Items tagged with ZBox
The last time we visited Zotac, the company managed to stuff NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M-class graphics into its Zbox Magnus EN970 mini PC. This time around, Zotac is has dialed down things a bit with the introduction of two Intel Braswell-based mini PCs: the Zbox BI323 and Zbox CI323 Nano. The Zbox BI323 is powered by a 1.6GHz, quad-core Celeron N3150 processor, includes Intel HD Graphics, a single 2.5-inch SATA slot for a HDD or SDD, and two DDR3L-1600 SO-DIMM slots (up to 8GB can be installed). External ports include HDMI 1.4b, DisplayPort 1.1a, VGA, a 3-in-1 card reader, three USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, one USB-C port and GbE. Wireless connectivity is taken care of by Bluetooth 4.0 and...
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The small form factor market has seen a ton of innovation as of late, and while it’s quite nice to have so many tiny PC options that offer generally impressive performance in a package that you can stick just about anywhere (often with price tags that make these machines affordable enough as your second PC), system builders need to work harder than ever to differentiate their products. Zotac has decided to take a stab at a radical chassis design with its Zbox OI520 Plus “Sphere”, and indeed, the black orb will make you do a double-take when you see it. It’s small. It’s spherical. It’s certainly different. And it has an icy blue LED light band around its entire...
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The small form factor market has seen a ton of innovation as of late, and while it’s quite nice to have so many tiny PC options that offer generally impressive performance in a package that you can stick just about anywhere (often with price tags that make these machines affordable enough as your second PC), system builders need to work harder than ever to differentiate their products. Zotac has decided to take a stab at a radical chassis design with its Zbox OI520 Plus “Sphere”, and indeed, the black orb will make you do a double-take when you see it. It’s small. It’s spherical. It’s certainly different. And it has an icy blue LED light band around its...
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Zotac is busy on the mini PC front, and the company has a quartet of the little buggers to show off at Computex. The four fanless systems all bear the C-Series moniker and run either AMD A6 APUs or Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 chips. “Many users demand a completely silent PC for audio production, video and audio editing, content playback and other tasks,” said senior director of Zotac International Carsten Berger. “After many years of engineering to fine tune power and heat requirements, ZOTAC is able to deliver passive cooled mini-PCs.” The C-Series ZBOX nano machines have a honeycomb chassis design with a large internal heatsink for maximum heat dissipation. The regular...
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Leave it to Zotac to build a mini-PC designed for gamers. Zotac lives and breathes pint-sized PCs, and thanks to an era where the hardware is generally outpacing the software, Zotac was able to build a pretty impressive gaming system within the popular ZBOX mold. Specifically, Zotac's new ZBOX EN760 comes out swinging with an Intel Core i5 4200U dual-core processor (1.6GHz, 3MB L2 cache) based on Haswell and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M GPU (Maxwell). That's a potent one-two punch for gaming. If you opt for the Plus model, it'll also come with 8GB of DDR3 memory and a 1TB hard drive. Based on our experience with previous ZBOX systems, we'd suggest opting for the non-Plus model and plopping a solid...
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There are lots of SFF PCs floating around these days, but the Zbox Sphere from Zotac is an odd duck among them. Instead of a tall and slim chassis or a tiny square-ish thing like a NUC, this PC is a sphere. (Er, hence the name.) It’s not just a gimmick to hear Zotac tell it, either; in a press release, Zotac actually calls it a “sphere form factor” which would indicate that the company views the Sphere series as a whole new way of making SFF rigs. From a marketing perspective, it’s certainly a wise idea. The sphere shape is distinctive and could help Zotac’s products stand out from NUCs and Brix PCs, and it’s too obvious to try and copy it. (That said, there’s...
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Zotac has a new lineup of mini PCs that alternately rock Intel Core CPUs and AMD A8 APUs, and some of them are aimed at mainstream gamers. The Zotac Zbox E-Series offer Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics with 128GB of EDRAM and Intel Pixel Sync technology and have quad-core Intel Core i7-4770R (3.2GHz) or Intel Core i5-4570R (2.7GHZ), both with Turbo Boost. Zotac ZBOX E-Series The four E-Series models also feature up to 16GB of DDR3-1600 RAM (2 DIMMs) and a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD. The “Plus” configuration offers 8GB of RAM and a 1TB (5400 RPM) HDD via SATA 6Gbps. Ports include two DisplayPort, two DVI-O, a 4-in-1 card reader, dual 10/100/1000 LAN, four USB 3.0, and 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth...
