Zotac ships palm-sized Zbox Nano XS AD11 with Brazos, SSD

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Zotac has announced an updated mini-PC that further shrinks last year's Zbox Nano AD10 while packing slightly more horsepower. The new Zbox Nano XS AD11 measures a diminutive 4.17 x 4.17 x 1.46in (down from 5 x 5 x 1.7in), but finds room to accommodate a dual-core AMD E-450 APU (with an integrated Radeon HD 6320 graphics core), 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 64GB mSATA SSD and tons of connectivity.

 

The front panel is outfitted with a 6-in-1 card reader, a USB 2.0/eSATA combo port, as well as a combo analog and optical audio output and mic jack. The back is populated with a power jack, an HDMI port, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and gigabit Ethernet. A USB 2.0 Wi-Fi adapter is included, as is a USB IR receiver, MCE-compatible remote and a VESA 75/100 mount to conceal the system behind your display.

The Zbox Nano XS AD11 should hit shelves shortly for approximately $360, a $60 premium over the slightly larger AD10 Plus, which has an E-350 APU and a 320GB 5400RPM hard drive (the AD11's SSD offers a solid performance boost based on benches circulating online). As usual, Zotac ships the machine without an operating system, so you'll want to factor in the cost of a Windows license unless you plan to run Linux.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/48149-zotac-ships-palm-sized-zbox-nano-xs-ad11-with-brazos-ssd.html

 

[Guest]

"The Zbox Nano XS AD11 should hit shelves shortly for approximately $360,..."

Do you know what happen to my face when I reach that?

 

[LNCPapa]

Do want! Do want! I'm gonna scoop one of these up as soon as they show up on Newegg.

 

[oldikes]

can make one for like 300...

 

[tonylukac]

No os and $360? My brother just bought a new hp laptop for $300.

 

[Timonius]

tonylukac said:
No os and $360? My brother just bought a new hp laptop for $300.

Just put Linux on it. It`s free and does pretty much everything any other $300ish computer can do. done.

 

[abysal]

That's too expensive. I'll go with raspberry pi instead for ultra tiny form factor.

 

[Guest]

Can get laptops cheaper than that now, much more powerful.

Better off with the RaspberryPi

 

[TadMSTR]

I bought the ZBOX HD-AD02 about a year ago and it has been great as a HTPC. I just picked up the ZBOX Nano AD10 from Newegg on sale. A day later this starts making its way around the tech sites. I'll probably pick one up eventually.

While the Raspberry Pi makes for a great HTPC, its more of an appliance. The ZBOX series is a fully capable computer. Spec wise, its also much more powerful. I'll still be picking up a Raspberry Pi once ordering is open again though.

For those comparing this to a laptop you need to consider the AMD E-450 SoC. I bought an HP netbook with a E-450 and after the holiday discount and a promo code it cost ~$400. The cheapest laptop I see listed on Newegg running an E-450 is going for $350. Also consider the form factor. This is much smaller than a laptop or netbook.

 

[Jesse]

I agree with TadMSTR. Why would you even compare this to a laptop, though?

What $300 laptop has an SSD and an e-450? Also consider the size, connectivity (gbit ethernet, usb3) and convenience (VESA, IR remote).

 

[LNCPapa]

You can't please everyone. This device meets all the needs I have for an HTPC (SSD in case I ever have to reboot it will feel like an applicance, HDMI, Toslink, Gb networking, IR, a video solution that provides perfect playback of video, and a very small formfactor) and the added elegance of packaging is a bonus. To get something like this built will cost me at least $300 in parts so I'd be willing to pay a little more for a more polished and manufactured feel.

 

[LNCPapa]

This page: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5738/...11-plus-redefining-the-small-form-factor-pc/4
about it's media playback performance made me cry a little bit. I am now on the fence about this device.

 

[Guest]

I bought this device. I'm currently tooling abut with using it for XBMC in Ubuntu (I'll probably give OpenElec a try at some point). So, all my points are for this device in context as an HTPC, and in particular working with XBMC, mostly in Linux.
This thing can indeed play all the way up to 1080p video from blu-ray ISO perfectly smooth, so long as you do a little work to make sure its using 3D acceleration. In Linux it supports non-TrueHD surround sound from the HDMI. Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master audio aren't working yet in Linux, due to a driver issue they're working out with ATI/AMD.
They work in Windows, but in Windows I've found it doesn't boot to XBMC nearly as cleanly. Also you have to load drivers for USB3 (which Linux can use out of the box), and samba fileshare browsing speeds on Windows 7 were abysmal, compared to nfs on Linux.

The remote works in Windows once you load the drivers from it (which yes, you have to load the driver installs from CD or elsewhere to a USB for Windows, unless you have a USB CD drive).
I'm working out how to get it to work in Linux.