Shuttle XPC mini X 200MA review

The Shuttle mini X 200 is the replacement for the mini X 100, a tiny, well designed desktop PC aimed at multimedia junkies. The new version comes in three flavours: the entry-level 200BA, the customisable 200M and the 200MA, reviewed here. Unlike its predecessor, the £850 mini x 200MA packs Windows XP Media Center edition, a larger hard drive and more memory, but it has a slower CPU and graphics card.

Design
The XPC mini X 200 is aesthetically identical to the mini X 100, which is a good thing. It's a flat, rectangular shape that's only slightly bigger than a large hardback book. We were impressed by the recessed brushed-silver strip on top of the unit, particularly as it extends halfway down the front of the chassis, where you'll find the power button and a blue power indicator light. Between these is a cleverly positioned and very discreet memory card reader.

The USB port at the front saves you faffing around at the back when you want to plug in an extra peripheral

The sleek design of the case is helped by a slot-loading DVD drive at the front. This, unlike many similar drives, doesn't make the noise of a cat being strangled when a disc is inserted or ejected. There's a single USB port at the front of the unit with four more at the rear -- two at the far right and two more in the middle below a single LAN port. Here you can also find S-Video, SPDIF, FireWire and audio ports, plus a DVI graphics port and AC power inlet. Power is fed to the PC via a fanless external power brick.

The mini X 200 can be positioned flat on its belly or propped upright on its side. Shuttle has included a curved silver stand to keep the unit relatively stable when stood upright.

Features
At the heart of the system, Shuttle has chosen a 1.6GHz Intel Core Duo T2050 processor instead of the 1.6GHz Core Duo T2300 in the mini X 100. Both run at the same clock speed, but the T2050 has a slower front-side bus (FSB) speed of 533MHz, whereas the T2300's FSB is 667MHz. This makes the mini X 200 marginally slower than its predecessor, despite it having 1GB of RAM (the mini X 100 had 512MB).

Another difference is the mini X 200's use of an integrated Intel graphics adaptor. This is a shame since the mini X 100 used a far superior ATI Mobility Radeon X1400. It's fine for playing hi-def video and showing images, but don't expect it to run games.

Shuttle has managed to cram proper PC components into a very small space

Audio is fairly well-catered for. The Intel 945PM chipset includes a high-definition audio controller that can spew sound to up to eight separate channels. Connecting your surround-sound speakers is easy thanks to three discreet audio jacks and an optical digital SPDIF port at the rear.