If you had to formulate a recipe for the development of the ideal miniature PC system, it may read something like the following. Take a very compact enclosure – say a mini barebone – then add as many components as you can fit. The single rule – use only the fastest and newest hardware. Also, bargain hunters, penny pinchers and the financially challenged need not apply. So far, so good.

The system we are talking about comes with only the motherboard, power supply and cooling solution pre-installed and is more commonly known among the technorati (read, the common geek) as a mini barebone. The advantage is that the buyer can choose which optical drives, hard disks, graphics cards and processor to install. Additionally, Shuttle also includes a few other nice features which we wish to take a closer look at here. But one thing at a time. After all, this is the first time in a while that one of Shuttle’s barebone systems has drawn our attention.

The new Shuttle XPC SX38P2 sports two PCI-Express slots, allowing the user to install two graphics cards. ATI Crossfire only, naturally, due to company politics. Also, the cards can only use single-slot cooling solutions. After all, this IS a mini barebone we’re talking about. Still, this makes the XPC SX38P2 Pro a good pick for gamers that always wanted to combine a Crossfire setup with a barebone PC. Another feature that sets this system apart from others is its X38 chipset. Meanwhile, ATX motherboards are already moving on to the next step, the X48 chipset. This model is the first barebone with an X38 chipset supporting all current Intel processors.

Shuttle has integrated a handy feature into the XPC SX38P2 Pro for those that aren’t great fans of entering a password to log in to Windows every time, as the front of the barebone sports a fingerprint scanner. Providing you’ve saved a reference scan of one of your digits, you can literally unlock Windows at the touch of a finger. For events such as LAN parties, this is certainly an elegant solution, since a fingerprint is inherently much safer than an easily spied password. Sadly, unlocking the system does not always work on the first try. Instead, you’ll need a good deal of patience and, quite literally, a steady hand when scanning your print.

The Speed-Link feature lets you quickly transfer files via USB cable. In this mode, the XPC acts as a kind of USB storage device for another PC. Pressing a button behind the XPC’s front panel switches the connector back into normal USB mode.