Zotac ZBOX Nano ID65 Plus Out NUCs Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Friday, August 23, 2013, 12:39 PM EDT

The Zotac ZBox Nano ID65 PLUS is about as small as full-featured small form factor systems get. As most of you are probably aware, 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. The ZBox Nano ID65 PLUS, however, is powered by an Ivy Bridge-based Core i7 processor, yet still managed is squeeze into a tiny 5” x 5” x 1.77”enclosure.

Zotac ZBox Nano ID65 PLUS--Front View

The ZBox Nano ID65 PLUS has a mostly aluminum enclosure, with plastic covers on the top and bottom. The front of the device is home to a 7-in-1 flash card reader, headphone and microphone jacks, an IR receiver, activity LEDs, two USB 2.0 ports and the power button. One side of the machine is completely bare, while the other houses a few air vents, and the back is home to the vast majority of the machines I/O.

Zotac ZBox Nano ID65 PLUS--Rear View

On the back, users will find the power jack, DP and HDMI outputs, four USB 3.0 ports, a lock port, RJ45 LAN jack, eSATA, and an antenna mount for the integrated Wi-Fi controller. Connectivity is very good on the ZBox Nano ID65 PLUS, but we wouldn’t mind seeing the eSATA port for in favor of a couple more USB 3.0 ports.

Zotac ZBox Nano ID65 PLUS--Top View

The bottom of the machine has four rubber feet, which double as thumbscrews and hold an access panel in place. The top of the ZBox Nano ID65 PLUS appears black when the system is off, but has a lighted blue ring when powered on.

Tags: core i7, SFF, Zotac, Nano, HTPC, ZBox, id65

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