Shuttle XPC SZ170R8 Barebones PC Review

A Closer Look

The compact chassis is certainly appealing, with an aluminium exterior that gives it a premium look and feel. There’s a good amount of ventilation on the side panel, which will provide us with good airflow and extra cooling performance.

Even more ventilation down the right side.

The brushed finish on the front panel looks stunning, and this system wouldn’t look out of place at home, in an office or even at a HTPC system. On the front, you’ll find the usual power button and LED controls, as well as a flip-down panel for the main I/O.

Around the back, there’s a built-in fan in the top corner, this is actually for the pre-installed PSU. There’s a small fan mesh with what looks like a radiator mounted to it. This is actually the CPU cooler. Of course, we’ll show you how that works shortly. As you can see, the motherboard I/O is well equipped, with dual DP, HDMI, 6 x USB 3.0, HD audio jacks. There’s also an eSATA and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Finally a handy clear CMOS button for when things to wrong.

Not much to see on the base of the system, just four durable rubber feet to help prevent the system sliding around and to reduce any unwanted vibrations.