Shuttle’s Smallest Yet: XPC X100

Table of Contents

Shuttle has evolved from a motherboard OEM to the inventor of the barebones system to a company that sells fully integrated systems. They’re still doing the Small Form Factor thing, though, and the X100 is clearly an attempt to woo the form and function part of the market that Apple has captured. The comparison with Apple is intentional; Shuttle compares the X100 head to head with a Mac Mini on their specifications page.

September 17, 2006 by Devon
Cooke
with Mike Chin

Product
Shuttle XPC X100 Small
Form Factor HTPC
Manufacturer
Shuttle
Selling Price
~US$1000 as configured

Shuttle has been through quite a few incarnations. For a long time, they were
primarily a motherboard maker — they boast of being the world’s fifth largest
motherboard manufacturer back in 1995. More recently, they created and popularized the toaster-size small
form factor case, particularly as a barebones PC. However,
by Shuttle’s own estimates, the barebones PC market is limited to just 1~2% of the total desktop PC market. This is probably the biggest factor in the wane of SFF sales over the past two years. The decline has hurt Shuttle, as they owned some 60% of the market.

One strategy for Shuttle to regain lost ground is to sell complete SFF systems. They began offering complete SFF systems in Taiwan nearly two years ago thorugh selected retail partners. Not long thereafter, their US web site begain offering direct-to-consumer XPC systems. Shuttle now offers complete systems in virtually all their markets. They still offer barboines systems everywhere; in the US and Canada, their retail partners appear to sell barebones almost exclusively, except for the X100. The expansion from barebones to full systems has followed a natural
path. All of the systems are small form factor, and most are based on the barebones systems in Shuttle’s existing lineup. In this respect, they
have followed Apple: Shuttle’s systems are notable for their form as well as
their function.

The X100 under review here is the most unusual of Shuttle’s complete system offerings. For one, it’s not available in a barebones package at all, unlike most of Shuttle’s other complete systems. It is also notable for its form. It is the smallest Shuttle of all. Its closest competitor is probably
the Mac Mini. It’s
no coincidence that Shuttle includes the
specifications for the Mac Mini along side their own specifications
; both
are based on Intel’s Core Duo chips, and use components that are primarily intended
for laptops. Both are approximately two inches high and are designed to sit
unobtrusively out of the way on a desktop. They are both appropriate for the entertainment PC market, where sleek looks
and a low profile are as important as performance. The X100 can be configured
with Windows Media Center Edition, with the option of a remote
control for the surprisingly reasonable price of US$31.

(Editor’s Note: In positioning the X100 as a PC alternative to the Mac Mini, Shuttle is also making a play for the market segment that the AOpen MiniPC caters to. In a comparison of all three, the X100 is the odd man out due to its larger size; the AOpen MiniPC is a virtual clone of the Mac Mini.)

 


The box is about the size you’d expect for a laptop.


The usual driver CDs and cables, plus a fanless DC power brick and a silver
stand.

SPECIFICATIONS

The X100 can be configured with a variety of different parts, from a low end
build that costs ~US$750 to a high end model for ~US$1,500. If you felt like
it, you could add another $1,500 in accessories and peripherals too. As configured,
our sample was worth about US$1,000.

