Shuttle's Atom-powered X27 mini PC goes easy on the power bill

Shuttle has always been small, but now it's hopping on the completely overcrowded green bandwagon with its latest mini PC. The X27, which sports an admittedly sleek shell, will suck down as little as 23-watts while idle and 36-watts while in use. Additionally, the unit will include one of Intel's Atom chips, and as predicted, fan noise shouldn't be an issue. The entire case measures just 10- x 7- x 2.75-inches, and while a price hasn't been outed for the September-bound nettop, we'd expect to hear more as IFA gets going on the 29th.

[Thanks, Adam]

[Engadgetier @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:36AM]

me likey. =)

[d00b @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:50PM]

The topside grill makes the unit vulnerable to spills. Front face has two flaps; bottom is probably for ports, top for either a slimline or slot-load optical. Hopefully WiFi is built-in.

This first wave of lo-po poptops (Eee Box, Dell Hybrid) is a bit wanting, since the supporting chipset is still the hoary Intel 945 or X3100. Needs HD decode at a minimum, and preferably HDMI & built-in IR receiver for TV connection.

[Ricardo Sampaio @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:36AM]

Not bad for a small server and some extra HDD but wifi is missing :(

[Flashpoint @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:46AM]

I don't see what the big deal of ommitting wifi is. EVERY Laptop should have WiFi as a standard. EVERY desktop mini-Pc like this should have WiFi.
Granted, connecting by Ethernet is faster. If your on the internet, and not playing bnandwidth intensive games, a nice 802.11n network is good enough.

[Justin @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:37AM]

Pretty sleek little boxes, although I can't help but wonder who would want this. If I were interested in a low-power machine because I didn't game and only needed to do Office work and browsing, I'd almost certainly go for a netbook with an external display that I could hook up at home, and use a seperate keyboard/mouse as well.

I suppose these have their place, I'm just not sure where. Dummyterminals in colleges and libraries?

[Wwhat @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:42AM]

I wonder if you can bolt it to the monitor/table securely and lock it, if they thought of that necessity in such library/college situations, because being so small and easy to grab and hide is nice for the thieves amongst us.

[bartoron @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:00PM]

Wwhat, I would assume that a Kensington lock would do the job. Hopefully the case has a place to attach the lock.

[Jeff @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:29PM]

Kensington locks are more for looks than security, as they do almost nothing to actually keep something where it's supposed to be. Where I work we have public pc's available and we've resorted to simply drilling a hole through a pc's case and bolting it to the desk or table when we think it'll be something desirable enough to get attention. A simple bolt has been much more successful than an actual lock.

[dennis @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:43PM]

I'm looking for a dedicated SqueezeCenter PC. If it can do other things, that's cool too, but I need it to be low powered. I'll probably keep my music files on a NAS RAID and access the control panel through an iPhone or something like that.

[chyan @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:37AM]

Looks cool

[Wwhat @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:38AM]

Haha, that setup on the photo looks so fake.

[Engadgetier @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:52AM]

no, its soo real that it looks fake.

[BluesK1d @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:58AM]

What do you mean? I always use my mouse on an uneven burlap sack.

[Jason @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:25PM]

Yeah, I just hope it's not priced to match the snakeskin deskpad.

[stefan @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:39AM]

that is one ugly necktie.

[Stiv @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:56AM]

Right back at ya, Stefan :)

[Ricky Allman @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:45AM]

I wished they released this back in 94 when they took this photo

[Engadgetier @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:03PM]

1994 called, they want their joke back...

[Ricky Allman @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:19PM]

Oh, cool. When did they call? Man, it's been a while since I spoke with 1994. Hey, wait when did you start taking my calls anyway?

[BluesK1d @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:48AM]

Couldn't find the Ronald McDonald tie so they had to settle for this bad boy?

[Dee @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:50AM]

If the price is anything above $250 it will be a waste of money IMO, unless the add a slimline optical drive and wifi.
Another thing that I don't understand is why are there still ps2 connections on the back, is it cheaper for the manufacturers than adding extra USB ports?

[Rob @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:04PM]

This looks quite promising. It would do great if the price goes around $150-175. A 40-80gig hdd. A DVD burner. Enough juice to run XP ($90) or Linux($0). Not everyone is into modding their systems. Just look at how we deal with laptops. The only thing we can do to them is increase the hdd and RAM capacity. That's it. So, the same concept with this unit.

Apple missed out with he Mac mini by pricing it $500 and up. I think a lot of people just figured they could get a laptop for that amount of money. I'm not Apple bashing. I just think that a lot of people are interested in having a pc that can do web and internet, and maybe play some music or videos on it. Just like the similar fashion we use DVD players.

