Shuttle SD11G5 causes box envy

Here at Crave we look at all the latest high-tech gizmos. Yesterday we outdid ourselves with news of the very latest bag, but today we're upping the ante to bring you essential information on (drum roll please) a box.

Before you close your browser window and report us to the loony police, we should probably point out that this is no ordinary box. This is the SD11G5 -- the very latest small form factor (SFF) barebones case from Shuttle.

It looks much like any Shuttle XPC box. In other words, it's small, attractive and will probably make you the envy of your friends. What's different about this unit, however, is that it's compatible with the Pentium M processor, which until now has only been found in laptops.

This gives it several advantages over its rivals -- most notably the fact that it's almost silent in operation. Whereas most desktop processors (Pentium 4, Athlon 64 etc) need plenty of cooling from noisy fans, the Pentium M is as cool as the proverbial cucumber.

This allows the SD11G5 to get away with a bigger, slower and ultimately quieter fan to keep the processor from melting. Don't be put off by the fact that the Pentium M was designed for laptops, though -- the fastest models easily give Pentium 4s a run for their money.

A mere £313 gets you the box, a motherboard with an integrated graphics card, a power supply and a cooler, but as with any SFF case, you'll need to supply your own processor, memory and hard drive. If you fancy ditching your noisy, overheating desktop PC for something prettier and quieter, it doesn't get much better than this. -RR