Face first
Shuttle has been selling artistic XPC face plate upgrades for a while now, and they've finally put one on a new cube model. The SK83G's face features a faux-grill backdrop that adds a little industrial flash to the otherwise buttoned-down black cube.

Unfortunately, all it takes is a beige optical drive to completely ruin the case's aesthetic. Despite my incessant whining about the lack of drive bay covers on numerous XPC cubes, the SK83G's external 5.25" and 3.5" bays can easily house discolored drives that clash with the cube's industrial appearance. Of course, black drives will match the cube's aluminum skin and front panel trim, so it's possible to avoid a fashion disaster. However, I still find it bizarre that Shuttle hasn't stealthed the external drive bays on all its new XPC models. Sliding or spring-loaded drive bay covers haven't been difficult for Antec, Biostar, and MSI to implement in their cubes. Heck, Shuttle even offers one on its own SB75S.

Ok, I'll stop ranting now.

Moving along, note that the SK83G has an external 3.5" drive bay. Some of Shuttle's more recent cubes, including the SN85G4 and ST61G4, have ditched external 3.5" drive bays in favor of integrated memory card readers. The SK83G is more floppy-friendly than those cubes, but I think we'd all rather have an integrated card reader.

Around the rear, the SK83G looks like just about every other XPC, but pay special attention to the grills that cover the cube's main exhaust port and power supply.

The SK83G exhaust port's honeycomb pattern looks cool, but the small, widely-spaced holes don't leave a lot of room for air flow. Contrast that with the power supply's open honeycomb grill, and you might be tempted to break out a Dremel or drill to help the SK83G breathe.

Although its exhaust grill could use some work, the SK83G's port cluster is loaded with everything you'll need, including VGA and S-Video outputs for the cube's integrated graphics. Shuttle also ships the SK83G with an S-Video-to-composite video adapter.

In addition to its video outputs, the SK83G's port cluster yields a trio of analog audio ports, PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, Firewire, Ethernet, four USB ports, and even a serial port. The cluster also has a handy Clear CMOS button, which will save you from having to dig around inside the cube to reset the BIOS.

They're not pictured above, but the SK83G also comes equipped with digital S/PDIF audio input and output ports. These ports are located at the rear of the cube just above the AGP and PCI expansion slots.

The SK83G complements its rear port cluster with an assortment of front-mounted ports, including three more audio jacks, a couple of USB ports, and a Firewire port.