Ballistics Report

Pros

Great performance – The Shuttle SD37P2 was able to keep up with the larger and more robust NVIDIA 680i and Intel P965 motherboards. It couldn’t quite overtake the larger boards in any of our tests, but never let them slip away either: apparently size doesn’t matter since Shuttle’s crammed little motherboard matched the performance of full size boards.

Noise– A well laid out and neat interior allowed passive cooling on the chipsets and low speed fans greatly reduced noise. Make sure you have either passively cooled video card, or one with a very quiet fan, because all of the Shuttle’s noise prevention features will be canceled out with one loud part. We used a 7900GTX for testing because it has a gigantic heatsink and fan, for low noise operation.

Portability– A fully loaded SD37P2 weighs about 14lbs. Our full size ATX test rig weighed just under 40lbs. You can just take the Shuttle with one arm and go out somewhere. Carrying a bulky and heavy mid tower won’t be as much fun.

Cons

Upgradeability– This issue is not one of just Shuttle’s XPCs. It is a problem with all SFFs. When you reduce size, you lose upgrade potential. It is a trade that most users should be alright with. All amenities are available onboard, so you can get by with just a video card. If you have a single slot video card, you can use any other PCI Express card, such as a TV tuner, a sound card (both are available in external versions), or a PhysX card.

Connectivity– The SD37P2 lacks PS/2 ports for connecting older mice and keyboards. With the proliferation of USB devices this may or may not be an issue to you. The SD37P2 also lacks a PCI slot, shipping with two PCI Express graphics slots instead. Therefore if you intended on using your trusty Audigy or Envy24-based audio card with this system, you’re out of luck.

Price– According to Newegg.com, the cheapest 975X full size ATX motherboard, the Abit AW8D costs $114 at the time of writing. A quiet case with a reliable power supply, the Antec Sonata 2 costs $50 after rebate ($100 originally). This means that a configuration similar to the Shuttle SD37P2 can be built for as low as $164. At the time of writing, the SD37P2 costs $430. So as you can see, there is a gigantic difference in price. This is the premium you have to pay for a lighter and more portable machine, which may also be quieter depending on what case you compare the SD37P2 to.