New Shuttle SZ270R9 Bare-Bones PC Features Push-Button Overclocking
Shuttle announced a new bare-bones mini PC with the ability to be overclocked with the push of a button. Meet the SZ270R9.
The Shuttle SZ270R9 is little more than a motherboard and power supply in a small cube-like chassis. The case itself is edgy and sports RGB LED lighting on its black plastic front panel. End users are required to equip the device with their own CPU, memory, storage, and a GPU, as well as loading their own operating system.
The device supports 6th and 7th generation 95W Intel processors (Skylake and Kaby Lake) with its Z270 chipset motherboard, with support for up to 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 memory. The SZ270R9 sports a unique CPU cooler, with four heat pipes making direct contact with the CPU and feeding to aluminum fins in the back of the device (away from the CPU mount) that dissipate the heat. For storage, you can equip the SZ270R9 with up to four 3.5” or 2.5” drives (SSD or HDD), two M.2 2280 Type-M devices, or an M.2 2230 Type-A drive.
The Shuttle SZ270R9 also supports full-sized dual-slot graphics cards up to 280mm in length. However, a 500W 80 Plus Silver certified power supply limits the GPU ceiling to a GTX 1080, unless you want to run a more-powerful card with less than the recommended juice. You can connect the GPU using the SZ270R9’s 6-pin and 6+2-pin PCIe power connectors.
USB connectivity is abundant, with six USB 3.0 ports (four rear, two front) and four USB 2.0 ports. The motherboard also has its own display outputs, with an HDMI and two DisplayPort interfaces for integrated graphics, in case you choose to forgo a dedicated GPU.
Perhaps most interesting, the Shuttle SZ270R9 sports a push-button overclocking feature that will increase the frequency of your K-series CPU (and only unlocked K-series CPUs) with just one touch. Although Shuttle also offers overclocking software (and RGB lighting control software) for Windows 10, the one-touch solution will automatically select the optimized clock rate for the CPU without any further user interaction.
The Shuttle SZ270R9 supports 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows 10, but the XPC overclocking and RGB lighting software is only supported on Windows 10. Pricing and availability of the new Shuttle SZ270R9 is currently unknown, but the company indicated it would be released to the wild soon.
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| Product | Shuttle SZ270R9 |
|---|---|
| Processor Options | Up to Intel Core i7-7700K |
| Motherboard | Intel Z270 |
| Memory Options | Up to 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 |
| Graphics Options | 2-Slot GPU Up to 280 x 40 x 120 mm |
| Storage Options | - 2.5”/ 3.5” HDD/SSD Bay x4- M.2 2280 x2- M.2 2230 |
| Ports | - USB 3.0 x 6- USB 2.0 x4 |
| Display Output | - HDMI 1.2- DisplayPort 1.3 x2 |
| Networking | Intel i211v Dual Gigabit Ethernet |
| Power Supply | 500W 80 Plus Silver Certified |
| Power Connectors (GPU) | - 6-pin- 6+2-pin |
| Dimensions | 332 x 216 x 198mm |
Derek Forrest was a contributing freelance writer for Tom's Hardware. He covered hardware news and reviews, focusing on gaming desktops and laptops.
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Rhinofart LOL @ Sharky. I was thinking the exact same thing!! Yes! My 8086 @ 4.7 Mhz push button to 10 Mhz glory days are back!!!Reply -
2Be_or_Not2Be I wonder why they seemingly limited this case to only a 1080. I would guess it's due to the 500W PSU, but the 1080ti doesn't require that much more power.Reply
If you go by the "recommended" PSU for a 1080ti, then they might say it should be 600W. However, there are 600W PSUs they could easily have used, even in SFX/SFX-L form. So why limit what you can put into this barebones? I"m not a fan of the styling, but it would be nice to have a small case that doesn't limit me on GPU choice. -
donotsell2me The SZ270R9 is just atrocious horrid fugly front face plate design. Why is it gamer aethestics = trashy honda civic with a coffe can muffler, oversized airdam, and useless whale tail spoiler? The Shuttle SZ270R8 is more than adequate for a excellent mini-pc mini-itx build, and it has clean and much more sensible look, without the silly turbo button garbage.Reply -
mlee 2500 They're basically the same machines (this and the SZ270R8) it looks like, with a different front to the chassis.Reply