Dell Zino HD 410 HTPC Review
by Ganesh T S on February 19, 2011 7:08 AM EST- Posted in
- HTPC
- Dell
- AMD
- Media Streamer
- ATI
Unlike the ASRock Core 100 / Vision 3D, the Zino 410 HD ships with a wireless keyboard and mouse. The packaging is, therefore, appropriately bigger. Apart from the main Zino 410 unit, the package also contains:
- 90W AC / DC Adapter
- Wireless keyboard and mouse with batteries
- USB RF receiver for the wireless keyboard / mouse
- Media Center remote
- Black lid (to replace the silver lid present on top of the unit by default)
- Support CD and warranty information booklet
Of all the SFF HTPCs I have seen, the Dell Zino 410 HD HTPC has the best industrial design. The contours are quite pleasing and the unit blends in quite nicely with the rest of the AV equipment.
The front panel is taken up by a tray loading Blu-Ray drive on top and a headphone jack, couple of USB 2.0 ports, SD card reader and the IR receiver at the bottom. The power switch is on the top panel.
The left half of the rear panel is taken up by the cooling fan. A press switch to displace the lid is provided at the top and a hard drive activity light is at the bottom. Other ports on the rear panel include 2 eSATA, 1 HDMI 1.3a, 1 VGA, 1 Gigabit Ethernet jack, 2 USB 2.0, a mic/headphone jack, optical SPDIF and the power adaptor connector.
The Zino 410 HD is raised with rubber bushes, and also has ventilation slots on all four sides, as can be seen in the picture above.
Just like a notebook, this unit also supports simultaneous display on two monitors. Testing was done mostly with the HDMI output connected to a Toshiba REGZA 37" 1080p TV through an Onkyo TX-SR 606. For non-media playing related testing, the VGA port was connected to an Acer H243H 1080p monitor.
Our review unit shipped with Windows 7 x64 Home Premium and a OEM version of Cyberlink PowerDVD for Blu-Ray playback.
We will conclude this section with a table to summarize the data and A/V connectivity options for the Zino 410 HD HTPC.
| Option | Status |
|---|---|
| HDMI | Yes [v1.3] |
| Component | No |
| Composite | No |
| VGA | Yes |
| SPDIF | Yes [Optical] |
| Stereo | Yes |
| Option | Status |
|---|---|
| Optical Disk Drive | Yes [Blu-Ray / DVD-RW] |
| USB | Yes [4 x v2.0] |
| eSATA | Yes [2x] |
| LAN | Yes [ 1000 Mbps GbE ] |
| Internal HDD | Yes [ 750 GB ] |
| WiFi | Yes [ 300 Mbps 802.11n ] |
| Card Reader | Yes |
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plewis00 - Saturday, February 19, 2011 - link
I agree with you and was about to post this myself.If someone really wants a 2.5" hard disk why can't they use an adapter and remove the existing 3.5" unit. I bought a 2TB hard disk the other day for £60 (I'm in the UK), but that same amount of money would buy you a 500 or 640GB 2.5" model so I know what I'd rather have.
I'd actually say rather than a complaint, Dell should actually be praised for fitting a 3.5" drive in there.
JNo - Saturday, February 19, 2011 - link
Absolutely agree. I think you're analysis that 2.5" would be better is disappointing Ganesh. And I highly doubt that an SSD boot drive option would be beneficial to many people. This is an HTPC after all and affordability is key for what is a secondary PC.I have an Xtreamer (google it) and it cost only £99 and plays every hi def file(s) I've chucked at it including mkv, ts, blu-ray file structures and much more and supports hi def sound outputting as well. It is fanless too. In fact unless you want PVR functionality / internet too, it makes more expensive HTPCs redundant.
Only disappointment is that it only fits a 2.5" drive and the largest (at the time) 500Gb drive I put in was as much as a 1.5TB drive eco/green drive. And the new 3.5" eco/green drives are just as quiet as their 2.5" brethren. I think most people savvy enough to know they need an HTPC tend to have very large music / video collections so size is a big deal.
ganeshts - Sunday, February 20, 2011 - link
The Caviar Black 750 GB is specified to have a power consumption at full load of 8.4W [ http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2879-701276.pdf ].The Scorpio Black 750 GB (2.5", 7200rpm) is specified to have a power consumption of 1.75W when active [ http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=13... ]
My belief is that the extra ~7W could have been devoted to a better discrete GPU rather than having a 3.5" hard drive.
Our well reviewed ASRock Vision 3D and Core 100 both have 2.5" hard drives, and I have hardly seen any reader / reviewers on other sites complain.
Also, people savvy enough to think they need a HTPC also have an external storage solution (storage array or NAS), and the hard disk on the HTPC is just a temporary 'staging' ground.
I still stand by my suggestion to Dell to move to a 2.5" hard drive for the next generation Zino.
Zoomer - Wednesday, March 2, 2011 - link
I agree with taltamir on this. There is simply no reason to use 2.5" drives when there is space for 3.5". Some may buy this and use local storage. Even if they don't it's still cheaper to put a 3.5" in.Noise, most if not all HDDs can be set to reduce noise. Acoustic Managemet or something like that.
The 2TB WD caviar green only requires 4.5 W when reading/writing. That's just 2.75 W, and barely worth considering.
Maybe you can push dell to give people a choice. WD Green, Caviar black, or the 2.5" black. Why not the momentus XT?
JWade - Saturday, February 19, 2011 - link
I got the 410 to upgrade from the 400hd, i like it alot better. i got the dual core one not the quad core. it does everything i need it to and then some.I cant hear it make any noise at all, even when playing games with it. I use it with my 42" tv.
something of note, Dell did make an atom version of the Zino too.
ganeshts - Sunday, February 20, 2011 - link
Yes, I remember the Atom Zino.. But it wasn't called the Zino HD. Thanfully they moved away from the anaemic Atom for their first Zino HD.The first Zino HD was the Zino 400 and this is the second generation.
Glad to hear you like the Zino 410. It is a pretty good system for the price, and depending on your usage scenario you probably won't even notice the shortcomings!
Bignate603 - Saturday, February 19, 2011 - link
I see a huge amount of HTPCs without the option for a TV tuner. For something that claims to be a HTPC it seems like a pretty blatant omission. It should at least be an upgrade you could order with it.Taft12 - Saturday, February 19, 2011 - link
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82...hvakrg - Sunday, February 20, 2011 - link
Well, if you use a good HTPC program like Mediaportal you don't need tuner in all your HTPCs, all you need is a TVserver. That can then feed TV to all your HTPC clients around the house. It's a great way to do it because you won't have to pull coax to all your rooms.myangeldust - Saturday, September 10, 2011 - link
HDHomeRun dual tuners. Placed near your TV antenna or in your coaxial closet and connected to your home network. Any TV in the house could become an HTPC by simply installing the tuner's device driver. Fully compatible with Windows Media Center.