Product Listing

Shuttle XPC X200

By Vincent Chang - 4 Apr 2007

Interior Design

Interior Design

From what we have seen of Shuttle's US website, the XPC X200 is not sold alone as some of its other barebones systems. Users are allowed and probably encouraged to pre-configure the X200 either online on Shuttle's website or buying it bundled with the necessary components through a retailer like Newegg . This is because of the unique design found in this series of small form factor PCs, which more closely resembles a notebook rather than Shuttle's usual barebones systems, hence installation is likely to be more complex and troublesome.

A glimpse of the compact but neat interior of the X200. We imagine that the retail version will ship with all the necessary components pre-installed.

While that could be true for retail, our review unit came without a processor, memory modules and hard drive. Therefore, we set out to configure it with a high-end Core 2 Duo T7600 (2.33GHz) mobile processor, added dual 1GB DDR2-667 SO-DIMM memory modules and finally, a 80GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA hard drive. In short, this is a fairly powerful system on paper, though such a configuration merely amplifies the relative weakness of the onboard GMA950 graphics accelerator (thanks to its Intel 945GM based motherboard).

Beneath this copper heat pipe lies the processor. The X200 supports up to the latest Core 2 Duo though the newer Quads from Intel is probably out of its league.

Two SODIMM memory slots are available and we duly installed 2 x 1GB of DDR2-667 memory modules. This is just one aspect of the X200 which takes a leaf from notebooks.

Just like any Centrino Duo notebook, the Shuttle XPC X200 has an Intel PRO/Wireless network adaptor built-in and this time round, Shuttle has even added a detachable wireless antenna at the back for greater range. If you're still using wired connections however, a Fast Ethernet port is included, though that is a step down from the Gigabit Ethernet controller that was present in the X100. A strange decision from Shuttle.

This module is responsible for the TV and FM tuners. The Shuttle comes with a Yuan PVR MPC718 hybrid tuner with hardware MPEG2 decoder.

The other new addition inside is the Yuan MPC718 hybrid tuner chip, which provides the FM radio and analog (PAL/NTSC/SECAM) and DVB-T TV support. This tuner has a MPEG2 encoder onboard, so the processor can offload the workload over to the dedicated tuner. Its versatility should ensure that it should pick up at least a few television channels no matter which part of civilization you find yourself in.

Like the X100. the new iteration has space only for one 3.5-inch SATA hard drive. With all the advances in 2.5-inch hard drives nowadays, Shuttle could well have gone that route and in the process, reduced the form factor of the X200 even further.

Finally, we had to say that the choice of the integrated GMA950 graphics on the Shuttle X200 is a rather big step backwards in terms of performance. Although Intel's chip is able to display the Aero effects in Windows Vista and is more than sufficient for normal usage like office productivity applications, its gaming performance will suffer, relegating this system instantly to just a media PC. This could be just what Shuttle intends for the X200, especially with the TV/FM tuner but from an enthusiast's point of view, we can't help but wince at the sacrifice.

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