Specifications: Shuttle X100 (from Shuttle’s
spec pages 1,
2)
Form Factor
Shuttle Form Factor “X” Chassis
Processor
Intel® Core Duo
Chipsets
North Bridge: Intel 945PM
South Bridge: Intel ICH7M
Memory
Up to 2GB DDRII-533
Storage
Up to 400GB SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive
Graphics
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1400
MXM interface
Audio
High Definition Audio
Realtek ALC880 codec
Optical digital audio output/headphone out
Network
Realtek 8110 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless
Optional – 802.11 a/b/g Wireless LAN
(Intel 3945, mini card interface)
Optical Drive
DVD-ROM CD-R/RW Combo Slim slot drive
or Optional DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW Dual layer drive
Card Reader
Integrated 4-in-1 card reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS-pro)
Front Panel
USB 2.0 port
Power button
Power LED
ODD LED
Back Panel
DVI port
RJ45 10/100 Ethernet LAN port
USB 2.0 port (4)
IEEE1394 port
S-Video out
Mic in
Line in
Analog out
S/PDIF out
DC in
Dimensions
210 (L) x 298.6 (W) x 53.5 (H) mm
8.26″ (L) x 11.65″ (W) x 2.16″ (H) inches
Weight
6.6 pounds / 2.9 kg
Operating System
Microsoft Windows XP
Professional/Home Edition
Accessories
System manual
Quick installation guide
S-video out cable
DVI to D-Sub connector
Stand
Power adaptor
Power cord
Power
120W PSU with active PFC
Input: 100 ~ 240V AC
EMI Certified: FCC, CE, BSMI
Safety Certified: UL, TUV, CB
Power Plug: Region Specific
Certification
FCC / ACE / ABSMI
Warranty
1 year limited hardware warranty
Energy Star Certified
Energy Star® Certified

Our sample had the following hardware installed, and included Windows Media
Center Edition 2005:

  • Intel Core Duo T2050 (1.6 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)
  • 1 x 512 MB DDR2 RAM SODIMM
  • Seagate DB35 7200.2 250 GB hard drive (ST3250823SCE)
  • Intel 3945 Wireless LAN card
  • Matsushita UJ-8455 slot-loading DVD-RAM drive

EXTERNAL OVERVIEW


Small and sleek, the X100 should not be out of place in an entertainment
center.

By volume, the X100 is more than twice the size of the Mac Mini, but it is still very small. The slim two inch height goes a long way towards making
it feel small. Its weight is another thing entirely; it feels decidedly
heavy for its size.


A relatively small selection of rear ports, with few legacy connections.

The back panel imitates something that Apple has been doing for ages: Old connections,
such as serial, parallel, and PS/2 ports are left off in favor of more modern
connections. Thus, integrated graphics uses DVI, not VGA, a S/PDIF connection
is available for audio, and the keyboard and mouse are required to use USB.
TV output is the one exception to this rule: While S-Video is better than simple
composite video, most new televisions support component or HDMI connections.

We were pleased to note the presence of a small, four-pin power jack that accepts
20V DC from an external power brick. This eliminates the need for a noisy internal
power supply, and moves a significant source of heat outside of the system.

On the other hand, the small exhaust vent and the tightly packed fins of the
heatsink behind it do not look good for airflow. Hopefully, the use of mobile
parts can keep power consumption low enough that this doesn’t matter.


Most of the air vents are on the bottom.

Aside from the exhaust vent on the back, the only air vents are located on
the bottom of the unit. Most of them are likely to be blocked when the unit
is placed horizontally; the hard rubber feet are only about three millimeters
thick — not enough to allow much air to circulate. In this position, the
main intake is likely to be at the very front of the unit, where the bottom
tapers upwards, allowing air to flow into the system.


Vents on the lower angled portion of the front panel provide most of the air intake when the X100 is placed horizontally.

A better position for cooling is to stand the X100 on its side — a silver
stand is provided — so that the vents on the bottom panel can be effective.
Shuttle warns that it should be placed on its right side with the exhaust vent
at the top, presumably so that it can take advantage of convection currents
to cool itself.


A silver stand keeps it looking slick even on its side.

UNDER THE HOOD

The X100 is a complete system, and it’s obvious as soon as the cover is removed
that it’s not really intended to be upgraded or tinkered with. With the exception
of the hard drive, only mobile parts are used. The CPU and GPU are cooled by
the same low-profile heatpipe-based cooler — the sort that is found in
laptops.


The cooling system is designed for use in a laptop.

The one exception to the use of mobile parts is the hard drive, which is a
full size model from Seagate. This is important, especially if the X100 is intended
as a media center, since the current high water mark for desktop drives (750
GB) is about four times the maximum for notebook drives (160~200 GB).

