This past VMworld I had the opportunity to learn about a new server platform that really piqued my interest. The Shuttle DS81 received a refresh last year that gave it some nice features that I personally think puts it in a class all of its own.

Shuttle was nice enough to send me the Shuttle DS81 to demo. So over the past couple of months I put the unit through it’s paces and even did some FVP testing against it!!

Here are some of the unique features that caught my eye for making this a great home lab machine.

• VMware Ready

• Only 43 mm thick.

• 4K Support (2 Display Ports & 1 HDMI Port) w/ dual monitor support

• Certified to operate in harsh, hot environments up to 122 °F or 50 °C – Great for my hot Atlanta summers!! ☺

• Dual Gigabit Ports – Nice for teaming and you still have the USB ports.

• Low Noise, with 90W power. I could hardly hear it run, it was very quiet.

• 2 x Mini PCIe Slots

• 1 bay for a 6Gbps SATA SSD drive- I used the built-in SD card slot for ESXi

The configuration that I requested came with an Intel Haswell i7 3.2GHZ Quad Core processor and 16GB PC3-12800 1600MHZ DDR3 Memory. There are ton of different configuration options available. See list