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Desktops are evolving, getting smaller and less intrusive. Zotac is a company that's been at the forefront of this evolution by offering up a constantly expanding line of small form factor (SFF) mini PCs that have grown more powerful with each new generation. The compromise between raw performance and power efficiency lessens with each advance AMD and Intel make to their respective processor technologies. In this vein, Zotac sent us its ZBOX ID89 Plus. This little system hardly takes up any space, yet it packs an Intel Core i5 3470T dual-core processor clocked at 2.9GHz (3.6GHz Turbo), 4GB of DDR3-1600 RAM, half a terabyte of HDD-based storage, and a plethora of complementary parts and features...
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If you're a proponent of the desktop, don't worry, the sky isn't falling on your form factor. Yes, we've read the same reports you have, the ones pointing out how traditional PC sales are shrinking in the wake of a mobile revolution that has consumers turning to tablets and smartphones for surfing the web and logging into Facebook. There's no denying mobile is sexy right now, but when it comes to getting work done and playing games with more depth than Angry Birds, desktops haven't lost their swagger. Desktops are evolving, however, and getting smaller and less intrusive. Zotac is a company that's been at the forefront of this evolution by offering up a constantly-expanding line of small form...
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Zotac has been making ultra-small form factor systems for quite a while now. You can check out a number of our reviews of various ZBox systems and you’ll notice that most of the systems have been built around low-power platforms like AMD’s E-Series APUs or Intel’s Atom processors. With its latest generations of mini-PC’s, however, Zotac has been able to crank things up a few notches. With some recently released ZBoxes, Zotac has managed to squeeze in Intel Core-series processors, which put the diminutive systems into an entirely different performance category. The latest Zotac ZBox to hit the lab is the ZBox Nano ID65 Plus. Despite its relatively tiny 5”-square form...
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Zotac has been making ultra-small form factor systems for quite a while now. You can check out a number of our reviews of various ZBox systems right here. If you read those previous reviews, you’ll notice that most of the systems have been built around low-power platforms like AMD’s E-Series APUs or Intel’s Atom processors. With its latest generations of mini-PC’s, however, Zotac has been able to crank things up a few notches. With some recently released ZBoxes, Zotac has managed to squeeze in Intel Core-series processors, which put the diminutive systems into an entirely different performance category. The latest Zotac ZBox to hit the lab is the ZBox Nano ID65...
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Zotac is starting off its CES 2013 by announcing a pair of new ZBOX mini-PCs, with the 3rd-generation ZBOX (ID42) leading the way and packing revamped specs. “After many years of research and development, ZOTAC is able to integrate desktop components and discrete graphics into our award-winning ZBOX mini-PC for greater flexibility and performance capabilities,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. Upgrades included dual Gigabit Ethernet ports that support teaming, dual external WiFi antennas, and an improved cooling system that boasts triple the ventilation area of the previous generation. It also sports an Intel dual-core processor and an NVIDIA GeForce 610...
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ZOTAC’s ZBOX series is an interesting exercise in mini PC making, and now the company’s ZBOX AD06 is getting a performance upgrade. ZOTAC announced that the AD06 and AD06 Plus will run AMD Radeon HD 7340 graphics and a dual-core AMD E2-1800 (1.7GHz) processor. Other additions include a quartet of high-amperage USB 2.0 ports to facilitate rapid charging of devices such as tablets and smartphones. Users can opt for the barebones ZBOX AD06 or roll with an AD06 Plus that offers 2GB of DDR3 RAM and a 320GB (5400RPM) hard drive. Both versions sport HDMI and DVI, 6-in-1 memory card reader (SD/SDHC/MMC/MS/MS Pro/xD), Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 for wireless connectivity,...
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Over the last couple of years, Zotac has introduced a number of ultra small ZBOX systems that have seemingly gotten smaller and smaller with each new generation. The latest model we’ll be showing you here today, however, is the smallest yet. The new Zotac ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus is an AMD E-series APU based small form factor / HTPC system that fits in the palm of your hand—literally. Despite offering a dual-core processor, integrated DirectX 11 class graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 64GB solid state drive, USB 3.0, a flash card reader, and various other connections, the ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus measures just 4.17” x 4.17” x 1.46”... Zotac ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus Review...
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In addition to building graphics cards, Zotac is one of only a handful companies to fully embrace small form factor and home theater systems. Whether you want to build something yourself from the ground up, quickly assemble a barebones rig, or pick up a fully built HTPC, Zotac has you covered. The company offers a wide array of mini-ITX motherboards based on many modern chipsets (including the just released Z77) and barebones ZBOX systems for the DIY Crowd, along with full SFF systems that need nothing but an OS. Over the last couple of years, Zotac has introduced a number of ultra small ZBOX systems that have seemingly gotten smaller and smaller with each new generation. The latest model...
