Construction - SFF Review - Shuttle XPC SN25P

Publish date: 2024-06-10

Construction


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The construction of the SN25P is very good. It feels durable and yet maintains a light weight. The front panel is made of molded plastic, while the body is composed of aluminum. The use of aluminum generally avoids extremely sharp edges, although there were a few spots near the HDD bays that were relatively sharp. You probably wouldn't cut yourself on these two edges unless you were being overtly careless (i.e. trying to injure yourself), but we mention them nonetheless.

We mentioned before the tool-less design of the chassis; this is a two-edged sword as far as construction goes. Tool- less designs are generally more difficult to make and require some additional R&D, but with the use of plastic clips for many of the snap-on devices, there is a greater potential for the parts to wear out. If you don't plan to upgrade frequently, this should not be a problem, but if you were to open the case on a weekly basis and move parts around or whatever, the plastic parts could wear out. Still, we'll take a well done, tool-less approach over screws any time! With the otherwise tool-less design, we would have liked to see them address the expansion card retention mechanism as well.

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The HSF of the SN25P is composed of a copper base with heatpipes connected to the radiator fins. Previous XPC cases have used a much longer heatpipe design located at the rear of the case. The new version consists of a smaller HSF with a "wind tunnel" located toward the front of the case. There are two fans directly cooling the HSF: one is attached to the HSF, and the other is a larger fan mounted on the chassis. With both being temperature controlled and powered by 4-pin connections, noise and cooling should be more than adequate. The overall design is rather reminiscent of some of the concepts that the BTX form factor is supposed to bring to desktop PCs.

We have a few last comments on the construction of the SN25P, focusing on the front panel. Overall, it is well done and shouldn't present any serious problems. The plastic covers are relatively thick and the optical drive door opens and closes as the tray goes in and out. The doors could be broken off by careless handling, of course, so pay attention to them if you're moving the case around. The plastic can also be scratched, especially with anything sharp, and such a mark would be very noticeable. Such concerns are common for most SFF designs, so as long as you pay attention to what you're doing, there shouldn't be any difficulties.

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