Digging deeper

With the SD39P2's drive bays removed, it's easy to access the system's CPU socket. Note that Shuttle has equipped the system's VRMs with a nice, chunky heatsink. Air flows from left to right in P-series chassis (top to bottom in the picture), so that VRM heatsink will get a little extra airflow, as well.

Cooling components in the cramped confines of a small form factor chassis isn't easy, but Shuttle has nailed it with the P-series. The system has three distinct cooling zones; one for the hard drives, one for the processor, and another for the power supply and system internals. All fans are variable speed units, and with the Core 2 Duo's modest heat output, that makes the SD39P2 one of the quietest small form factor systems we've ever tested. Our XPC test rig was every bit as quiet as my personal workstation—a system I'm pretty anal about keeping as silent as possible.

An intricate heatpipe cooler is at least partially responsible for the SD39P2's low noise levels. Shuttle has been using a similar design for years now, and it's proven quite effective. In fact, this latest version actually shaves off some of the radiator bulk, presumably because it just isn't needed to keep a Core 2 processor cool.

As you can see, the cooler comes equipped with a four-pin fan header that allows smooth fan speed ramping based on CPU temperatures—no annoying oscillations between high and low fan speeds here. The cooler screws directly into the motherboard, and screws are of fixed length, so it's impossible to over-tighten them.

Turning the cooler on its side reveals a copper base plate that leads directly to four heatpipes. The basic shape of this cooler can actually be traced to Shuttle's original G-series designs, which were introduced way back in 2002.

After gushing over the SD39P2's internals for a while, you'll eventually want to actually assemble the system. Installation is a breeze, in part because you've already had to remove the drive bays to get at the CPU socket.

Screwing optical drives and hard disks into the removable drive takes just minutes, and everything falls into place from there. Installation isn't quite as quick as with Shuttle's older tool-free internals, but since you've always had to bust out a screwdriver to remove the CPU heatsink and expansion cards, it's not that inconvenient to have to use one on the drive bays.