Shuttle Inc., market leader in the mini-PC segment and manufacturer of Multi-Form-Factor solutions, today announces the availability of the Shuttle Barebone D10 which was presented at IFA. As the first mini-PC of its kind, the D10 comes with a 7" touchscreen display integrated into its front panel.

Although Pine, the parent company of XFX, isn't new to making motherboards based on Intel chipsets, it could well be the first time it is using the XFX brand and design to sell an LGA 775 socket motherboard based on an Intel chipset, in this case, the entry-level G31.

The XG31i is an entry-level motherboard, in the mATX form-factor. It takes care of the essentials, using a single PCI-Express x16, and two PCI slots, dual-channel DDR2 memory supported by two memory slots, onboard Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 to provide display output through a single D-Sub connector, and 8-channel audio. Interestingly, the clear CMOS button, and diagnostic LED display is provided on the rear-panel. XFX plans to set a modest price to propagate this motherboard through the entry-level market.

Over the years, market trends show entry-level discrete graphics on the decline. People would rather choose a motherboard with onboard graphics. Industry heavy-weights such as AMD and NVIDIA sought to cash in on that trend by introducing desktop chipsets with nearly the same amounts of graphics processing power as those of discrete graphics at the grass-root level. For companies like Galaxy, a partner of NVIDIA, it meant moving from selling high-end nForce 680i motherboards to some inexpensive ones while continuing to sell graphics cards. Earlier, they had come up with an Intel Atom embedded ATX motherboard. This time around its their micro-ATX motherboard called iG31MX, based on the Intel G31 desktop chipset that's making news for an impressive performance with its overclocking capabilities.

Using a Wolfdale E5200 CPU that has a stock speed of 2.50 GHz, this board allowed overlocking up to 3.25 GHz at reference vCore value of 1.2 V. With the voltage stepped up to 1.36 V, the board took that limit further up to 3.68 GHz. An impressive feat given the market position of this motherboard and a price tag of US $43. The board powers the CPU using a 3 phase circuit, provides two memory slots and integrated Intel GMA 3100 graphics. Galaxy made sure this board was fat-free so it could be delivered at a low price-point. It features the older ICH7 southbridge, only one PCI slot apart from a PCI-Express x16, 6-channel audio and 10/100 ethernet interface. The PCB is cut to size with just enough area to seat all the components. The essentials are taken care of sans the bells and whistles.