Pros & Cons
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- Low price.
- Compact build.
- Plenty of I/O ports.
- Expandable memory and storage.
- M.2 solid-state drive (SSD).
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
- Ships with VESA mount.
- Three-year warranty.
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- Only 2GB of memory and a 32GB SSD.
- Doesn't come with a keyboard or mouse.
Shuttle XPC Nano NC01UWIN10HE Specs
| Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 32 |
| Boot Drive Type | Flash storage |
| Desktop Class | Small Form Factor (SFF) |
| Graphics Card | Intel HD Graphics |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Processor | Intel Celeron 3205U |
| Processor Speed | 1.5 |
| RAM (as Tested) | 2 |
Shuttle is a name that's familiar to DIY and barebones PC enthusiasts, but its kit-based PCs require a lot of prep work. The Shuttle XPS Nano NC01UWIN10HE ($279 as tested) is an inexpensive, fully built ultra-small-form-factor desktop PC featuring an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of system memory, solid-state drive (SSD) storage, and 64-bit Microsoft Windows 10 Home. It's half the price of the Acer Aspire ATC-605-UB11, our top budget PC pick, and is perfectly suited for connecting to a television to stream online media, or working with cloud services. Surprisingly, it's also quite expandable, giving you a reason to buy it as a project PC if you're a tinkerer. Due to its appeal to both novice and advanced PC users, it's our new Editor's Choice for budget desktops.
Design and Features
The XPC Nano's glossy black and copper case is very, very small, measuring only 1.14 by 5.6 by 5.6 inches (HWD), making it shorter and wider than the Zotac Zbox CI320 nano Plus Windows 8.1, though larger compared with the Zotac Zbox Pico PI320 and the tiny Intel Compute Stick. Other budget desktops like the Acer Aspire ATC-605-UB11, the Apple Mac mini, and the HP Pavilion mini are much larger. The system is small enough to disappear behind an HDTV or other large-screen monitor. Shuttle includes a VESA mounting bracket to help you hide the system behind the display.
View All Connectivity is excellent, especially when compared with the Intel Compute Stick. There's an SD card slot and two USB 3.0 ports on the front panel, along with a serial port on the left side of the case. The back panel has an Ethernet jack, an HDMI port, a headset jack, a mini-DisplayPort, a Power jack for the included AC adapter, and two USB 2.0 ports. The speedier USB 3.0 ports are located in the front, making it easy for you to plug in an external hard drive or flash drive. 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth handle wireless connections. Like the Apple Mac mini, you'll have to provide your own keyboard, mouse, and display.
The system may be small, but it's actually fairly future-proof with two SO-DIMM slots for system memory (one of which is available), and also has a free 2.5-inch internal drive bay. The system's M.2 SSD is mounted in an M.2 PCIe-based slot, which has a much higher throughput than the eMMC flash storage usually found in budget systems. This desktop offers much more expandability than the Apple Mac mini, which has its memory permanently soldered to its motherboard, or the Intel Compute Stick, which is sealed.
