If you were looking for an out of the box HTPC solution, then systems like the Dell Zino, Asus Eee Box or the ZOTAC ZBOX were some of the options that would come to your mind. However, ZOTAC has now taken the ZBOX to the next evolutionary level and fitted it with a BluRay drive and bumped up the internal specifications. The ZBOX AD03BR Plus sports an all new design compared to the other ZBOXs and is powered by AMD's new Fusion APU, the Zacate based E-350 which has is a dual core CPU supporting DDR3 memory and an onboard Radeon HD 6310 graphics card with full support for UVD 3 technology. ZOTAC will be selling two versions of the ZBOX BluRay Plus, a barebones system without any hard drive and memory and one fully equipped. Let's see how this fares and if it makes a better buy compared to the Dell Zino HD.
Bundle
Bundle
- Instruction manual
- Driver CD
- VESA mounting bracket
- Power adapter
- DVI-to-VGA adapter
- Cyberlink PowerDVD
Build and Design
The ZBOX Plus is about the size of a 12-inch netbook so it's a bit longer than the standard ZBOX and you can only use it horizontally unless you VESA mount it. The aluminum and black finish look good and give it a refined feel. The build quality is solid, a marked improvement over the ZBOX and MAG which always felt a bit flimsy and rushed. The blue circle lights up when powered on only.
Here, we have the BluRay/DVD combo drive, card reader, USB 2.0 and a 3.0 port, microphone and headphone jack and a power button.
At the back, we have another USB 3.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet port, ESATA/USB port, DVI-I, HDMI, SPDIF-out and finally the power connector.
Flipping the ZBOX over, we can see plenty of ventilation holes. The unit is propped up by four rubber feet.
Unscrewing the six screws at the bottom reveals the hard drive and RAM which can be very easily replaced. The ZBOX Plus comes with a 250GB 2.5-inch hard drive and 2GB DDR3 RAM. There is another free RAM slot available for you to add more, the ZBOX supports up to 8GB.
The ZBOX Plus is about the size of a 12-inch netbook so it's a bit longer than the standard ZBOX and you can only use it horizontally unless you VESA mount it. The aluminum and black finish look good and give it a refined feel. The build quality is solid, a marked improvement over the ZBOX and MAG which always felt a bit flimsy and rushed. The blue circle lights up when powered on only.
Here, we have the BluRay/DVD combo drive, card reader, USB 2.0 and a 3.0 port, microphone and headphone jack and a power button.
At the back, we have another USB 3.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet port, ESATA/USB port, DVI-I, HDMI, SPDIF-out and finally the power connector.
Flipping the ZBOX over, we can see plenty of ventilation holes. The unit is propped up by four rubber feet.
Unscrewing the six screws at the bottom reveals the hard drive and RAM which can be very easily replaced. The ZBOX Plus comes with a 250GB 2.5-inch hard drive and 2GB DDR3 RAM. There is another free RAM slot available for you to add more, the ZBOX supports up to 8GB.
Performance
Nvidia's ION2 still manages a slightly better performance in multimedia like games and other graphic related applications. Still, AMD's Zacate puts up a good fight throughout which is commendable.
General and Multimedia Usage
Since the ZBOX Plus doesn't come with any OS we installed Windows 7 Ultimate to run all our tests. With 2GB RAM, the E-350 APU handles Windows comfortably with applications opening up with little lag. For a better performance, you could try installing any Linux distro like Ubuntu Remix.
For the multimedia tests, we installed XBMC and played a couple 1080p videos to see how well the Zacate offloads the processing work onto the GPU. The CPU usage averaged at 25 percent and increased or decreased depending on the scene. The same movies when played through WMP showed a CPU usage of 70-80 percent on average with slight stutter. With original BluRays, the CPU usage shoots up a bit due to the additional bandwidth required to play them but Cybrelink's software also has a Hardware Acceleration feature so there's no issue. Another way to increase the playback speed of BluRays is to install AnyDVD HD which bypasses the Region and Certificate checking process. We even tried some light gaming like the latest Painkiller: Redemption which still uses the older engine. At full HD resolution and all the settings cranked up to high, we managed to get playable frame rates. It does dip a bit here and there but overall, it wasn't too bad.
