Zotac ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus: Redefining the Small Form Factor PC

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.

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.