Shuttle has chosen to use Seagate’s DB35 7200.2 line of drives
instead of the more mainstream Barracuda series. The DB35 is designed for use
in consumer electronics (read: PVRs) and is optimized for sequential access
and reliability over random access and speed. In terms of usability, this is
likely to mean that the system will feel slower if it is used as a PC instead
of a media center. On the other hand, it should also mean that it is less likely
to drop frames during playback — at least when the drive is unfragmented.

Editor’s Note: SPCR Reviewer Russ Kinder believes that…

“The reason for using the DB35 drive probably has more to do with reliability and warranty issues than performance. Seagate says that the modified firmware in the DB35’s will lead to longer lifespans in continuous simultaneous read/write situations like DVR’s than a conventional desktop drive would. At least that’s how the Seagate guys explained it to me. His exact line was, “just wait 2 or 3 years until you start hearing about all the dying DVR machines people bought with desktop drives in them.” If its true, I could see where they would push their system integrators towards the DB35 drives. Most users don’t realize that anytime you’re watching TV through your HTPC, you are continuously writing and reading from the HDD, even if you’re not actively recording any shows. The DB models are also cheaper.”

Seagate’s Technology Paper, Deliver a Great Viewing Experience With the Seagate Technology DB35 Series Hard Drive in Your Digital Video Recording System (downloadable from this web page), gives some support to these comments:

“Hard drives designed for PC applications are optimized for data integrity through enhanced error detection and correction routines. Consumer video recording devices, however, need to be optimized for stream integrity to avoid problems caused by over-execution of error checking, which can cause problems in consumer video recording devices. The Seagate DB35 series drives offer timelimited commands, which allow manufacturers to adjust error detection and correction in favor of a consistent, smooth video stream. In the rare instance that an error in the video data is detected, the consumer would likely experience a virtually imperceptible drop of a video frame, but would continue to enjoy an uninterrupted stream of entertainment content.”


Shuttled uses one of Seagate’s “stream integrity optimized” consumer electronics drive.

Power for the X100 is provided by a
120W power brick
that supplies 20V directly to the motherboard. It also
has active power factor correction, and accepts a full range of input voltages.
It is large but fanless, and remained inaudible during normal operation. However,
when the system was in standby, the brick gave off a faint but high pitched
squeal. Buried behind an entertainment center, this would probably not be heard,
but it could be an issue if the brick is kept close to the user — on a
desk, for example.

The power brick outputs 6A @ 20V — 120W max.

TESTING

Our testing examined the effectiveness of the cooling system and how much noise
it made. Noise, power consumption, and CPU temperature were all measured in
three different states: Idle, CPU load, and CPU and GPU load together. The following
tools were used:

  • B&K model 1613 sound level meter
  • Extech Power Analyzer / Data Logger 380803 to measure power consumption
  • Core
    Temp
    to measure CPU temperature. When the two cores reported different
    temperatures, the higher temperature was reported.
  • CPUBurn
    to stress the CPU.
  • ATI Tool
    0.25 Beta 15
    to stress the GPU.

The ambient conditions at the time of testing were 18 dBA@1m and 22°C.

Shuttle X100 Test Results
Activity State
CPU Temperature
Noise Level
AC Power Draw
Standby
n.a.
<18 dBA@1m
1.9W
Speedstep Idle
50~62°C
21~24 dBA@1m
36W
Idle
50~62°C
21~24 dBA@1m
42W
2 x CPUBurn
67°C
25 dBA@1m
58W
2 x CPUBurn
+ ATI Tool
67°C
27 dBA@1m
61W

At idle, the X100 consumed 42W — low, but surprisingly high for a system
built of laptop parts. Engaging Speedstep by switching the Power Option in Windows from Home / Office Desk to Minimal Power Management provided a worthwhile drop of 6W, down to 36W. By way of comparison, Apple’s iMac, which contains almost
identical hardware, consumed 46W at idle — including the power required
by the LCD monitor.

