Shuttle XPC built for gaming

It's saying something that my aging computer from The PC Company has long outlived The PC Company itself. It could handle the most advanced games when I bought it, but I can no longer install new titles and expect smooth running.

Having the Shuttle XPC therefore has been a pleasure. I'd grown used to the lengthy loading times and stuttering graphics on games such as Battlefield 2, Half Life 2 and Counterstrike, but not any more.

The Shuttle is custom-built for budget-minded gamers and will comfortably handle all the multiplayer games on the market. You can spend a lot more to get a more powerful machine, but for $2000, it's a compelling package.

The Shuttle has a Pentium 4 640, 3.2-gigahertz processor and a gigabyte of memory. Its Nvidia GeForce 6600GT, 128-megabyte video card has been superseded, but it is the benchmark for gaming, so you won't be refused access.

A 160-gigabyte hard drive allows ample storage capacity for games, which can consume up to 5GB of hard drive space each.

In fact, for an extra $199, you can upgrade to Windows Media Center Edition, a version of XP that has a nice interface to manage all your music, video and photos. By adding a TV tuner card to the Shuttle's spare PCI slot, you can then record live TV through Media Center straight to the hard drive, creating your own digital video recorder.

It's worth considering allowing the Shuttle into your lounge because it's a compact, stylish device that wouldn't look out of place beneath the TV set.

Taking the lid off it also reveals how the computer has been built to save space. The fan kicks in like a car accelerating through first gear, such is the force with which it spins. Its cooling power is certainly needed as the components that make the XPC such a decent gaming device give off a great deal of heat and have been squashed together.

That's because the Shuttle has been designed for multiplayer gaming enthusiasts. Carrying your PC along to a LAN tournament suddenly becomes a lot easier. The downside of the Shuttle's small dimensions is that it will limit expansion options for those who want to install hardware, such as specialised video capture cards. You may be better off with the extra space of a mini-tower PC box.

For gaming, entertainment and office-related tasks however, the Shuttle has everything you need. A white panel at the front hides a dual-layer DVD and CD burner, two USB ports and a mini-firewire port. Two more USB ports, an extra firewire connection and a Gigabit Ethernet port are housed on the rear of the Shuttle, alongside a range of connectors, helpfully colour-coded.

An upgrade to 2GB of memory and the new 7800 GeForce video card would make the Shuttle the ultimate gaming machine, but in its current configuration, it comes close.

Over the weekend, dozens of hardcore gamers taking part in the World Cyber Games (www.wcg.net.nz) will use Shuttle computers to take each other on in large-scale multiplayer games. That's an endorsement of sorts from a community that appreciates PC power more than most.

Herald Rating: 8/10

Pros: Portable; powerful; built for gaming.

Cons: Little room for expansion; no TV tuner card.