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

The other important aspect for HTPCs is performance with network streaming services such as YouTube and Netflix. The ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus comes with a GbE port, so one should never be found wanting in terms of bandwidth. The bundled support for Wi-Fi serves as a backup if the unit is placed somewhere without wired access. We tested out both YouTube and Netflix with our standard test streams used in previous reviews.

The good news is that GPU acceleration is attempted and enabled in both Silverlight and Adobe Flash. The unfortunate aspect is that there are some CPU intensive parts which result in dropped frames.

With Netflix, we started out with a 3.6 Mbps video / 64 kbps audio stream. However, the plug-in seemed to sense the high CPU load and automatically shifted to lower bitrate streams (as can be seen in the screenshot above). This is despite the fact that GPU acceleration was attempted and enabled!

YouTube is a slightly different story. The CPU load is not that high, but it periodically loads up one of the cores fully. At 100% CPU loading on one of the cores, there were visible dropped frames in the playback.

I had encouraging words for the ZBOX at the end of the previous section, but, with OTT streaming, there is no way to put a positive spin on things. Either the drivers have to step up, or the plug-ins have to be optimized. Either way, the ZBOX can't be recommended right now for streaming high definition videos despite the presence of GPU acceleration.