Outside the box
Shuttle's first P-Series cube was an all-black affair, but the SB95P V2 adds a splash of color to mix things up. The cube's bluish grey face plate may make it a little less stealthy, but the overall look remains understated.

Up top, the SB95P V2 is equipped with an 8-in-1 memory card reader that should be handy for those with digital cameras and other portable devices. The integrated card reader leaves the cube's external 3.5" drive bay available, although unless you're a fan of floppies, that space may otherwise go unused.

All of the SB95P V2's external drive bays are neatly stealthed, and the spring-loaded 5.25" drive bay door is particularly slick. The door sports an adjustable internal trigger for maximum compatibility, and the eject button is easy to use, regardless of whether the drive tray is open or closed.

Doors also cover the SB95P V2's external 3.5" drive tray and its front port cluster.

Intel's latest Prescott Pentium 4 processors are notorious for high operating temperatures, so it's a good thing the SB95P V2 is so heavily-ventilated. The cube's floor panel is drilled out for extra air flow...

And there's plenty of venting along the sides of the cube. The larger side vents are actually integral parts of the P-Series chassis' "Silent X" cooling zones, which we'll get to in a moment.

The rest of the SB95P V2's Silent X cooling prescription is located at the rear of the case, where three fans exhaust warm air from the system. Up top, the cube is equipped with a pair of 70mm fans to cool the system's hard drives. These fans are nestled behind a pair of portly grills that could unnecessarily restrict air flow. Air should flow more freely through the system's 80mm power supply fan, whose grill is considerably more open.

Below the power supply fan, the SB95P V2's port cluster is standard fare for an XPC. The cluster has a little of everything, including a handy CMOS reset button and a wide assortment of digital and analog audio ports, including both TOS-Link and RCA S/PDIF outputs.