Shuttle SS21T

A new T that’s bigger than the P.

The T chassis is bigger than anything in the XPC range, yielding a 31x31x18.5cm footprint. The matt black mini tower case has circular ventilation holes over the CPU and PCI-Express area but is missing the usual embossed Shuttle logo on the sides. While the T chassis does seem far larger than the traditional XPC range, it actually hits a nice median between a full ATX and SFF.

The front features flush stealthed 3.5” and 5.25” drive bays, along with front panel USB and audio ports. Both power switch/LED and hard drive activity LED are subtly integrated into the fascia. Central to it all is a very fitting reflective piece of black plastic with a Shuttle logo behind it. It certainly looks professional and provides a good variety of functionality with understatement. However, it's missing both a reset switch and a Firewire port on the front panel.


After installing the 5.25” optical drive, we found that the spring holding the stealthed bay drive door wasn’t strong enough and the door constantly sat at an awkward 80 degree angle rather than sitting flush when a drive was installed.


There are no thumb screws used to secure the case's shell onto the frame, so you'll need to grab a Philips screwdriver to get into the case. This is, of course, in addition to requiring a screwdriver to install and secure expansion cards and your drives. The top and sides are a single sheet of metal and it lifts right off revealing the “backwards” BTX guts.