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
The ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus is based on a platform meant for an ultra-portable solution. It wouldn't make sense to compare it with full blown desktop solutions (or for that matter, even the mid-range and high end SFF HTPCs we have reviewed over the last two years). In the figures presented in the rest of this section, we will provide the scores obtained by the ZBOX unit and also place other SFF PC scores for comparison purposes (even though the price range of the PCs might not be the same).
Windows Experience Index
It is no secret that the Bobcat cores in the E-450 are the weak links. As expected, the Windows Experience Index pin-points the culprit.
PC Mark and x264 Encoding
We ran two more benchmarks to evaluate the CPU performance. It is not surprising in any way that the AMD E-450 is lagging behind in both of them. Ideally, we should have graphed some other nettops, but we chose machines with already available data points.
WinRAR Benchmarking
An estimate of how well WinRAR performs, particularly with respect to processing split archives, is evaluated next. Towards this, a 4.36 GB MKV file is compressed in the 'Best' compression mode into a split archive (97.1 MB each), which results in 44 files on the hard disk. The time taken to decompress this split archive is then recorded. The performance in this benchmark is heavily influenced by the drive in the system. Ideally, SSD-based systems should be able to easily beat hard disk based ones.
We find that the ZBOX slots somewhere in the middle. Even if the SSD was fast enough, it appears that the CPU is too slow to decompress the archive fast enough to match the speed of the SSD. In the next subsection, we will deal with the mSATA SSD specifically.
Primary Drive Performance
As mentioned earlier, the mSATA SSD in the system is from Kingston. The Kingston SSDNow mS100 has a Phison controller. The table below shows the Iometer test results for the mSATA SSD.
| IOMeter Performance | |
| Test | Transfer Rate (MBps) |
| 4 KB Random Write | 5.87 |
| 4 KB Random Read | 6.29 |
| 128 KB Sequential Read | 211.89 |
| 128 KB Sequential Write | 103.39 |
The suggestion is that writes to the drive be kept to a minimum. The 4K figures are downright abysmal, considering we get more than 50 MBps for most SSDs. It is quite possible that the transfer rates may go down as more writes are done to the flash.
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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.