The Shuttle XPC is an icon of SFF design, and there are as many iterations as there are chipsets.

Shuttle's SB95P is a small form factor (SFF) aimed at the enthusiast/gamer market, and it takes advantage of the i925 iteration of PCI-E. Though Shuttle are known for their XPC’s striking looks, in this case the colour scheme is nothing to write home about: is gun-metal anyone's favourite colour?

Shuttle has made a name for themselves with stylish and innovative barebones PCs, and now comes along this excellent addition to any XPC you own. Scratch that - this TFT would look good with any PC you own.

The concept of fitting normal PC hardware into a tiny package has been proven to work and small form factor (SFF) systems are now commonplace.

Shuttle's push on the small form factor market has seen the PC finally migrate from the bedroom to become an integral part of the lounge room and entertainment set up. Capable of a number of varied roles, these include file servers, HDTV receiving boxes and media streaming machines.

Synonymous with the barebones market, Shuttle has carved a niche by providing enthusiasts exactly what they crave, but in mini form factored systems.

The XPC SS51G is the cheapest of the Shuttle offerings this month. Again, the ease of hardware installation makes this product fantastically user friendly, given the ability to just pop out the optical storage bay, insert your drive and floppy and whack it back in. No mess, no fuss.

Swiping the hardware from the PC Authority test bench, we went about putting together our Shuttle XPC. Immediately we were confronted by one of the idiosyncrasies of small form factor PCs: squeezing all the hardware in the tiny space inside.

Like the AK39N, the AB48N is a slightly smaller ATX board with two DIMMs, and does not come with SATA, although it does incorporate six-channel audio and 10/100 Ethernet.