Shuttle XPC slim DH370 mini-PC Review: A Compact Digital Signage Powerhouse
by Ganesh T S on May 6, 2019 8:00 AM ESTUL Benchmarks - PCMark and 3DMark
This section deals with a selection of the UL Futuremark benchmarks - PCMark 10, PCMark 8, and 3DMark. While the first two evaluate the system as a whole, 3DMark focuses on the graphics capabilities.
PCMark 10
UL's PCMark 10 evaluates computing systems for various usage scenarios (generic / essential tasks such as web browsing and starting up applications, productivity tasks such as editing spreadsheets and documents, gaming, and digital content creation). We benchmarked select PCs with the PCMark 10 Extended profile and recorded the scores for various scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU and GPU in the system, though the RAM and storage device also play a part. The power plan was set to Balanced for all the PCs while processing the PCMark 10 benchmark.
The performance of the DH370 is not as good as what one might expect from a system equipped with a Core i7-8700. In fact, we see it barely surpassing the DeskMini 310 equipped with a Core i3-8100. Two contributors to this overall issue are the use of a PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe SSD (compared to the PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSDs in almost all the systems above it in the benchmarks) and the usage of a DDR4-2400 kit (almost all other systems have the SODIMMs operating between 2666 MHz and 3000 MHz).
PCMark 8
We continue to present PCMark 8 benchmark results (as those have more comparison points) while our PCMark 10 scores database for systems grows in size. PCMark 8 provides various usage scenarios (home, creative and work) and offers ways to benchmark both baseline (CPU-only) as well as OpenCL accelerated (CPU + GPU) performance. We benchmarked select PCs for the OpenCL accelerated performance in all three usage scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU and the memory sub-system.
The PCMark 8 numbers follow the PCMark 10 ordering, largely due to the same reasons discussed earlier.
3DMark
UL's 3DMark comes with a diverse set of graphics workloads that target different Direct3D feature levels. Correspondingly, the rendering resolutions are also different. We use 3DMark 2.4.4264 to get an idea of the graphics capabilities of the system. In this section, we take a look at the performance of the Shuttle XPC slim DH370 across the different 3DMark workloads.
3DMark Ice Storm
This workload has three levels of varying complexity - the vanilla Ice Storm, Ice Storm Unlimited, and Ice Storm Extreme. It is a cross-platform benchmark (which means that the scores can be compared across different tablets and smartphones as well). All three use DirectX 11 (feature level 9) / OpenGL ES 2.0. While the Extreme renders at 1920 x 1080, the other two render at 1280 x 720. The graphs below present the various Ice Storm worloads' numbers for different systems that we have evaluated.
| UL 3DMark - Ice Storm Workloads | |||
3DMark Cloud Gate
The Cloud Gate workload is meant for notebooks and typical home PCs, and uses DirectX 11 (feature level 10) to render frames at 1280 x 720. The graph below presents the overall score for the workload across all the systems that are being compared.
3DMark Sky Diver
The Sky Diver workload is meant for gaming notebooks and mid-range PCs, and uses DirectX 11 (feature level 11) to render frames at 1920 x 1080. The graph below presents the overall score for the workload across all the systems that are being compared.
3DMark Fire Strike Extreme
The Fire Strike benchmark has three workloads. The base version is meant for high-performance gaming PCs. Similar to Sky Diver, it uses DirectX 11 (feature level 11) to render frames at 1920 x 1080. The Ultra version targets 4K gaming system, and renders at 3840 x 2160. However, we only deal with the Extreme version in our benchmarking - It renders at 2560 x 1440, and targets multi-GPU systems and overclocked PCs. The graph below presents the overall score for the Fire Strike Extreme benchmark across all the systems that are being compared.
3DMark Time Spy
The Time Spy workload has two levels with different complexities. Both use DirectX 12 (feature level 11). However, the plain version targets high-performance gaming PCs with a 2560 x 1440 render resolution, while the Extreme version renders at 3840 x 2160 resolution. The graphs below present both numbers for all the systems that are being compared in this review.
| UL 3DMark - Time Spy Workloads | |||
3DMark Night Raid
The Night Raid workload is a DirectX 12 benchmark test. It is less demanding than Time Spy, and is optimized for integrated graphics. The graph below presents the overall score in this workload for different system configurations.
The numbers in the 3DMark workloads roughly tally with what can be expected from the Intel UHD Graphics 630 (also present in the Core i3-8100, which was used in the DeskMini 310 review). It is clear that performance in 3D / gaming workloads is not a strong point of the XPC slim DH370. Fortunately, Shuttle makes no mention of the gaming segment when discussing the target markets for the system.