Power Consumption
The power is controlled by the adapter so idle at the desktop, we got a reading of 15W and while playing a 1080p movie via XBMC, the power rose to 20W but didn't go beyond that.
Nvidia's ION2 still manages a slightly better performance in multimedia like games and other graphic related applications. Still, AMD's Zacate puts up a good fight throughout which is commendable.
General and Multimedia Usage
Since the ZBOX Plus doesn't come with any OS we installed Windows 7 Ultimate to run all our tests. With 2GB RAM, the E-350 APU handles Windows comfortably with applications opening up with little lag. For a better performance, you could try installing any Linux distro like Ubuntu Remix.
For the multimedia tests, we installed XBMC and played a couple 1080p videos to see how well the Zacate offloads the processing work onto the GPU. The CPU usage averaged at 25 percent and increased or decreased depending on the scene. The same movies when played through WMP showed a CPU usage of 70-80 percent on average with slight stutter. With original BluRays, the CPU usage shoots up a bit due to the additional bandwidth required to play them but Cybrelink's software also has a Hardware Acceleration feature so there's no issue. Another way to increase the playback speed of BluRays is to install AnyDVD HD which bypasses the Region and Certificate checking process. We even tried some light gaming like the latest Painkiller: Redemption which still uses the older engine. At full HD resolution and all the settings cranked up to high, we managed to get playable frame rates. It does dip a bit here and there but overall, it wasn't too bad.
Power Consumption
The power is controlled by the adapter so idle at the desktop, we got a reading of 15W and while playing a 1080p movie via XBMC, the power rose to 20W but didn't go beyond that.
Pricing and Verdict
ZOTAC has priced the ZBOX AD03BR Plus at Rs. 26,999 with a 1 year warranty. This model comes with a 2GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive. In case you want a barebones then there is the AD03 BR which retails for Rs. 21,999. This is quite a good pricing for the compact design and features ZOTAC is offering. But we still say the price needs to drop for it to be a good buy and here's why. Dell has refreshed it's Zino HD mini-PC and now, for approximately Rs. 24,500 (including taxes and delivery charges) you get a Phenom II X3 P860 CPU, 2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, Win 7 Home Basic and a Radeon HD 5450 along with other features like WiFi 'n' , IR Remote for MCE or XBMC, HDMI, card reader,etc. The things missing from the Dell is the BluRay drive, power consumption would be a bit high, USB 3.0 and the compact design. Overall, you are getting a lot more with the Dell for the same (or possibly lesser) price and if you don't own any BluRays or don't intend on buying them then the Dell seems like a better choice.
It's not like we are saying the ZBOX is bad, it's just that at that same price, the Dell is the smarter choice. If ZOTAC can some how drop the price of the ZBOX BluRay Plus to under 20K, then it would certainly make a good buy. The choice is ultimately up to you, do you want a tiny BluRay capable HTPC that can fit behind your monitor or a more potent system that's ready to use out of the box?
ZOTAC has priced the ZBOX AD03BR Plus at Rs. 26,999 with a 1 year warranty. This model comes with a 2GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive. In case you want a barebones then there is the AD03 BR which retails for Rs. 21,999. This is quite a good pricing for the compact design and features ZOTAC is offering. But we still say the price needs to drop for it to be a good buy and here's why. Dell has refreshed it's Zino HD mini-PC and now, for approximately Rs. 24,500 (including taxes and delivery charges) you get a Phenom II X3 P860 CPU, 2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, Win 7 Home Basic and a Radeon HD 5450 along with other features like WiFi 'n' , IR Remote for MCE or XBMC, HDMI, card reader,etc. The things missing from the Dell is the BluRay drive, power consumption would be a bit high, USB 3.0 and the compact design. Overall, you are getting a lot more with the Dell for the same (or possibly lesser) price and if you don't own any BluRays or don't intend on buying them then the Dell seems like a better choice.
It's not like we are saying the ZBOX is bad, it's just that at that same price, the Dell is the smarter choice. If ZOTAC can some how drop the price of the ZBOX BluRay Plus to under 20K, then it would certainly make a good buy. The choice is ultimately up to you, do you want a tiny BluRay capable HTPC that can fit behind your monitor or a more potent system that's ready to use out of the box?
Specifications
0 comments:
Post a Comment