Crossfire tips up in a Shuttle box, maychance

SHUTTLE HAS an SFF case that for the first time leaves almost nothing on the table to a full sized gaming rig. The new 'P2' chassis is a marvel of packaging technology, and there is probably still a little room left over for future tweaks.

So, what does this thing have? A new faceplate compared to the old P chassis is the obvious one, and an i975 chipset is the basis for what comes under the skin. Then there is the two PCIe 16x slots, with eight lanes each, running two ATI cards in Crossfire mode.

If that isn't enough for you, you will notice there are two hard drives across the top, WD Raptors here, and another underslung one. Want RAID5 in a SFF? Now you can. If that wasn't enough, there are four DIMM slots on the thing, so you don't have to compromise at all with regards to memory. Good job there Ken.

Last up, you have the usual Shuttle 350W PSU, all wrapped up in a slick black case. If you do the math, any 1 slot ATI card should fit in the power envelope with a Conroe, 4 dimms and 3 HDs, but it will be tight.

There is also a similar AMD model, the SN27P2, and it has all the same features as the 37 except for the second slot. It takes any AM2 CPU, and has the requisite four DIMMs and three drive bays. Either one would make a great gaming box, but it would be hard to top a Crossfire + Conroe combo in a SFF case. µ