Exterior and Functionality

Developing their SB81P, the designers from Shuttle weren’t in an inventive mood, but preferred the time-tested classic concept of XPC series cases. Like in the rest of the models from this series, a few touches were added to give individuality to this particular model. That’s how the SB81P is perceived: you notice its belonging to the XPC family at once, but you won’t mistake it for any other model from this series. The straight lines of the case, the bare front panel and mild single-tone painting give this barebone a solid, official appearance with a hint of exquisiteness. This system case will fit well into any environment.

The XPC SB81P consists of two large parts: a foundation all the details and the mainboard are fastened to, and a casing that you can remove to access the computer’s internals. Besides the screw holes there are vent grids in both sides of the casing for air to come into the computer. Otherwise, the casing is just a polished metal surface, painted black. The polish isn’t perfect, so you can see thin straight lines going along the entire length of the case. But maybe this is just a design feature?

Of course, we are more interested in the design of the front and rear panels of the barebone. So, the front panel goes a little beyond the case’s limits, creating an impression that it just hangs in the air. A special vent grid links the panel and the case. The universal card-reader and the silvery Power On/Off and Reset buttons catch your eyes immediately, but the other things are all hidden under decorative covers. Even the HDD indicator is placed under the translucent plastic of the front panel and you can only spot it by the small concavity against it. The optical drive’s Eject button merges entirely with the decorative silvery strip.

Of course, the fact that the card-reader is placed right in the front panel rather than under a decorative cover brings a minor distortion into the harmony of the sharp lines and the glossy surface of the panel. The Power On/Off button doesn’t feel good to the touch since its circle and the border of the built-in indicator have rather sharp edges. The button itself sinks down suddenly as if with a click. It’s different with the Eject button: your pressure goes to the optical drive’s button through a special mechanism which doesn’t “click” under your finger. So, you don’t know at once if the tray is going to eject or not. You just have to push the button more and more.

The bay of the optical drive can be found under the spring-loaded door at the top of the front panel. You can put a 5.25” drive with almost any front panel in here. The cover under the optical drive’s door conceals the 3.5" floppy drive bay.

Another cover, at the bottom of the front panel, hides several connectors: two USB, one FireWire, a stereo output and a microphone input.