Shuttle XPC SD31P: Lots Of Room To Grow This System

Familiar case but new motherboard inside

The case that houses this dual core capable XPC is well-known to us. The SD31P model looks like many another barebones from Shuttle, and in fact we noticed no changes to its exterior whatsoever, including the same rickety plastic doors adorning the case front. In fact, the only thing that's really new inside is the motherboard, which now comes equipped with an i945G chipset, which opens the way to installing a dual core Intel CPU. The XPC SD31P even supports the Extreme Edition member of this processor family with its 1066 MHz front side bus.

The Shuttle also stands alone in this test field as the only machine to come equipped with a 6-pin power cable for PCI Express graphics cards. It also features a unique and easy-to-use BIOS reset button, accessible on the rear of the case. After depressing this button, all BIOS values are reset to factory defaults - a very helpful feature, especially for those trying out incremental tweaks for overclocking.

Conservative appearance

The front panel doors are pretty rickety - made of cheap plastic