Zotac ZBox Blu-ray AD03 Plus

Overview

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 8 expert reviews

Excellent:

2
Good:

2
Average:

4
Bad:

0

Pros:

Energy efficient.
Customizable.
Attractive design.

Cons:

Does not include operating system.
Slow application performance.

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Last revision on April 13, 2012

Reviewers Liked

Energy efficient
Customizable
Attractive design
Includes 802,11n Wi-Fi
Blu-ray drive
VESA mount
Dolby TrueHD
DTS-HD Master Audio support
Better 3D performance than ION or any Intel Integrated solution

Reviewers Didn't Like

Does not include operating system
Slow application performance
Small hard drive
Expensive
Balky 1080p HD video playback
Poor application performance
Low 2D scores
Slightly noisier than Zotac's previous Zbox Bluray

Expert reviews and ratings

A cleverly thought-out and well designed system that would make an ideal basis for a home theatre PC, but it could really do with more memory and a better hard drive....

By IT Reviews on June 15, 2011

As long as you don't expect incredible performance in most traditional computing applications (and you're willing to install your own OS), the Zbox AD03BR-PLUS-U fits the bill as an unobstrusive, feature-rich home theater PC....

By PC Mag on June 08, 2011

Brazos doesn’t revolutionise the nettop, but this is undoubtedly a stylish and well-rounded little system...

By PC Pro on March 29, 2011

We think the ZOTAC ZBOX is a very good attempt at building a low-power HTPC solution that you can buy off the shelf. Anyone assembling an HTPC will tell you that finding a board, a compatible chassis and getting them for as cheap as you'd like...

By Tech2 on March 29, 2011

An excellent system build and easily accessed for memory or hard drive...

By Kitguru.net on March 11, 2011

Home-theater PCs don't get much smaller than this AMD Fusion-based ZBox, though its diminutive size means paying a premium price and making more than a few sacrifices....

By Computer Shopper on February 01, 2011

We looked at the Intel Atom/NVIDIA ION based Zbox Blu-Ray a couple of months back and really liked its form factor and performance as an HTPC. Today, we look at Zotac’s latest model- the Zbox Blu-ray AD03 which looks identical to the Atom based...

By Tbreak.com on January 23, 2011

We're testing four nettops: Arctic Cooling’s MC001-BD, ASRock’s CoreHT 252B, Giada’s i50, and Zotac’s Zbox AD03BR-PLUS. All of these tiny, quiet systems take a very different approach to compact computing, and we fill you in on what makes them...

By Tom's Hardware UK on October 10, 2011

Promising the GPU prowess of ION with Atom-like power consumption, AMD’s Fusion E-series (Brazos) Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) finally enables truly minuscule small form factor (SFF) home theater PCs (HTPCs). Besides full hardware...

By AnandTech on June 09, 2011

All things considered, in light of some other competing low-power platforms, the Zotac ZBox Blu-Ray AD03 Plus and Gigabyte E350N-USB3 performed very well. In terms of CPU and overall system performance, the AMD E-350 APU-based Zotac and Gigabyte...

By HotHardware on February 16, 2011

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