SHUTTLE HAS made some long strides its first SV24 barebones system, but the delightful little cubes have actually put on weight along the way. As enthusiasts and gamers demanded more robust power supplies and support for AGP graphics cards, Shuttle's XPC cubes grew to accommodate those desires. However, not everyone needs a beefy power supply or the pixel-pushing prowess of a discrete graphics card.

For mainstream markets and applications that don't require discrete AGP graphics, Shuttle has whipped up a smaller, quieter "Zen" XPC ST62K system. By stripping the cube of its AGP slot and using a passively-cooled external power supply, Shuttle manages to make the ST62K nearly 20% smaller than current XPC systems. And thanks to ATI's Radeon 9100 IGP, the ST62K is still packing DirectX 8 graphics under the hood.

Is Shuttle's Zen concept a viable alternative to AGP-equipped XPC systems? Read on to find out.