Artwork: Rick Rizner, John Goddard

The toaster-sized, $3999 Shuttle XPC P 8100G may be small, but it's fast and has an astounding amount of storage space. Outfitted with a 3.6-GHz Pentium 4 560 processor and 1GB of DDR400 SDRAM, it scored an impressive 101 in our WorldBench 5 tests, tying a Micro Express MicroFlex 36A for the highest WorldBench score of systems with this CPU. The configuration we tested had an ATI Radeon X800 XT graphics card and almost 400GB of hard drive space, including a primary 250GB hard drive, plus two 74.3GB RAID hard drives.

Well suited for business use, the P 8100G came with Windows XP Professional and a good-quality Shuttle XP17 17-inch LCD with a unique look. The bezel is wide and shiny, bucking the trend toward thin, and a metal tube frames the display. Rather than having a typical base and stem, the XP17 props itself up somewhat like a picture frame; it seemed top-heavy and prone to being tipped over, however. Using the monitor's default settings, text looked sharp and graphics were attractive, though not stellar. Video games, however, appeared too dark, requiring us to fiddle with on-screen controls to get an attractive picture. The P 8100G managed above-average frame rates in our video game tests, generating 135 frames per second on Return to Castle Wolfenstein at the LCD's native resolution, 1280 by 1024.

The case's design--a small black cube--makes it an eye-catcher. The optical drive, floppy drive, and media-card reader are hidden behind glossy push doors that suggest a miniature entertainment center. We were concerned, however, with the DVD-RW drive. The tray was wobbly, and the drive door relied on a thin spiral of wire that looked fragile. Two USB 2.0 ports and a FireWire port are on the front panel; on the back are two more USB 2.0 ports and a FireWire port.

Getting inside the machine is easy. Removing the cover requires only that you take out four jumbo thumbscrews, and lift. The inside is cramped but neatly organized, so it's easy to add or remove components. The two striped 74.3GB RAID hard drives are nestled in plastic drive rails; they unlock with a gentle flick of a lever, and reinstall just as easily. Unfortunately, in the unit we received, the PCI slot on the rear panel was too close to the graphics card to use. The 350-watt power supply and cooling system work together to keep the processor from overheating-extra important in such tight quarters.

Upshot: This sports car of a desktop delivers strong performance for business users--or anyone else willing to pay a high premium for small size.

Leigh Anne Jones