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
We reviewed the performance of the Zino 410 from the standpoint of a HTPC, and its capabilities lie in between that of the Core 100 and the Vision 3D from ASRock. Its advantage lies in the fact that it comes with the OS and keyboard/mouse while the Core 100 and Vision 3D do not.
Kudos to Dell for learning the lessons from the Zino 400 and putting it to good use in the Zino 410. That said, there are some areas where Dell can improve with respect to its future offerings in the SFF HTPC space:
- 2.5" hard drives should be used instead of the 3.5" ones for the main storage option
- It would be nice to have a 64 GB boot SSD option in the high end offerings
- Steps must be taken to ensure that installation of the bloatware is minimal / optional (McAfee / Dell DataSafe etc.)
- Most importantly, the discrete GPU in the high end offerings must be made more powerful. Even in the Zino 410 generation, we could have got better HTPC video performance with the Mobility 5650. The extra power consumption of the 5650 could have been easily offset by using a 2.5" drive instead of the 3.5" currently in the system. The thermal design would have needed re-engineering, though.
If money is not a concern with respect to your SFF HTPC purchase, the ASRock Vision 3D still continues to be our SFF HTPC of choice. If you are looking for the best bang for the buck, the highest end Zino 410 is pretty good for a decently powerful HTPC. The good thing is that the Zino 410 comes in a variety of configurations ranging from $300 to $800, a model to fit every budget.
In conclusion, we recommend the Zino 410's highest configuration at its price point, albeit, with some reservations. If the issues outlined aren't of much concern, we are sure you will enjoy your Zino 410.
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69 Comments
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aylafan - Monday, February 21, 2011 - link
Wouldn't the motherboard have to be grounded to the case? I don't think many manufactuers has designed the motherboard to be hanging in the middle of the case. If you flipped the motherboard upside down; it would be practically the same thing, but less efficient. Now, you can put the motherboard on the side of the case, but then it would be a normal size desktop PC and wouldn't be a HTPC anymore. I'm just visualizing this in my head. I could be wrong. Futhermore, they would need to redesign the heatsink with less space they have to work with. We're talking about a compact HTPC here and not one of those no cover, Antec custom cases.Also, I don't see the point of having a hard drive underneath the motherboard because the motherboard would practically cut the HTPC in half; trapping all the heat coming from the hard drive on the bottom half of the HTPC. They could reengineere the entire thermal design, but this would mean starting from scratch again. Like adding a bottom fan to pull out hot air and making holes on the sides of the cases, etc. There are just too many variables to this.
Just my opinion. Don't take it too seriously.
cjs150 - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - link
The reason I ask is that I have a Morena case that works as I have described.Now the Morena case has a number of flaws (cheap plastic being the least of the problems) which with a bit of "apple" design could be seriously improved but it runs 24/7 as my atom server without any problems and you can feel the convection working.
Neither HD or optical drive get that hot - at least not compared to the CPU!
It is not as though you need to cut the case in half because the height of a slim line optical and a 2.5" HD is something like 15mm max - it also allows for better cable management.
It is just I have this nagging feeling that the designs are based on "this is how we have always done it" rather than looking at it logically - or maybe because the designers expected all cases to be placed vertically rather than horizontally
Maybe it is also because I am looking to build an HTPC and keep wanting to put a slow running fan in the top to keep memory and CPU cool - with a case that is barely 100 mm tall
strikeback03 - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - link
Technically you could build something mostly like this with off the shelf components, though it might well be more expensive.http://www.logicsupply.com/products/nf98_lf
ganeshts - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - link
The mobile processors are not cheap at all, and trying to find them on sale at Newegg or one of the top e-tailers is a tall task..vol7ron - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - link
$775 for this? I don't see what HTPCs are more expensive than laptops and desktops.lenkiatleong - Monday, March 7, 2011 - link
Hi Ganesh,1) Thanks for your excellent review on this Dino and ASRock Vision.
2) The points that i missed from your review are:
a) Using BluRay disc, are they able to stream Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master codec from HTPC (Dell/ASRock) to your Onkyo TX-SR606 via HDMI? You should be able to see the codec being display on your Onkyo set.
b) Are they able to stream blu ray and dvd iso files from NAS or HDD?
Regards
Len
ganeshts - Sunday, May 15, 2011 - link
Sorry for the late reply, but the answers to your questions are:1. Yes, but don't expect the bundled PDVD to play nice with your requirements. You are better off investing in a full featured BR software player than what Dell bundles. Otherwise, make a backup of your BR with MakeMKV and play with open source players. Bitstreaming works fully well.
2. Yes, it can easily stream from NAS or external HDDs provided you have the appropriate software players. [ PowerDVD / TMT / WinDVD ]
alexn - Thursday, June 30, 2011 - link
I purchased this unit in January 2011,received in February. For two months I was fighting on my own with:1.Dropping WiFi signal 5 feet away from 802.11 N router;
2.Extremely poor HDMI video.
Then I decided take it to Dell tech support. After many hours wasted on phone they decided to replace motherboard, sent tech to my house, who replaced motherboard and sent back my motherboard with external video card. Neither the person who sent m/b for replacement, nor tech himself did not know, that there is external video card, which went away. No surprises, there was no video after this 'repair". They sent another tech with another m/b, replaced it... no video. Only the third tech with the third m/b asked me, where is you video card??? Afetr long fighting they sent me refurbished system, which is working, but the HDMI output is as awful, as it was, so I connected it via VGA output and sound cable and it works.
By the way, wireless card replacement fixed connectivity problem.
So my moral: Dell's service in India and techs in the USA usually don't know anything, HDMI output in this system is really bad.
myangeldust - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
I used this as a home theater PC and it works great. It records four shows simultaneously via a couple of HDHomeRun external dual tuners. I can even watch a TV show as this is happening with no issues. And thanks to gigabit networking I can listen to music streamed from a media server. It includes PowerDVD integrated with Windows Media Center to play Blu-rays and [upscaled] DVDs.Changing the optical drive from a nonmotorized tray model to a slot-load model. The current tray only extends part way and requires a bit more effort to load/unload than a user would expect. One can easily move the HTPC while doing this and even damage the tray.