XPCs get new chassis and an OASIS

Author: Richard Swinburne
Published: 7th June 2007
Comments (4) Stumble
Who would have thought that OASIS would ever be without Liam and Noel? Shuttle believes it doesn't need the pair...

Who would have thought that OASIS would ever be without Liam and Noel? Shuttle believes it doesn't need the pair...

Shuttle may have been one of the first to use heatpipes on its ICE CPU cooling units, but the company's motherboards are now just catching up. There are two integrated pipes used on the P-series between northbridge/southbridge and mosfets, having air sucked over them by the lateral CPU cooling fan at the front of the case.

Shuttle claims not only a far quieter case, but also one that's 10 percent cooler as well. Considering these things are little ovens we're very pleased at the innovation.

Both X38 and P35 XPCs named, SX38P3 and SP35P3 respectively, which will feature support for DDR2-1066, Bluetooth, solid state capacitors (as do all new Shuttles), and fingerprint recognition. In addition, you now get integrated 802.11g WiFi in the back of the case too.

The X38 model comes with PCI-Express 2.0 and even CrossFire support, however the picture of Shuttle's X38 board we have has it featuring only one PCI-Express x16 slot? Having 300W (from two 150W PCI-Express 2.0 cards) in such a cramped space seems a little ludicrous anyway.

If that's not enough though, Shuttle has also integrated an Intel TurboMemory PCI-Express module you usually find in Santa Rosa laptops as well. This provides both the ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive facility in Vista, without having to use a USB key.

Aesthetically, despite the fact that you'll never see the motherboard, Shuttle told bit-tech it is not only committed to making the best looking external cases, but also internal components too. So expect PCBs to continue to be as colourful as ever.

One final thing to note is that the T-range we reviewed recently is set to be dropped, simply because (as we again noted in the final thoughts of the review), companies like Asus produce a competing product that undercuts Shuttle by a significant margin.

Discuss in the forums.

MSI 9800GTX Graphics Card
Quote ./^\.Ace./^\. 7th June 2007, 17:02
Shuttles are still small so they don't support much highend gaming fun but they have to use up-to-date tech or no one will want them I don't think it is a nextgen PC but just your average upgrade
Quote Flibblebot 7th June 2007, 17:24
"dispanded"...?
I think Shuttle rested on their laurels for a little too long, and now they're having to play catch-up. Not sure whether they'll get back the lead they lost though - not Shuttle's fault, just the way the market's moving. With the increase in heat production and power consumption of modern CPUs and GPUs, putting them all inside a small case doesn't really make sense.

Media Centre, the other use for Shuttles, didn't really take off the way MS wanted it to, especially with the rise of dedicated CE boxes like Sky+ and PVRs.
Quote blackerthanblack 8th June 2007, 08:56
Perhaps by Crossfire support they mean the new 'twin card' from I think Sapphire? I don't know if that needs a Crossfire motherboard, but it would make more sense if the new HD 2600 are as low power as we hope.

Otherwise it's just typical marketing
Quote ./^\.Ace./^\. 10th June 2007, 01:09
I think that Sapphire card works on its own, no cross fire. but I didn't read that much on it yet
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