A Closer Look - Outside

The DS57U has that classic industrial look characteristic of most Shuttle slim-PC barebones. It might not look that nice, but is pretty tough, and the finish is of good quality. At the front are lots of I/O ports, including two serial (RS232) ports that will save you the money you would have to spend on adapters should you want to control a piece of equipment through this old but reliable enough communications protocol.


The sides of this barebone are designed to optimize internal airflow since this unit is passively cooled. There are also Kensington locks on both sides.


The sticker on top depicts some of the DS57U's technical specifications, including its power requirements.


All other I/O ports and VGA outputs are at the rear. The latter include an HDMI and a DisplayPort.


The bottom has a couple metal covers. Take these off and you can easily access the system's internals. With the two covers removed, the user has access to three compartments: those for the 2.5" disk and fully sized mini-PCIE slot and one for the RAM slots.


The fully sized mini-PCIE slot can take an mSATA drive, while the half-sized mini-PCIE slot comes with a WLAN card pre-installed.


The bracket that holds the drive is held in place by a screw, which makes removing the bracket a breeze.