Shuttle Zen (ST62K) XPC - P4

Manufacturer: Shuttle
Supplied by:  Shuttle
Street Price: $320

by Dean Barker (2/16/2004)

Introduction

Shuttle were the people who started the small form factor computer push back in 2001.  Small form factor (SFF) meaning small in size but not performance.  VIA has done a lot with their EPIA boards but unfortunately they lacked the muscle to be more than home entertainment or basic utility units.  The Shuttle barebones machines are designed to be every bit as powerful as your normal desktop.  There is where to SFF machines get noticed.  The new Zen XPC is billed as being 20% smaller than other SFF machines such as those from Biostar, ABIT or Soltek.  Minimal size means more of a work area is clear, increased portability as a LAN box or a media center that can be tucked out of the way.  One that by the way, that is Prescott ready.  The possibilities really open up with the Shuttle. 

Today we are fortunate enough to have a go with the newest Shuttle SFF barebones, the Zen XPC (ST62K).  The ST62K is based around the ATi Radeon 9100 IGP chipset providing it some robust features but also a limitation or two.  We'll get to that shortly but let's start out with the specs.

Specifications

• Application: Pentium 4 / Celeron Socket 478 (400/533/800)

• Chipset: ATi Radeon 9100 IGP

• Northbridge: ATi RS300

• Southbridge: IXP150

• Memory: Dual Channel DDR (200/266/333/400MHz)

• VGA: On board ATi RV280 graphics core

• TV-Out: Support for NTSC and PAL format in S-Video / composite terminal supports maximum resolution of 1024x768.

• IEEE 1394a: Two ports (rear)

• Sound: On board Realtek ALC650 six channel audio

• NIC: On board Realtek 8100C supporting 10/100 LAN

• IDE: UDMA100 IDE ports x 2

• SATA: None

• RAID Capability: None

• PCI slots: One

• AGP slots: None

• Construction: Aluminum with plastic front bezel

• Colors: Silver with white face

• Observed dimension: 280mm (D) x 190mm (W) x 175mm (H)

• Weight: 5.5kg (with all drives, CPU and memory installed)

• Drive Bays: (1) 5.25" External bays
  (1) 3.5" External bays
  (1) 3.5" Internal bays

• USB 2.0: Two ports front, two ports rear

• IEEE1394: Two ports rear

• PSU: 220W

• Front Panel: Speaker, Mic, Audio in, USB 2.0 x 2

• Rear I/O: Speaker, Mic, Audio in, Mouse and Keyboard PS/2 ports, NIC, USB 2.0 ports x 2, Firewire ports x 2, SPDIF, S-Video, COM ports x 1, VGA out, 12 volt DC in, clear CMOS button.

NEXT

Pg 1 - Introduction
Pg 2 - What you get
Pg 3 - The unit
Pg 4 - The ICE Cooling System
Pg 5 - Layout
Pg 6 - BIOS / Overclocking
Pg 7 - Productivity and Gaming Benches
Pg 8 - Gaming Benches continued
Pg 9 - Conclusion