Shuttle SH67H3

I've built a number of systems out of these platforms recently, and I have to say... I love them. I really love them.

Most small systems like this suffer from being cramped and having thermal issues. The SH67H3 solves both of these in a very intelligent way, one that is long overdue: Instead of releasing all of the CPU heat inside of the chassis, it is pulled via heatpipes to a heatsink at the BACK of the chassis, and the heat is immediately spit out the back.

That means that the inside stays much cooler than if it were using a traditional heatsink setup. It also means that you don't have the large CPU heatsink right in the middle of the chassis, getting in the way. I've had no problem with 95W Sandy Bridge CPUs on these, they stay cool and quiet.

The unit also comes with room for 2 3.5" hard drives, and a 5.25" optical drive. Pulling the drive cage out is easy, and because the heatsink is not in the middle of the chassis, accessing the drive connectors is a snap as well.

It also comes with a PCI-e x16 slot in case you want discrete video, and the slot is spaced to accommodate dual-slot video cards. Very nice!

The power supply is a 300W 80+ unit. For a single hard drive and CPU with onboard graphics, that's probably plenty - but Shuttle also sells their PC63J power supply, with a 500W rating. If you are using a high-draw video card, that would be a good route to take.

Assembling one of these is surprisingly easy and fast. If you're in the market for a small machine like this, take a look at the SH67H3.