A Closer Look - Outside

The DS81 is small, but very sturdy, which makes it a good choice for tough environments. It can also take a VESA mount, which Shuttle provides. The mount allows you to place the unit on a monitor's backside. The front houses the small on/off switch, four USB 2.0 ports, microphone- and earphone ports, an SD-card reader, and the power-on and HDD-activity LEDs.


The sides feature Kensington locks, but no ventilation holes. On top are two punched-out fan grills for the 60mm fans that cool the CPU.


The rear is rife with I/O ports. There are two USB 3.0 and two RS232 ports, a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports, one HDMI and two DisplayPort outputs, and a DC-in socket. Shuttle also provides perforations for two Wireless Lan antennas, which will come in handy if you put a corresponding expansion card into the mini-PCIe slot.


On the unit's bottom is a label with the model number and the power input specifications.