This Just In: Zotac's ZBOX HD-ID11 Next Gen ION

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by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/30/2010 11:26:00 AM
Posted in This Just In , GPUs , ZOTAC , nvidia , Next Generation ION

Two months ago NVIDIA unveiled its next-generation ION GPU. Sporting either 8 or 16 SPs (or CUDA cores if you bleed green), the next-generation ION is strictly a GPU while its predecessor was a chipset with integrated graphics. Designed to be paired with Intel's Pine Trail Atom platform, we should start seeing some next-gen ION machines pop up over the coming months. As we understand it, drivers aren't final and products aren't ready for retail sale but imagine our surprise when we found this on our doorstep this morning:

That's Zotac's HD-ID11-U, a nettop based on the dual-core Atom D510 and NVIDIA's 16 core next-gen ION with 512MB DDR3 frame buffer. The system shipped entirely barebones so we'll be suiting it up and running whatever preliminary tests we can on it over the weekend. As I mentioned earlier, drivers aren't final so don't expect a full rundown anytime soon.

The system sports 6 USB ports, HDMI & DVI out, eSATA, Ethernet, optical audio out, headphone/mic jacks and a SD card reader. Internally you've got one 2.5" bay for a SATA HDD (or SSD) and a single SO-DIMM slot for DDR2.

If you want a closer look at the system head over to our pics in the Gallery.

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BD-ROM by Spivonious on Friday, April 30, 2010

Throw in a BD-ROM and I'm sold. It's probably half the size of my current HTPC and much quieter.

Spivonious

RE: BD-ROM by mindless1 on Friday, April 30, 2010

How can you assume it is much quieter? Given the small fan this box uses I could easily make something equivalent that is much quieter simply by going with a larger lower RPM fan... no exotic or expensive parts but yeah it'd be larger unless the fan intake was ported to the side panel instead of drawing in air from all over the passive vent holes.

mindless1

RE: RE: BD-ROM by Spivonious on Friday, April 30, 2010

Who says there's a fan inside?

Spivonious

RE: RE: RE: BD-ROM by Spivonious on Friday, April 30, 2010

Nevermind, just realized there was a link to more photos. I thought Pinetrail could be passively cooled.

Spivonious

Protected Audio Path? by n0b0dykn0ws on Friday, April 30, 2010

Does it have a PAP solution though?

That's the only reason I would not consider it for a media player solution.

n0b0dykn0ws

n0b0dykn0ws

RE: BD by JDub8 on Friday, April 30, 2010

I prefer my HTPC solutions to have enough processing power in the CPU to handle all HD playback. Plus about 25% free. People go nuts over GPU's that can accelerate video playback but don't realize how it locks you into programs that support it. Sure maybe it works with windows media player, or windows media center's playback. But what about the linux crowd? What about the guy who loves an older version of power dvd etc?

Hey knowbody - its urmumsacow - I won't stand for content protection systems, I'd probably use a program like slysofts anyHDdvd to strip the protection. Then again I don't know if that exists for BD yet.

JDub8

RE: RE: BD by sprockkets on Friday, April 30, 2010

VDPAU works well for Linux and nVidia based stuff. Except of course for lousy flash.

sprockkets

RE: RE: RE: BD by j5 on Friday, April 30, 2010

Yeah, boxee with VDPAU (I believe any XBMC based system supports it), is a very nice HTPC solution for linux, I've heard that the last gen of these runs MythTV setups nicely as well. I'm looking at getting one of these to stream HD to my TV, and I'm very excited to upgrade my old Dell which will barely play 576p.

RE: RE: BD by n0b0dykn0ws on Friday, April 30, 2010

I don't want the down-sampled audio though.

Total Media Theatre (my preferred playback solution) will only bitstream the DD TrueHD and DTS HD MA if it's a supported device.

I do have AnyDVD HD installed on my HTPC.

n0b0dykn0ws

n0b0dykn0ws

Dimensions by Aikouka on Friday, April 30, 2010

This looks like a nifty and small solution... could be a contender to replace my C2D behemoth system in my living room! But along those lines... Anand, is it possible to get the dimensions on the unit or do we have to wait for the review? ;)