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mikato - Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - link
Don't get me wrong, I would like that too. SilentPCReview.com needs to be revived perhaps. They, and their community, were the best. People lost interest I guess once storage drives, power supplies, retail computers, even GPUs improved noise by a lot. Plus other reviewers started paying attention to noise partly through their work. But with mini PCs and HTPCs maybe there is renewed thirst for noise analysis.The issue may be - how does Ganesh prevent outside factors and just the changing ambient noise level from influencing noise measurements? He would need some type of anechoic chamber and probably some audio equipment. Read this to see what goes into it, for removing outside influence and actually having a low enough ambient noise level for meaningful measurements - http://www.silentpcreview.com/anechoic_chamber_SPC...
Then there are logistics issues. Will Anandtech pay for or provide what may be needed? Does he do review work at his house/apartment? Is there an Anandtech central office? Do other Anandtech reviewers mostly live in the same area? Can someone rent an anechoic chamber? Keep in mind SPCR was mostly one guy on a mission, while Anandtech and Ganesh have plenty of other concerns.
Is there a spot in the middle where noise measurements are "good enough"? Any ideas? I do see noise measurements at other review sites sometimes, but I don't know if they are good enough for comparing among different product reviews that took place at different times and possibly at different places.
GDVX_111 - Monday, June 13, 2022 - link
This query comes 3 years later, so I know that the odds on a response are not good, but WHICH existing Shuttle model is going to have more than adequate HTPC chops and features, as well as the desired quietness, heat dissipation, and reliability characteristics ? (Regardless of price, even.) I say existing model because I like Shuttle, and I don't care to build something from scratch out of disparate parts that may be available. The SH67H3 cube that still serves as my desktop computer would certainly fill the bill, and is plenty quiet even a few inches away on my desk, but of course it is several times the size and would require space I don't have in either of my video stacks.Another design factor that struck me as being perhaps dubious in these more compact, digital kiosk or signage oriented models has been the move to outboard power bricks, rather than an integrated PSU. But perhaps that is unavoidable, given the compact size.
bill44 - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
How about 3D BD ISO playback?Does it use LSPCon for HDMI?
timecop1818 - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
Yes, it uses MegaChips MCDP2850 to convert DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0. You can see it on the motherboard photo in the QuickStart manual. What about 3D BD ISO playback? Why wouldn't that work?ganeshts - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
3D is usually not supported if you have a LSPcon. I have reason to believe 3D is not supported over the HDMI 2.0a ports in the last two Intel platform generations.With the advent of 4K and HDR, the industry has got much more convincing features to make people upgrade their equipment (compared to 3D). Effectively, 3D is dead from an industry viewpoint. YMMV.
Opencg - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
great example of a tech killed off by lack of content (i mean good content). too many movies were simply reprocessed without being produced from the ground up with the intent of 3d. the industry tried to charge a premuim for lackluster content with hardware implementations having support and quality issues. not to mention some big problems like focal blur guessing.i really hope vr doesnt go the route of 3d games and 3d movies. but yeah people dont seem to understand that the most important things are affordability and minimizing barriers to entry. also not having an industry clinging to ancient monitization practices helps.
Death666Angel - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
I think it is more about the technology itself. In order for stereoscopic 3D to work well, you need to have most of your field of vision filled by the content. That is easily done in a cinema, where the screen is huge and the ambient lights are darkened and everyone is fine with that. At home, most people I know have their setup with a small TV (37" to 50") and it is in a corner somewhere it makes sense but is out of the way (since the TV may be on a lot, but hardly watched focused most of the time). Only some die hard movie people (like myself) have a large TV (55"+, preferably 65"+) that is not too far away from the main sitting position (couch). But even then, it is a bit too small for 3D to work well and immerse myself in it and I can't really darken everything down as much as in the cinema. And I have never had comfortable 3D glasses. They always either hurt my sides or my nose.VR won't go away as 3D will, since it has a much larger impact in the professional world (engineering, architecture, medicine, art...), but home VR has an uphill battle to fight still.
0ldman79 - Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - link
Honestly I'm kind of expecting 3D to come back again.They are now making fully transparent TVs.
Layer the screens and you can have actual 3D (at least two layers of depth) without glasses.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - link
How would that work? You still need a way to block one eye from seeing the content the other eye sees. Doing it with a parallax barrier requires cost and doesn't work for more than one person without a lot of complications (which increase price, a lot). You also lose resolution compared to full 3D SBS and active shutter glasses.Or do you just mean 3D in a diorama way where you have discreet layers of content? That is not 3D.
bill44 - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link
Thanks ganeshts.I know it's a dead format, but I would like to use it as long as my TV lasts.
Hoping one day I can get a modern PC that has native HDMI ports (no LSPCon).
Does anyone know of TB3->HDMI adapter/cable that does work?