Bigger is Not Always Better – Ask Zotac’s New ZBOX HD-ID11 minipc

 10 May 2010 - By Omar Mariño+
 omar@myddnetwork.com


The Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11 is a tiny (and mean tiny—it’s only 7.4” by 7.4” by 1.73” making it smaller than your average trade paperback!) little machine that should keep any media junkie happy but is the $250 price tag a little too much for the bare bones edition?

The ZBOX will easily handle any video you can cram through it, including 1080p HD and BluRay, but the Flash 10.1 compatibility leaves things a little up in the air as the software generally limits streaming content to 480p before the device goes into hysterics.  We’re promised a Flash upgrade in the near future so let’s hope that clears the air a little because otherwise this little machine is pretty sweet.

Zotac's ZBOX

The Zotac ZBOX is a Tiny Little Powerhouse

Running off a dual-core 1.66GHz Atom D510 the small form PC relies on heavy NVIDIA Ion 2 (with 512MB dedicated DDR3) acceleration for its performance.  Fully integrate 802.11n WiFi means no external adapters needed and high streaming speeds—which is good considering 99.9% of folks are going to use this for a secondary “bedroom” system and dedicated media machine.

On the external, the little black box sports 6 USB ports,  optical output port, e-Sata Port, dual-link DIV, and a 6-in-1 media card reader in addition to a standard (single) HDMI port.

It’s quiet, study, and does what the packaging says it will but at $250 you still have to add your own RAM storage and OS.  On the bright side, shipping from Newegg is less than $9!






Disclaimer - Category: Computer, Processor, TV