Shuttle unveils powerful, liquid-cooled, compact PC for gamers

(Credit: Shuttle)

If you're a hard-core gamer who hates monster computer boxes, Shuttle, the maker of custom built small form-factor PCs, now offers another choice.

The company unveiled on Friday its newest liquid-cooled SDXi Carbon Extreme gaming solution.

Shuttle's Liquid I.C.E. cooling solution.

(Credit: Shuttle)

The SDXi Carbon features a cream-of-the-crop quad-core Intel Core2 Extreme QX9770 processor, dual-slot Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 graphics card, and up to 16GB of high-speed DDR2 memory.

With these specifications, the box is designed to deliver the best possible experience for the most demanding applications and games.

Normally, this kind of powerhouse will generate a ton of heat and noise. This is why Shuttle equipped the SDXi Carbon with its Liquid I.C.E. cooling solution.

The company claims this new liquid cooling solution delivers the most efficient performance in an extreme small-form-factor system, while at the same time keeping it quiet even during the hottest gaming section.

Cosmetics-wise, the SDXi Carbon looks decent as it's painted in a unique-looking premium automotive level finish.

The Shuttle SDXi Carbon is available now as a pre-configured complete solution, starting at $2,599.

[mmntech]

It does look like a solid system but the first thing that popped in my mind was "Wow, this thing is disgustingly overpriced." AnandTech assembled a Core i7 system for $1450, which (unlike the $2600 Shuttle base model) also featured a 1tb HDD, 3gb DDR3, a 21'' Acer monitor and a combo BD-Rom/DVD burner. Just pick up DFI's Lanparty JR X58-T3H6 LGA1336 micro-ATX board and a Thermaltake Lanbox Lite if you need a compact but powerful gaming system. That would only bump the price up about $100 over Anand's build. You could even add an i7 Extreme 965 (cream of the crop) and it would still be cheaper than the Shuttle Core 2 E8400 base model. Watercooling is also a little excessive for this system.
I also find it odd that while they offer 8gb of RAM as a "build to order feature", they only offer 32-bit operating systems with it. The Shuttle is of vary poor value for what it has in it, costing more than twice as much as an identical DIY system would.