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Shuttle is a name that’s familiar to DIY and barebones PC enthusiasts, but its kit-based PCs require a lot of prep work. The Shuttle XPS Nano NC01UWIN10HE ($279 as tested) is an inexpensive, fully built ultra-small-form-factor desktop PC featuring an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of system memory, solid-state drive (SSD) storage, and 64-bit Microsoft Windows 10 Home. It’s half the price of the Acer Aspire ATC-605-UB11($1,168.96 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), our top budget PC pick, and is perfectly suited for connecting to a television to stream online media, or working with cloud services. Surprisingly, it’s also quite expandable, giving you a reason to buy it as a project PC if you’re a tinkerer. Due to its appeal to both novice and advanced PC users, it’s our new Editor’s Choice for budget desktops.
Design and Features
The XPC Nano’s glossy black and copper case is very, very small, measuring only 1.14 by 5.6 by 5.6 inches (HWD), making it shorter and wider than the Zotac Zbox CI320 nano Plus Windows 8.1, though larger compared with the Zotac Zbox Pico PI320 and the tiny Intel Compute Stick. Other budget desktops like the Acer Aspire ATC-605-UB11, the Apple Mac mini, and the HP Pavilion mini( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) are much larger. The system is small enough to disappear behind an HDTV or other large-screen monitor. Shuttle includes a VESA mounting bracket to help you hide the system behind the display.
Connectivity is excellent, especially when compared with the Intel Compute Stick. There’s an SD card slot and two USB 3.0 ports on the front panel, along with a serial port on the left side of the case. The back panel has an Ethernet jack, an HDMI port, a headset jack, a mini-DisplayPort, a Power jack for the included AC adapter, and two USB 2.0 ports. The speedier USB 3.0 ports are located in the front, making it easy for you to plug in an external hard drive or flash drive. 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth handle wireless connections. Like the Apple Mac mini, you’ll have to provide your own keyboard, mouse, and display.
The system may be small, but it’s actually fairly future-proof with two SO-DIMM slots for system memory (one of which is available), and also has a free 2.5-inch internal drive bay. The system’s M.2 SSD is mounted in an M.2 PCIe-based slot, which has a much higher throughput than the eMMC flash storage usually found in budget systems. This desktop offers much more expandability than the Apple Mac mini, which has its memory permanently soldered to its motherboard, or the Intel Compute Stick, which is sealed.
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To keep the system price low, the XPC Nano only has 2GB of memory and a 32GB SSD. That’s sufficient if you’re using the system for streaming media playback and accessing cloud-based services like Office 365 or Dropbox. If you’re a tinkerer, you can pop the top cover and upgrade the memory to a total of 16GB. Of course, the sky is the limit for storage if you use the free internal 2.5-inch drive bay, the SD card slot, or the two USB 3.0 ports, or upgrade the M.2 PCIe-based SSD with a larger-capacity model. The system’s storage expansion is much more flexible than what you’d get on the Intel Compute Stick, or the Zotac Zbox Pico PI320($249.99 at Office Depot® & OfficeMax®)(Opens in a new window). The system comes with a three-year warranty, which is considerably longer than the one-year warranty most PCs have at this price.
Performance and Conclusion
You shouldn’t expect workstation-class performance from a $279 PC, but the XPC Nano comes equipped with an Intel Celeron 3205U processor with Intel HD Graphics that’s more powerful than the Intel Atom CPUs found in the competition. For example, the XPC Nano returned a very good score of 2,062 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, significantly ahead of the Atom-equipped Intel Compute Stick($999.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (1,324), as well as the Zotac Zbox CI320 nano Plus (1,496), which has an older Celeron N2930 processor.
See How We Test DesktopsLikewise, on the multimedia tests, the XPC Nano was an adequate performer for a budget system. It took 7 minutes 6 seconds to finish the Handbrake test. While that’s much slower than the larger Acer ATC-605-UB11 (1:47), it’s still significantly faster than the Intel Compute Stick (8:53) and the Zotac Zbox Pico PI320 (8:14). The system scored 118 points on CineBench and 10:04 on Photoshop, which the Intel Compute Stick and Zotec Zbox Pico PI320 couldn’t complete. 3D game test frame rates were far from playable, but they did match the capabilities of the HP Pavilion mini, an Intel Core i3-equipped system that costs $450.
About the only way to get a less expensive desktop PC than the $279 Shuttle XPC Nano is to buy a chromebox like the Asus Chromebox M004U, but you will have to give up Windows compatibility. Alternately, you can go with a Windows 10 desktop in a stick form factor like the Intel Compute Stick, but you very little expandability. The XPC Nano is more compact, is easier to hide behind an HDTV, and is more than half the price of the $599.99 Acer Aspire ATC-605-UB11. True, the Acer model is a better performer if you’re doing any sort of content creation, but if you’re simply shopping for a basic PC, you’re unlikely to care about that. The Shuttle XPC Nano is a full Windows 10 PC, it’s an excellent performer for its category, it’s expandable, and it’s one of the best values in desktop PCs for neophytes to advanced users. As such, it’s our Editors’ Choice for budget desktop PCs.
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The Shuttle XPC Nano ultra-small-form-factor (USFF) desktop PC is an inexpensive and highly appealing choice if you want to connect a PC to an HDTV, have a desire to tinker, or both.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/shuttle-xpc-nano
