Final thoughts
The one word that describes Shuttle's SD31P XPC is competent. Just add a hard drive, preferably SATA, optical drive, RAM, and an LGA775 CPU and away you go. Everything works just as it should, and installation is a real cinch for even novice XPC builders. Performance is also good when judged in comparison to ATX-sized i945G and i955X motherboards, and the ability to specify a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition or dual-core CPU, GeForce 7800 GT, 2GB RAM, and 1TByte of storage, should your pocket be deep enough, is eminently possible in this larger-than-normal XPC. Neat features such as a rear-mounted clear CMOS button and Creative audio DSP add value to the package. Shuttle's also looked at the needs of the enthusiast and implemented a BIOS that provides for a fair degree of fine-tuning and general adjustment.The asking price of around £315 buys you a brushed aluminium case, FD31 motherboard, CPU cooler, and stout 350W PSU. The question you have to ask yourself is whether the extra outlay, over and above building a similar barebones system inside a regular case, is worth it? We'd suspect for users looking to build a high-end system, the answer would have to be yes. Gamers, on the other hand, as we've expounded many times before, would best be served by looking at a comparable Shuttle XPC which uses AMD's better-performance (in gaming terms) Athlon 64s, something along the lines of the SN26P, which plays host to 2 x16 PCI-Express lanes for some SFF-based SLI fun.
Shuttle's been refining the XPC line for a number of years now. In fact, it's an old hand at it now, and that's shown by the number of decent SFF XPCs currently available. Integrated WiFi, Bluetooth and FireWire800 would be desirable extras that we'd liked to see standard on a £315 barebones unit. Other than that, though, our complaints are few and far between. What you, the reader, needs to do is evaluate which CPU is best for your needs. Should that be any LGA775 processor currently available, the Shuttle SD31P will provide a fine home for it. Recommended if LGA775/DDR2 is the way you want to go.
