Shuttle D10 review

This unusual barebones mini PC from Shuttle has a built-in 7in LCD.

Taking up most of the D10’s front panel, it’s set up as the primary display by default. After fitting our test components, we configured the BIOS settings and installed Windows Vista without having to plug in another monitor.

It’s not the best display, lacking some brightness and having a grainy finish, but then we can’t see anyone wanting to watch movies or edit photos on it. It has a native resolution of 800×480, so it’s not ideal for working on office documents, and surfing the web feels very cramped. It’s not intended for desktop use, though, but for more specialist applications. Because of this, the display is touch screen, so you don’t need a keyboard or mouse. This means you can place the D10 on a shelf and still perform many basic tasks.

The screen leaves little spare space on the front of the D10. An optical drive bay takes up most of this, so there’s no room for an external 3½in drive bay or any front USB ports. A VGA connector on the rear lets you connect a second display if required, though it’s a pity no DVI or HDMI outputs are provided. There are also three minijacks, supporting basic 5.1 surround-sound audio, four USB ports and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

Like many Shuttle models, this has a heat pipe rather than a CPU fan. This means only one 92mm fan is needed to keep the D10 cool, making it relatively quiet. The LGA775 socket can take any modern dual-core Intel processor, but the 100W power supply isn’t sufficient for quad-core models. There are two memory slots, with each supporting up to 2GB of RAM, plus two hard disk bays and two SATA ports. The only serious omission is the lack of a PCI Express x16 slot for adding a dedicated graphics card.

The single PCI Express x1 slot means it’s possible to add extra capabilities. Attach a dual TV tuner, and you could turn the D10 into a versatile media centre PC. You could set up recordings and listen to music without turning on your main display, making it an intriguing partner for a home cinema projector. However, the lack of both HDMI and S/PDIF outputs makes it less than ideal. Alternatively, you could add a surveillance video capture card with multiple inputs, and use the PC to keep an eye on your home. Another idea would be to use it as a compact server, as it doesn’t need a monitor when you want to make changes to settings.

The D10 wasn’t very impressive in our benchmarks. Its score in PCMark Vantage was higher than some motherboards we’ve seen, but still a long way off the best. Its graphics chipset isn’t capable of running our gaming tests, which put paid to our idea of playing Call of Duty 4 on its tiny display.

We were disappointed by the range of video and audio outputs on the D10, but apart from that, the design is sound. Unsurprisingly, given the built-in display, it’s rather expensive. However, if a PC with a built-in display would be useful to you, then it’s a good buy.