[ivybat @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:04PM]

Who decides to put that ridiculous tie and watch in that picture? Really? It ruins the picture for me, put it on a white background and call it a day...

[Jason @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:27PM]

it

[Jason @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:27PM]

man that was one helluva day.

[crsh @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:26PM]

I've liked Shuttle boxes for a good while, and this is just icing on the cake. Good find.

[M @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:28PM]

If it can boot without needing a keyboard attached, then I think I may have found the perfect PC to have at home for remote access.

[Hawkman @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:04PM]

That doesn't sound especially low power for a computer. I was reading an article the other day that said the 17" Core Duo iMac draws a max of 63W when it's getting hammered under OS X - and that has a 17" LCD in it, and a CPU that would kick the Atom's ass. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article594-page4.html

[magnus @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:31PM]

Yeah, I was surprised about the same. Got a Quad-core machine that its hard to push over 105 watts. If I think low-watt machine Im thinking more along the lines of 5-10 watts...

[Jason @ Aug 22nd 2008 2:08PM]

Yeah, the power draw has definitely been beaten. The Zonbu mini comes to mind - I think it maxes out at about 20watts. But then it had a very streamlined, highly optimized, and app-limited Linux. You wouldn't dream of putting any flavor of Windows it.

The real question is one of power-for-power - i.e. computing power over power draw.

[SuperTang @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:21PM]

Shuttle computers are overpriced crap! Innovation is usually used to describe their products yet most of their models still look just like the ones they released in 2003 and 2004. What other PC manufactures sell systems that look like there models from 4-5 years ago? I suggest contacting their Tech Support before you buy. I am sure you will quickly realize the low quality of the company personnel. Their Tech Support sucks almost as much as their products. Shuttle's time has come and gone. It's over Shuttle.

[Jason @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:40PM]

I think we're just seeing the first stage in a shift in home networking (but for the love of all things remotely tolerable DON'T let the word 'nettop' become popular).

Before long you'll be able to buy 3-6 of these in a bundle with a home server that can easily handle serving up media, web, and various automation apps to the entire house. That means very little need for any kind of drive other than a stick or card.

It's at least a generation or two away from being there until they can squeeze complete (read: 'everything-everything') wireless connection and control into this size. The software is basically there.

[Ankur Sethi @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:50PM]

atom is a very weak processor. this thing is 8 times as slow as a core 2 duo i thnk

[Glenn @ Aug 22nd 2008 2:10PM]

Nice looking. But with no HDMI, no WiFi and maybe no bluetooth (for remote keyboard/mouse) it isn't an obvious fit as a Media Center PC, which seems like the obvious target for me anyway. Sure you can do all these things with converters and USB dongles, but the competition, like the Dell Mini, doesn't require those...

Ditto the HD playback. Can it display 720p streams of h.264 content around 5-6Mbps without stuttering?

[crsh @ Aug 22nd 2008 5:14PM]

Eh, I see a lot of that and it still kinda confuses me; nettops and livingroom-bound HTPCs are not the same niche. We'd all like a $200 PC to be able to do everything a media center can right out of the box, but that's not where we're at right now.

[Badkarma @ Aug 22nd 2008 2:43PM]

Very sleek unit, the tie is a bust but what's wrong with the watch? In fact, what kind is it?

[Dave @ Aug 22nd 2008 4:03PM]

It looks like a Seiko 5 Sports with a Mile Marker. The mile marker crown is the big thing that looks 'wrong' on the side.

[TheVoiceOfReason @ Aug 22nd 2008 4:21PM]

I don't understand why this is supposed to be extraordinary in the power savings department. I have sitting right here in my office a Digital Engine 965hg (from cappuccinopc.com) with an 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, plugged into a Kill-a-watt, and it only draws 20 Watts idle and about 30 Watts doing useful stuff. This is much more capable than an Atom machine and doesn't take any more power. The box is probably smaller too.

[Jason @ Aug 22nd 2008 4:54PM]

Maybe so, but I'm hoping this one starts a little...um a frickin' whole lot lower than $ 659.

[cdahmedeh @ Aug 22nd 2008 4:57PM]

Nice to see that Shuttle made something that's pretty slim. I thought that all they made were those cube computers...

[Brent @ Aug 22nd 2008 5:37PM]

Low power reqs are great for off-the-grid dc powered setups like we use. Desktop unit don't make as much sense as laptops but the direction is nice to see.