Atom-based Shuttle X27 priced at $189

Shuttle's Atom-based X27 mini-PC is definitely pretty intriguing if you're looking to play around with getting a PC in the living room or even in your car, and it's just gotten the modder-friendly price of $189. That's almost impulse-purchase territory -- we're definitely looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble people get into with these when it hits next month.

Update: We just talked to Shuttle and they told us that $189 is just for a barebones rig -- no chip, memory or hard drive. Fully spec'd with an Atom, you're looking at $500+ -- which is ridiculous, since the MSI Wind barebones nettop runs $139 with an Atom chip. Oh well.

[Games GOblin @ Aug 29th 2008 5:18AM]

Intriguing...

[Sam @ Aug 29th 2008 6:32AM]

Not the MOST in-depth feature - I had to got to the link for info! How rude!

[lance @ Aug 29th 2008 8:17AM]

yes, they have spoiled us haven't they!

[RyanTV @ Aug 29th 2008 3:35PM]

Shit just falls apart now that Block is gone.

[d0od @ Aug 29th 2008 5:28AM]

hmmmmm..... still doesn't scream out "bargain" to me yet

[babydill @ Aug 29th 2008 6:06AM]

Shuttle just found the EEE PC of the desktop world.

@ d0od - $189 is pretty g0d damn cheap

[Bobjim @ Aug 29th 2008 5:48AM]

For $189, it probably won't be long until someone mods one to include a loudspeaker that DOES scream out "bargain" to you.

[broli @ Aug 29th 2008 5:55AM]

Indeed, I'll pass on the desktop using a cpu meant for cellphones.

[crsh @ Aug 29th 2008 9:07AM]

Heh, not quite.

[zack @ Aug 29th 2008 11:50AM]

tht watch is tight tho. anyone know who makes tht?

[YoYoYo @ Aug 29th 2008 6:37AM]

Hope they follow up and do the same thing with the VIA Nano. Heck of a lot more useful things you can do with that (yayz, Strongarm! - Can you say "Vyatta"?) than you can with this.

[YoYoYo @ Aug 29th 2008 6:42AM]

Strongarm? That's an odd brainfart.

Again, though, given a procesor with VIA's PadLock extensions, this would be a great deal more interesting as a mini-server than a mini-desktop. The latter still needs optical media, albeit not as badly as in days of yore.

[Brian @ Aug 29th 2008 7:57AM]

Sexy.

[PowerPaul @ Aug 29th 2008 8:02AM]

Any specs out yet?

Enough room to insert 2 3.5" HDDs ?

[lance @ Aug 29th 2008 8:13AM]

i'll take it!

[Rhino @ Aug 29th 2008 8:23AM]

Pink available?

[Callaway @ Aug 29th 2008 8:59AM]

*Intel Atom Processor

*7 inches wide, and 2.75 inches tall

*Intel 945GC chipset

*Intel GMA 950 onboard video

*4 USB 2.0 ports

*Gigabit Ethernet port

*Analog 5.1-channel audio

[Dee @ Aug 29th 2008 9:09AM]

Make it $150 and you got your self a deal :)

[crsh @ Aug 29th 2008 9:15AM]

Weird price, to be honest. Shuttle's K48 barebone box, which takes a low-end C2D/Celly is $129.

[crsh @ Aug 29th 2008 9:17AM]

Yes I know, the K48 doesn't actually include a C2D/Celly at $129, but still; a $40 1.6 GHz Celly beats the crap out of the Atom.

[tif @ Aug 29th 2008 9:44AM]

The MSI Wind barebones is about the same, maybe a bit bigger, for $150 at NewEgg. I added 2G of RAM for $50 and put a SATA drive in it that I already had. It's now running ubuntu-server and serving up my music to a Squeezebox. It's very close to silent and has cycles to burn even though it's just an Atom.

[mememe @ Aug 29th 2008 9:46AM]

So from the photo we can conclude that the X27's target audience has truly awful taste in neckwear, likes people to think he goes diving and err... sleeps on snakeskin?

[thr33face @ Aug 29th 2008 10:05AM]

that is some attractive pricing.

but I fear, it will cost 200 to 250 Euro here in europe. Or in other words 300 to 360 US Dollar ...
it's always that way

[thr33face @ Sep 1st 2008 8:31AM]

and I was right:

prices here in Europe range from 210 to 250 Euro ...

[chuck @ Aug 29th 2008 10:09AM]

I recently got an Atom mobo/proc combo off newegg for $80. The mini-itx cases are the expensive part. Very nice little setup though and pretty fast. Beware linux users, there are some problems with a lot of distros & atom right now (though surely they'll get worked out pretty quick). Ubuntu 8.04.1 is the only major distro that works correctly. Win XP works fine.

[Joseph @ Aug 29th 2008 5:35PM]

"Ubuntu 8.04.1 is the only major distro that works correctly. Win XP works fine."

Damn, I am pretty sure the apocalypse is tonight.

[mingistech @ Aug 29th 2008 10:18AM]

The article mentions this as a possible PC for the living room. Does the Atom processor have enough power to playback HD video? Most my vids are 720p h.264 files. I'd love a super cheap system like this for my sons room. We have tons of movies for him.

[JerkfacedFed @ Aug 29th 2008 11:29AM]

difference is shuttle is high end and msi looks like it was made by a toy company

[Bergo @ Aug 29th 2008 12:24PM]

"Shuttle and they told us that $189 is just for a barebones rig -- no chip.."

Pretty sure by chip, you meant CPU, and pretty sure most of the atom offerings have the chip on board, no ZIF socket...

[Paul @ Aug 29th 2008 11:48AM]

If the update is true, then Shuttle are smoking something if they think it'll sell. Barebones is fine, but without the chip this is nothing but a mini-atx mobo and case which together should sell for $100-120 max. Since the mobo + chip itself is only $80 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121342), then Shuttle think mighty highly of this tiny case + PS...

I hope that the rep y'all talked to was mistaken and that at least this does come with the 1.6 GHz Atom proc. Heck, I don't even see where you can buy an Atom proc by its lonesome.

[odemata @ Aug 29th 2008 12:09PM]

maybe if it had a womens panty placed over it, instead of a tie then it would be sexy

[km4x @ Aug 29th 2008 2:42PM]

op needs to edit his post :) - It does include the cpu (or chip as you've called it)... there are no atom based mb's, or procs for that matter, that are being sold separately at this time. All atom based motherboards/barebones include the cpu.

[km4x @ Aug 29th 2008 2:56PM]

just to be clear in my last comment when I said, "there are no atom based mb's, or procs for that matter, that are being sold separately at this time", I meant to say that you can't buy an atom mb w/out the cpu and vice versa - of course you can buy the mb separately that includes the cpu, it's just that the cpu's are soldered to the mb (integrated).

[Tim @ Aug 29th 2008 3:44PM]

If your looking for a low power machine you can't beat these.
http://www.norhtec.com/
Just ordered mine yesterday.

[Minilap @ Aug 29th 2008 8:52PM]

189 would have been nice for the Case, PSU, mobo and atom, so you only had to add RAM and HD

[Jonny @ Aug 30th 2008 5:24AM]

It has to come with the chip, speaking you cant buy Atoms separately, not to mention that the thing is hard soldered using a BGA soldering station to the mainboard.

Whoever at Shuttle said it doesn't have the chip needs to be dragged outside and beaten.