The temperatures at idle, with or without Speedstep, seemed quite high — normally we would expect a
notebook processor to hover much closer to ambient. However, two factors are worth paying
attention to:

  1. Core Temp report the value of an on-chip digital temperature sensor, not the thermal
    diode that is reported by most motherboards. Intel says this digital temperature sensor is more accurate than thermal diodes, which rely on motherboard-embedded circuitry to translate the output into degrees. According to Core Temp, the CPU will not throttle until the thermal
    sensor reports 85°C — significantly higher than what we would normally
    expect.
  2. Until the temperature hit 62°C, the fan did not run at all.

Intuitively, leaving the fan off until it is absolutely needed seems like a
good idea. And, when the fan was off, the X100 was indeed very quiet: The only
source of noise was the hard drive, which emitted a hollow whoosh that was easy
to ignore. However, because the cooler was not quite good enough to prevent
thermal rise even at idle, the fan came on every five minutes or so. The result
was a somewhat inconsistent noise character with the fan cycling on and off, with a
small burst every time the fan started up. The fan was not loud when running,
and added only a little background hum to the noise character. It would have
been preferable to leave the fan running at this level all the time instead
of having the fan draw attention to itself every time it started. However, the difference with the fan on and off was quite small, both subjectively and in measured sound pressure level.

Unfortunately, attempting to tweak the fan controller in the BIOS was unsuccessful,
as there was very little BIOS to tweak. Aside from boot order, there were no
options to speak of — it was less flexible than my beige-box P-133 from
1996!

The qualitative noise character was judged to be better under load — it was no louder
than when the fan was running in idle, and it stopped cycling on and off. The
core temperature rose to 67°C, well under the 85°C threshold for
throttling. The system stayed perfectly stable under load (it did freeze once
in idle, though), so it seems that 67°C is cool enough.

Throwing the VGA card into the mix increased the power draw by only three watts,
but those three watts were significant: The additional heat made the system
audibly noisier as the fan increased in speed to compensate. Changes in fan
speed were slow and gradual, and, even at its loudest, the system was still
quiet enough for use in an entertainment center.

Realistically speaking, very few people will ever run both the VGA card and
the main processor at full load for long periods of time, so perhaps the increase
in noise is not so important. However, the system could be quite sensitive to
its surroundings. Poor airflow or a slightly higher ambient temperature could
easily force the fan to speed up at an earlier point.

The peak power consumption of 61W was quite respectable; it was in line with
what we’ve seen from other systems that use notebook processors.

One final note: The hard drive was highly audible and intrusive when seeking.
Seagate’s recent drives have a reputation for sharp, noisy seeks, and the DB35
was no exception. The rigid mounting system didn’t help; vibrations from the
seek caused the whole case to resonate.

SHUTTLE X100 VS. APPLE iMAC & SHUTTLE SD11G5

Apple’s Core Duo-based iMac and Shuttle’s SD11G5 barebones system make good
points of reference for the X100. All use notebook processors to keep
heat down, and all were fairly quiet on our test bench. The exact details of
the hardware are not quite the same, but all should provide roughly the same level
of performance. Detailed information
about the iMac and the
SD11G5
can be found in their respective reviews.

Shuttle vs. Apple vs. Shuttle
System
Idle
2 x CPUBurn
Noise
Power
Noise
Power
Shuttle X100
21~24 dBA@1m
36W
25 dBA@1m
58W
Apple iMac
20 dBA@1m
47W
22 dBA@1m
67W
Shuttle SD11G5
21~22 dBA@1m
41W
23 dBA@1m
56W

In terms of acoustics, the iMac is the best of the bunch. It’s quieter
at both idle and load, and resonance
from the hard drive or exhaust fans is not an issue. It managed to damp the 3.5″ HDD noise well enough that only from the back could the drive be identified as a specific source of noise.

