Shuttle XPC Slim DS67U Barebone
7. Final words
The DS67U XPC Slim barebone from Shuttle is built on the same chassis we have previously seen with the DS57U series and besides the updated platform, Shuttle has added the M.2 slot instead of mSATA or the external Wi-Fi antennas for extended storage instead of the internal ones.
Generally, the device packs lot of power for its compact size. The fanless box is rated for 24/7 operation and consumes 15 Watt of power, making it ideal for users who need performance and efficiency.
We tested the basic version of the DS67U series, which comes with Intel Celeron 3855U dual-core processor installed. To get the device running, you'll need to install a hard disk drive (SSD or M2 slot), DDR3L low voltage memory (up to 32GB) and of course an operating system.
The barebone offers a rich set of I/O ports; it has many USB 2.0/3.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet, dual Serial com ports, SD card slot and 802.11ac / Bluetooth. Shuttle has done a great job in the design and build quality of the device, and has bundled with it VESA mounts in order to install it behind your office monitor.
The box doesn't come with any OS pre-installed, so you you can go either with Windows, Linux or perhaps even MAC OSX. In our case we used the latest Windows 10 version. The installation process went smoothly and lasted just a few minutes, provided that we used n SSD.
The Intel Celeron 3855U provides a good performance for office tasks and perhaps the Intel HD 510 graphics engine can play DX9 games at low resolutions and with the quality details set to medium. In our opinion the provided power is enough for everyday use, as long as you don't mess with harder tasks (demanding gaming, 3D, Autocad, etc..). There are also other versions to be taken into account which do feature the Core i3-6100U, Core i5-6200U or the Core i7-6500U processors for even higher performance needs. However, such a stronger configuration result to a double cost for you.
We also liked the fact that the Shuttle DS67U works with KODI 16.1 very well and that it is able to playback HD Audio (7.1) and up to 4K digital content. However, hardware limitations of the Intel HD 510 make playback of 10bit video files tough.
We had a lot of fun playing around with the Shuttle DS67U. With a wireless mouse/keyboard, it can replace your everyday PC system. It is economical enough consuming just 15 Watt and costs around 226 Euros.
We liked
- Complete retail package
- Compact size
- Based upon the latest 14nm Intel Celeron 3855U dual-core processor
- Up to 32GB memory option
- Build quality
- Many I/O ports (USB2.0, USB3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort, 2x1GBit Lan, COM1/COM2)
- Supports WLan b,g,n,ac, BT 4.0
- Supports M.2 2242 BM slots
- Totally silent + guaranteed 24/7 working operation
- Includes VESA mount at the box
- Intel Celeron 3855U is good enough for most everyday tasks (Office/Internet use) and for up to 4K playback content
- HD Audio pass through works great (up to 7.1)
- Kodi 16.1 works with this box
Could be improved
- Included HDMI port is v1.4 (4K @ 24Hz) and not 2.0 (4K @ 60Hz + HDR)
- Retail price could be lower since you need to get memory+SSD+operating system to get things working
- Booting from SD Card seems broken
- Gaming is rather disappointing with the Intel Celeron 3855 + HD 510 combination