Shuttle LGA1155 Intel H61 DDR3 USB 3.0 A&V&2GbE 90-Watt Slim PC Barebone System XH61V

Quick and easy build. My only complaint is that out of the box, the USB 3.0 ports did not work with any USB device after installing all the drivers on the included DVD. When I checked the Device Manager, no drivers showed up on the USB controller. I went to Shuttle's web page and downloaded and installed the drivers separately and they now work fine.Uses a notebook slim DVD drive and notebook memory. You also have to make sure you get an Intel CPU with HD Graphics, as there is no video card or on-board graphics.

I had an extra Ivy Bridge i3 from an old server I upgraded to a cheap i7. At first I was just going to sit on because spending a few hundred dollars on a mb, case, etc... didn't seem worth it (vs a new Skylake build), but then I found this as a refurb. For the price of a case, I got a case, power supply and board, and it was tiny (basically the size of an mini-ITX board) to boot. I'm usually all about refurbs, but Intel boards scare me with their pin filled sockets and careless damage to them. This was the best refurb I ever received.The packaging was the retail packaging, complete with a handle and various model info that was clear to read. At first I figured I got a new setup (some manufacturers dump excess product as refurb or grey market), as outwardly all that indicated refurb was a handsome sticker saying that Shuttle refurbished it. Opening it up presented the usual accouterments with no compromises, and the unit was enclosed not in a plastic bag but rather some cloth bag ala a Kate Spade purse. That bag had the first of a couple large bags of desiccant (gotta keep it all dry). Removing it from that bag revealed a modest scuff on the case, but otherwise it was immaculate. The top removed with semi captive thumbscrews and a decent tug was needed to free it. Inside everything was wrapped nicely. The layout of the board is straightforward, and there is a 1x (or is it 4x) PCI Express slot (no space for backplate), which I may be able to cram a PCI SSD in if I really wanted to--I don't). All of the connections to the case are in place and secure, and the heat pipe was relatively easy to remove. If it weren't for some scuffs on the underside of the heat pipe, I would have guessed this was a flood model never equipped with a CPU. While the base of heat pipe itself seemed lacking by enthusiast standards (not entirely smooth and of modest materials), it covered an immaculate socket 1155 with a plastic cover. I slipped the RAM and mSATA SSD in before proceeding, but adding the CPU and locking it in place was a breeze. The heat pipe was a bit difficult to fully seat, as one of the push pins wouldn't go in all the way (**be sure that the pins go in all the way--otherwise the CPU may overheat**). That's more of a fault of the industry wide design than anything that was Shuttle's fault.While I put an SSD inside, I first tried it with OpenELEC (Linux based media center) on a thumb drive. It installed quickly and easily, and I must say that the BIOS on this board is one of the best for this use. It used to be a given that you can set your boot order however, making a boot disk (back in the day a floppy, later a CD, and nowadays a USB stick) easy as pie. Ever since UEFI/EFI etc... some boards (the latest NUCs are the worst) make it hard to boot to usb drives. This one made old school and UEFI USB drives a breeze. I've never seen so many boot options. Kudos! The rest of the BIOS is a bit basic, but I'm not exactly gonna overclock this. Afterwards Windows 8.1 installed easily, though the drivers were a pain to download (think their FTP server was busy). A thumb drive would have been great (a CD was included, and the unit can accommodate a drive).A couple other things: the fans are small but quiet. You can really fit a couple drives in there (I elected to use mSATA and take out the drive brackets). The front cover for the USB and audio ports can close over a Logitech unifying receiver (small win). Since all of the airflow goes out the side, you can slide it all the way back in a cabinet (provided ample room on the sides).From time to time I get good deals on CPUs, and I may go this route the next time I do. It's not quite as small as a NUC, but you have more CPU options without using that much more space. It's so tiny!

This is true of all the Shuttle units I've owned over the years - I wish they did a better job with cooling. I ran prime95 with an Intel 3770S prcoessor in this box, and monitored it with Open Hardware Monitor - CPU temps cracked 100C. Idles at around 40C. It'd be nice if the cooling solution was a touch more aggressive, but, overall, I can't complain. Small paackage, tons of power.Uses SODIMM's - laptop memory for the uninitiated. Also uses laptop-sized HDD's - so, basically you get a laptop with a non-laptop CPU. Already said it - tons of power under the hood.Seems to be the only ITX-format board, let alone "barebones" that can hang with 16GB of RAM. 2 NICS. Oddly, 2 serial ports. DVI, HDMI, and audio out. USB 2.0 and 3.0.All this says to me, cheap (to purchase), tiny server. The 2nd NIC does that basically. Has a a mini PCIx slot inside too that could handlea WiFi card, for yet another network interface. Win-Win-Win.Overall, pretty happy with this box. Did I mention it's tiny? It's also quiet, even though it has dual fans, I've never really heard it spin up - but, I have it in a closet sitting on top a Synology DS. That's where the real magic of this box can get leveraged. Runs Windows Server 2012 without added drivers just fine, so it should do fine with Windows 8 without adding drivers. Also runs Hyper-V just fine (the real reason for this box - ha!) - w/ 16GB of RAM...it can host a few VM's :DOnly thing I wish it had was the abolity to do RAID1, even if it's Fake Raid (intel chipset based) - then I could pop in a 2nd HDD. Looks like it's almost big enough that one could stick a WD Raptor drive in there - removed from it's carrier (bare drive is a 2.5", but it's about half-again as tall as standard laptop drives. Might fit....Disappointed there's no blank to cover the CD Drive - the flip up drive bay cover is all that's there.Update: I discovered why it doesn't cool all that well - the fans that operate with the heatpipe are monitored/managed by the system board temp, not the CPU temp. This presents the obvious issue of where the CPU will get blazing hot if they system is in a cold room. Really bad design decision, but, I figure this could be modified with an extension cable, as there is a CPU fan lead that would fit, just the cabling is too short. Also don't know if the system would post without something connected to the system fan header. I'll figure it out someday....but just a heads-up for anyone purchasing this - this is with bios version .105...could have been a recent change or might be fixed later.

Paired with £30 Celeron and SSD disk it turns into small, cheap and powerful machine. My family is very happy with it. And as it can be upgraded significantly, they will stay happy for next few years.

silenzioso, compatto e allo stesso tempo robusto.Si deve installare un processore, la memoria e un hdd.Consigliatissimo per avere un minimo ingombro.