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In this latest episode of HotHardware's Two and Half Geeks webcast, Marco, Iyaz and Dave discuss Dell's XPS 13 Ultrabook, AMD's brand new Radeon HD 7870 and 7850 graphics cards based on the Pitcairn GPU, Samsung's oversized Galaxy Note Smartphone, Zotac's ZBOX ID80 Plus Cedar Trail-based Mini PC and we drop some hints regarding our next contest in which a lucky reader could win a hot new Android tablet... Show Notes: 01:28 - Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook 06:38 - AMD Radeon HD 7870 and 7850 GPU Previews 11:57 - Samsung Galaxy Note Smartphone Review 17:40 - Zotac ZBOX ID80 Plus Mini PC Review 22:10 - HotHardware Contest Hints...
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Is there any company more invested in the mini PC market than Zotac? Maybe there is and maybe there isn't, but either way, no one would argue that Zotac is one of the busiest bodies in the industry when it comes to Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs destined to find a place in your living room, whether its displayed prominently in your A/V rack or hidden out of sight behind your swank HDTV (or PC monitor, as it were). Adding to an already crowded lineup are three new models Zotac unveiled at CeBIT 2012. Zotac ZBOX ID82 Plus First up is the ZBOX ID82 Series. This is a standard ZBOX system with an Intel Core i3 2330M processor (2.2GHz, dual-core, 3MB cache), Intel HD Graphics 3000, HDMI & DVI-I outputs,...
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Our coverage of the latest technology on display as CES continues today, with some goodies from Zotac. In addition to offering some hot graphics cars, Zotac has also been innovating in the small form factor and mini-ITX motherboard markets, especially over the last couple of years. As such, it should come as no surprise that Zotac had a number of their diminutive ZBOX systems on display, along with a handful of new / upcoming mini-ITX motherboards. Zotac ZBOX Nano ID61 Plus Two new ZBOXes were on display in Zotac’s suite, more specifically, the ZBOX Nano ID82 Plus and the ZBOX ID61 Plus, both of which are based on Intel platforms. The ZBOX Nano ID61 is a Sandy Bridge-based machine...
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The next generation of ZOTAC’s ZBOX mini-PC platform is here in the form of three new models--the ZBOX ID81, ID80 and AD04. New enhancements include an external WiFi antenna and integrated Bluetooth 3.0 for connectivity as well as a Media Remote designed to work with the likes of Windows Media Center. The barebones systems require just memory and hard drives, although some even come with those components on board. You’ll also need an OS, whether that’s Windows 7 or OpenELEC media center OS. ID81 & ID81 mounted on a monitor The ID81 model sports a dual-core, 1.2GHz Sandy Bridge Intel Celeron 857 processor and relies on integrated Intel HD graphics. The standard ID81 has two...
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Zotac is one of a select few companies that have fully embraced the ultra-small form factor and home theater PC markets. Although they’re also known for producing custom, high-end graphics cards, and an array of motherboards, which include a smorgasbord or mini-ITX options, Zotac’s Zbox and Mag lines of mini PCs are quite diverse. A quick jaunt to their website reveals over 30 ultra small form factor designs that leverage technology from Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and even VIA. What’s also interesting about Zotac’s mini-PCs are their extensive feature sets. Zotac seemingly crams as many features into a small space as physically possible. If you need proof, look no further than...
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Zotac is one of a select few companies that have fully embraced the ultra-small form factor and home theater PC markets. Although they’re also known for producing custom, high-end graphics cards, and an array of motherboards, which include a smorgasbord or mini-ITX options, Zotac’s Zbox and Mag lines of mini PCs are quite diverse. A quick jaunt to their website reveals over 30 ultra small form factor designs that leverage technology from Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and even VIA. What’s also interesting about Zotac’s mini-PCs are their extensive feature sets. Zotac seemingly crams as many features into a small space as physically possible. If you need proof, look no further than...
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Zotac's Zbox line has been evolving rather quickly over the past year or so. We've tested a few of them along the way, and they just seem to be getting better and better, and at rapid speed. In fact, we aren't so sure that buying one today is the best idea; by the time tomorrow comes, it'll probably be out of date! Kidding aside, the company has teamed up with VIA to showcase a totally new Zbox at Computex 2011. The Zbox Mini-PC offers up a very compact form factor, VIA's Nano X2 dual-core CPU, and a "palm-sized" chassis that measures 13x13x5cm. This type of machine is obviously ideal for use as a home theater PC, or in cramped spaces where there's no room for a huge tower. The Nano X2 is available...
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