Zotac ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus: Redefining the Small Form Factor PC
by Ganesh T S on April 11, 2012 5:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- ZOTAC
- Fusion
- HTPC
Before proceeding to the business end of the review, let us take a look at some power consumption numbers. We measured power drawn at the wall when the unit was idle, one hour after subjecting the unit to Prime95 and Furmark simultaneously and when playing back a 1080p24 Blu-ray movie backed up as a MKV with HD audio bistreaming. In all cases, an external powered USB 3.0 hard drive was connected to the unit, and Wi-Fi was active (no wired Ethernet). A wireless keyboard and mouse was also connected to the unit.
In the Prime95 + Furmark test, the CPU temperature reached around 85C after 1 hour of loading. The chassis temperature was around 50C. The fan inside the unit was quite noisy under these circumstances, and was audible from 6 ft. away. However, for a mass market product, if is understandable that Zotac didn't want to go in for a fanless solution. That said, it is quite unlikely that consumers are going to end up stressing the PC that much.
| ZOTAC ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus Power Consumption | |
| Idle | 14.1 W |
| Prime95 + Furmark (Full loading) | 31.4 W |
| 1080p24 MKV Playback using DXVA | 24.4 W |
The Zotac ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus definitely receives recommendations from us for the size and progressive HD video decode performance. The mSATA SSD is a definite step up from the hard drive based HTPCs we have seen so far. It is slightly let down by the weak CPU in the system, but makes up for it in some disk-heavy workloads. There are plenty of bundled peripherals, and the standard MCE remote is a nice add on for HTPC users. The IR receiver extender is a nice touch by Zotac, making sure that the unit's MCE remote is usable at all times, irrespective of the way the PC is mounted. The mini-optical SPDIF connector ensures compatibility with older receivers, and the HDMI output is also able to carry audio (bitstreamed and decoded PCM).
On the other hand, the lackluster online streaming performance and complete lack of pulldown / deinterlacing capabilities is disappointing. The weak CPU is the price one needs to pay for the form factor and the low cost. The noisy fan may be a problem depending on the workload.
There are a number of specific scenarios in which the Zotac ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus comes good. One is unlikely to regret purchasing a unit as long as the drawbacks outlined in this review are well understood.
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dealcorn - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link
The form factor has appeal and will increase sales because it is cute. However, the relevant, missing comparative data point should be Intel's dn2800mt which provides a lower cost, more efficient alternative to the Atom Ion boards of old.markq - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link
This machine is directly comparable to an atom based nettop. Why were the performance numbers not compared to an atom machine? My wife curently has an atom based unit and I would like to be able to determine if this is a suitable replacement for it.Matias - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - link
I had an ID11 before the AD10, and the E350 is way better than the 510+ION for video playback, and CPU is a little faster. There are other reviews that compare them.Spunjji - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - link
Because that would make Brazos look good. ;)msroadkill612 - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link
not my cup of tea - always a big price for such excessive miniaturisationam interested in brazos tho
a review of a brazos mini itx board would be interesting to see what problems go away - the review judges the barazos package based on a sample of one
no mention of memory used - i hear 1600~ ram helps heaps on llanos anyway - cos it is used by the gpu also
not surprised by fan noise in such a small package
in short - we should reserve our judgement & hunt up other brazos reviews
some of the flaws dont sound right - the dropped frames e.g
power numbers v impressive
Idle 14.1 W
Prime95 + Furmark (Full loading) 31.4 W
1080p24 MKV Playback using DXVA 24.4 W
as a thin client on a cloud - a lot for the boss to like - a big cost can be aircon w/ all those hot overpowered PCs pumping heat into the office in summer
imagine 40nm brazos at 32nm (now running smoothly for amd) or 28 nm, (next node for their now 40nm gpuS) tweaked a bit
Tralalak - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - link
W will waiting to ZOTAC ZBOX nano VD-series with VIA QuadCore procesor and all-in-one chipset VIA VX11 MSP with DirectX11 VIA Chrome 645 IGP.R3MF - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - link
i like, i really do, but i will put cash on the table when Zotac show me a model sporting an AMD Trinity Fusion APU...........adityanag - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - link
The pictures are pretty poor (not the internal ones in the gallery, those are OK). It looks like you took them with a phone. I'm not suggesting that you need to get a $5000 camera, but at least something that is in focus?Not trying to be too negative or anything, rather liked the review, and that's why I wish the pictures were better.
adityanag - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - link
I saw another comment that explained why the pictures were poor, so I take it back.. a little... even pictures shot in a hurry should be focused!NerdMan - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Agreed.A 1st rate site should definitely have quality photos, no matter how quickly the review is done!
I loved AnandTech back in its heyday, but it's fast becoming a 2nd rate review site.