ZOTAC ZBox HD-ID11 and Next Gen ION
Test System Specs and SANDRA Quick-Take
To assess the performance of the ZOTAC Zbox, we pitted it against a number of various netbook systems based on Intel Atom processor designs, including the first generation of NVIDIA's Ion platform, as well as standard Atom solutions. The performance numbers we've provided along with the Zbox are presented for a frame of reference more than anything else, since it was nearly impossible to provide identically configured test systems. As such these test metrics should not be considered "apples to apples" comparisons, but rather a general correlation of how the next-gen Ion-based Zbox will perform versus similar, low power platforms in its peer group.
Zotac ZBox Windows 7 Experience Index
Left to right: SANDRA CPU, Multimedia and Memory Bandwidth Tests
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Intel Atom D510 (Dual Core) (1.66GHz) 2GB DDR2-800 NVIDIA Next Gen Ion GPU (GeForce GT218 Ion) On-Board Ethernet On-Board Audio 1x500GB 2.5" Hard Drive 5400 RPM SATA Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (32-bit) |
AMD Athlon Neo (MV-40) (1.66GHz) 2GB DDR2-800 Radeon HD 3200 IGP On-Board Ethernet On-Board Audio 1x250GB 2.5" Hard Drive 5400 RPM SATA Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) |
Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz) 2GB DDR2-800 NVIDIA Ion GPU (Based on 9400M) On-Board Ethernet On-Board Audio 1x250GB 2.5" Hard Drive 5400 RPM SATA Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit) |
Intel Atom 330 (Dual Core) (1.6GHz) 2GB DDR2-800 NVIDIA Ion GPU (Based on 9400M) On-Board Ethernet On-Board Audio 1x250GB 2.5" Hard Drive 5400 RPM SATA Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (32-bit) |
* Thanks to our friends at Kingston Technology for supplying the DDR2 SODIMM memory we used for testing in this article.
Zotac ZBox Windows 7 Experience Index
We began our benchmark testing with SiSoftware's SANDRA, the System ANalyzer, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant. We ran three of the built-in subsystem tests that partially comprise the SANDRA test suite with the Ion-based ZOTAC Zbox (CPU Arithmetic, CPU Multimedia, and Memory Bandwidth). All of the scores reported below were taken with the Zobox's Atom processor running at its default clock speed of 1.66GHz, with 2GB of DDR2-800 system memory and HyperThreading enabled.
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Left to right: SANDRA CPU, Multimedia and Memory Bandwidth Tests
Interestingly, the Zbox's Atom D510 Pineview core processor offered significantly better performance in the Processor Arithmetic test, versus the Atom D510 and D410 reference scores in SANDRA's reference database. We're not sure if this is an erroneous listing for the SANDRA suite but the scores here for the Zbox are robust, regardless. In the Multimedia test, we see the Zbox's D510 dual-core Atom line up just ahead of the previous gen Atom 330 dual core, partly due to its faster front side bus speed (667MHz versus 533MHz for the Atom 330). The Atom D510 also offered a bit more memory bandwidth versus the 330 as well, as you can see in the graph on the far right.