The X100, on the other hand, is the noisiest of the bunch. The undamped, full
size hard drive limits it too much to compete with the notebook drive that we used in our
SD11G5 testing. With the same drive, we would expect the two Shuttle systems to be
fairly similar acoustically, although the larger 92mm fan in the SD11G5 is probably smoother sounding than the little 60mm fan in the X100.

Despite the numbers, the iMac is the most power efficient of the bunch;
its power readings include the built-in LCD monitor, which consumes some 25W.

MP3 RECORDINGS

Shuttle X100 — Idle (Fan off): 23 dBA@1m: One
Meter
, One Foot

Shuttle X100 — Idle / Load (Fan on): 25 dBA@1m: One
Meter
, One
Foot

Shuttle X100 — HDD Seek noise: One
Meter
, One Foot

COMPARATIVES

Antec NSK3300, Config 1 (System Fan @ L): 24 dBA@1m: One
Meter
, One Foot

Antec NSK3300, Config 2 (Rear Fan swapped to Nexus @ 5V): 23
dBA@1m: One
Meter
, One
Foot

Lian Li PC-101, Config 1 (No Intake Fan): 24 dBA@1m: One
Meter
, One Foot

Lian Li PC-101, Config 2 (Intake Fan @ 5V): 26 dBA@1m: One
Meter
, One Foot

HOW TO LISTEN & COMPARE

These recordings were made
with a high resolution, studio quality, digital recording system and are
intended to represent a quick snapshot of what we heard during the review.
Two recordings of each noise level were made, one from a distance of one
meter
, and another from one foot away.

The one meter recording is
intended to give you an idea of how the subject of this review sound in
actual use — one meter is a reasonable typical distance between a
computer or computer component and your ear. The recording contains stretches
of ambient noise that you can use to judge the relative loudness of the
subject. For best results, set your volume control so that the ambient
noise is just barely audible. Be aware that very quiet subjects may not
be audible — if we couldn’t hear it from one meter, chances are we
couldn’t record it either!

The one foot recording is
designed to bring out the fine details of the noise. Use this recording
with caution! Although more detailed, it may not represent how the subject
sounds in actual use. It is best to listen to this recording after you
have listened to the one meter recording.

More details about how we
make these recordings can be found in our short article: Audio
Recording Methods Revised
.

CONCLUSIONS

The X100’s small,
trendy form factor and the less-is-more approach to its design are also notable in Apple’s Mac Mini. The similarity extends to the technical details, too:
The Core Duo processor and the use of mobile parts are both features of Apple’s
Mac Mini and iMac lines. (Editor’s Note: That was true until the beginning of this month; the iMac has now moved to Core 2 Duo processors exclusively.)

While the
X100 is certainly one of the best integrated PC we’ve seen, it’s still not quite as refined or as quiet as the
iMac.

The X100 will do better as a media center than a home PC. Its styling and
small size make it perfect for the living room, and the 21~24 dBA@1m noise
level is still quieter than many PVR or cable boxes. Windows MCE 2005 is steadily
gaining popularity, and it doesn’t cost too much extra. However, the X100 doesn’t
come with a remote control or a VFD. An external remote control can be added,
but having an infrared receiver hanging off the front panel may ruin the aesthetic
appeal of the device for some users.

Ultimately, the X100 should find its own niche. Although it borrows much from
Apple, it’s far from a clone, and there is plenty to like about its small
form factor and quiet performance. 24 dBA@1m out of the box is pretty
darn good for a complete off-the-shelf system, even if it can’t complete with the quietest
systems that enthusiasts build from for themselves.

Much thanks to Shuttle
for supplying the X100 sample for us to review.

*

SPCR Articles of Related Interest

Apple iMac w/Intel Core Duo: A User’s Review
17″ iMac: The Official
SPCR Review

Shuttle SD11G5: Pentium
M SFF PC

* * *

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