Zotac ZBOX Nano AD10 Plus U Mini SFF PC Review

Name: Zotac ZBOX Nano AD10 Plus
Brand: Zotac

by Marco Chiappetta — Friday, October 28, 2011, 10:00 AM EDT

The Zotac Zbox Nano AD10 Plus takes the term small form factor to a whole new level. Intel’s Atom and AMD’s E-Series APUs have allowed OEMs to produce some truly tiny devices, with virtually all of the base functionality of a standard PC. At 5” x 5” x 1.77”, however, the Zbox Nano AD10 plus is about the smallest full system we have come across.

Zotac Zbox Nano AD10 Plus--Front, Back, Left, and Right

The Zbox Nano AD10 Plus has a mostly aluminum enclosure, with plastic covers on the top and bottom. The front of the device is home to a flash card reader, headphone and microphone jacks, and IR receiver, activity LEDs, and the power button. One side of the machine is completely bare, while the other houses only some air vents, and the back is home to all of the machines I/O. On the back, users will find the power jack, DP and HDMI outputs, four USB ports—two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0—a lock port, RJ45 LAN jack, eSATA, and an antenna mount for the integrated Wi-Fi controller. Connectivity is very good on the Nano, but we do wish there were at least a couple more USB ports.

Zotac Zbox Nano AD10 Plus, Top and Next To A Standard DVD

The bottom of the machine has four rubber feet, which double as thumbscrews and hold an access panel in place and the top appears back when the system is off, but has a lighted green ring when powered on.

Since the pics don’t really convey a true measure of how small the machine is, we also snapped a shot of the Zbox Nano next to its driver disc. Yeah—the machine is tiny.

Tags: SFF, Zotac, Nano, PC, HTPC, Mini, Fusion, ZBox

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com