The Zotac ZBOX CI660 nano Fanless mini-PC Review: A Promising HTPC Platform

Closing Thoughts

The Zotac ZBOX CI660 nano proved to be an interesting system to review for a multitude of reasons. Zotac has traditionally presented affordable options to consumers in search of fanless PCs, and at roughly $700, the CI660 nano PLUS follows in those footsteps with a reasonable affordable price tag (in relative terms, obviously, when compared to other fanless PCs with similar performance potential).

However, it does have its share of issues: While the system contains no moving parts, a dull whine can be heard if you were to keep your ears close to the top of the system. In addition, occasional noises similar to the grating of fingernails over the fins of the heat sink could be heard. All said, though Zotac can claim that the system is fanless and passively-cooled, it is not an entirely noiseless system. The other issue is that of HDR support when using the HDMI display output port. Zotac claims that it works in their R&D labs, while we were unable to get it working properly with two different display sinks. Finally, the idle power consumption with the default BIOS configuration is a bit too high for our liking.

The three complaints aside, the ZBOX CI660 nano is actually an impressive system in terms of performance. The 4C/8T Core i7-8550U processor and 25W TDP configuration allow it to ace real-world benchmarks such as BAPCo's SYSmark 2018 and UL Futuremark's PCMark 10. The numbers are noteworthy, particularly when stacked against those obtained from actively-cooled systems with a similar form-factor.

Meanwhile high-speed I/O is also a high-point for the CI660, with Zotac giving the system a good amount of bandwidth to work with thanks to the availability of two USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C ports based on the new ASMedia ASM2142 bridge chip (we saw it deliver excellent performance in the Hades Canyon NUC). Dual gigabit Ethernet ports (based on Realtek controllers) open up some interesting applications, even though we believe Intel controllers would be more attractive in that particular segment. The new industrial design is also good, but, a little more metal in place of some of the plastic components wouldn't hurt.

As for buyers interested in taking the CI660 nano in to the tradiitonal SFF PC domain of the living room HTPC, the media playback credentials are more than good enough for the average HTPC user. The HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2 port enables UHD Blu-ray playback after connecting a USB UHD Blu-ray drive to the system. Kodi and its add-ons have plenty of processing power at their disposal in the ZBOX CI660 nano.

At $700 for the PLUS configuration, the Zotac ZBOX CI660 nano is on the affordable side of the spectrum for fanless systems. The platform is promising, and the board area will allow Zotac to innovate further in the future. Thunderbolt 3 ports and a more powerful Wi-Fi solution for the flagship configuration are probably some of the low-hanging fruits in future iterations.