Today, Shuttle is launching a new barebones mini-PC, an ultra-compact 4.7-liter form factor—the Shuttle XPC slim XH610G2. This mini-PC features an Intel motherboard that leverages the LGA1700 socket and H610 chipset.
The XH610G2 supports Intel 12th Gen through 14th Gen CPUs and has room for a dual-slot expansion, potentially housing a GPU or two smaller PCIe cards thanks to one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. This barebones mini PC kit includes the motherboard, an external 180W Power Supply, and a VESA mount.
The end user must provide all other components while being mindful of some strict TDP restrictions, particularly the 65-watt maximum CPU TDP and 75-watt maximum GPU TDP. While some secondary accessories can improve that GPU TDP number, the lack of support for eGPU standards (the fastest I/O port is USB 3.2 Gen 1, at 5 Gigabits per second) does somewhat hurt this mini-PC in a market where eGPU support is becoming more commonplace.
Optional accessories can further alter the functionality of the Shuttle XPC slim XH610G2. These include M.2 WLAN and LTE adapter kits, a COM port adapter, a VGA port adapter, a cable for an external power button, and secondary power adapters to boost GPU TDP support from 75 Watts up to 225 Watts, depending on the adapter setup you choose.
The power adapter setup is particularly interesting. First, a Shuttle XPC PRC01 adds a second DC input, and then either an XPC PE90 (adds 90W) or PE180 (adds 180W) gives your dual-slot GPU of choice the juice it needs to run. At 225W, this mini-PC could support a GPU configuration up to around an Nvidia RTX 3070 or an AMD RX 7600 XT, so long as you get a GPU that also fits within the maximum 205mm length and 45mm width restrictions.
Surprisingly, for a mini-PC at this size, there is still support for a single rear-mounted 2.5-inch SSD or HDD as well as two M.2 SSD slots, one of which is NVMe and the other restricted to SATA bandwidth. We recommend that users who opt for SATA storage expansion use a SATA SSD instead of an HDD due to the poorer pricing and generally slower performance of most 2.5-inch HDDs.
Overall, the customization options available for a mini-PC at this size seem pretty impressive, but the lack of eGPU support will undoubtedly hurt its adoption among gamers. However, this product appears to be mainly targeted at professional and enterprise environments where shrinking form factor is a higher priority than raw performance. For those users, it may end up being just what they're looking for.
