Like the old Atom N270, the Atom 330 still uses Hyper-Threading, so it's capable of processing four threads simultaneously. However, the addition of a processing core is the only upgrade to the new CPU. Both cores have just 512KB of Level 2 cache - hence Intel's claim that the Atom 330 has 1MB of Level 2 cache. The TDP of the CPU has increased from 2.5W to 8W due to the additional processing core, but the X27D is still extremely quiet.

Shuttle has seen no need to upgrade the cooling in the X27D, so there's still a small passive heatsink for the CPU, and a larger heatsink for the Northbridge that's cooled by a quiet 60mm fan.

The X27D has the same case and motherboard as the X27, with connectors for either a S-ATA or EIDE slimline laptop optical drive, and another for a 2.5in S-ATA laptop hard disk. The single DDR2 memory socket is also present.

We installed the same amount of DDR2 RAM as we used with the X27, along with a 7,200rpm 2.5in hard disk and a TSST slimline optical drive. We also used Windows XP to give the X27D a better chance at running applications smoothly. We were hoping for better scores in the Media Benchmarks than those produced by the X27, but after a few minutes of watching the X27D plod through the Gimp image editing test, we knew we were in for another long benchmarking session. The X27D scored 193 in the image editing test, which is slightly slower than the X27's score. Clearly, the extra processing core makes little difference here.

Our video encoding test makes use of additional cores, so it was no surprise to see the X27D improving considerably on the X27's score of 251 and recording a result of 406. Multitasking was also significantly improved, with the X27D scoring 239 while the single-core Atom N270 of the X27 managed just 133. However, the video playback portion of the test didn't run at all - as was the case with the Atom N270 of the X27 - so a second processing core doesn't help much when running two demanding applications. As such, it would appear that the Atom processing core isn't fast enough for stressful applications. The X27D's overall score was 279, a significant if uninspiring improvement over X27's score of 194.

With the disheartening benchmark results behind us, we wanted to test the X27D with a few basic everyday tasks. Web browsing is reasonably responsive, but after switching to even a modest PC based around a 2.6GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 with the same Internet connection, it was evident that the X27D was much slower. This was particularly true when we had several browser windows for Flash-heavy sites open. We also tried using Cooliris 1.8 (see www.cooliris.com), a funky browser add-on that's great for viewing large numbers of images streamed from compatible sources such as Google Image search or Flickr. Cooliris runs well even on the slowest Core 2 Duo processors, but it practically ground to a halt on the X27D, with the CPU regularly spiking to full load in Task Manager.

As Crysis is incompatible with the X27D's Intel GMA 950 integrated GPU, we tried to run TrackMania Nations Forever. The game loaded, but with an extremely slow minimum frame rate of 7fps. The X27D is resigned to playing only the most basic of 3D games. Under full load, the X27D drew just 37W from the wall, while the single-core Atom N270-based X27 drew 36W.

Conclusion

Vista is a possibility when it comes to the X27D, but the Atom 330 CPU of the Shuttle X27D struggles with even basic tasks in Windows XP, so it isn't surprising that many Atom-equipped laptops have less demanding Linux -based operating systems. However, on a tiny laptop, a lack of processing power is less noticeable, as the small screen, and cramped keyboard and trackpad limit your ambitions. With a full-sized desktop TFT, you may want to run numerous apps concurrently, and you want your PC to always be responsive. The dual-core Atom 330 of the Shuttle failed to respond, and was sluggish even while browsing the Web. Intel needs to beef up the raw processing power of the Atom to make it a sound choice for a desktop PC.