Zotac ZBOX EI750 Plus: A Feature-Rich Iris Pro mini-PC
by Ganesh T S on August 25, 2014 7:00 AM ESTGaming Benchmarks
The gaming credentials of the Core i7-4770R received a huge marketing boost when the BRIX Pro was distributed as a 'Steam Machine' at the Steam Developers Conference earlier this year. Based on paper specifications alone, the Crystal Well parts should be able to perform much better than any other previous Intel IGP. For the purpose of benchmarking, we chose five different games (Company of Heroes 2, Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and DiRT Showdown) at three different quality levels.
As someone focusing on HTPCs and multimedia aspects, I rarely get to process gaming benchmarks, even while evaluating GPUs. One of the aspects that I feared was spending lot of time in installing the same games again and again on different PCs under the review scanner. The solution was to go the Steam route. Unfortunately, Steam also likes to keep the game files updated. A quick online search revealed that Steam could make use of an external drive for storing the game executables and downloadable content. With the Steam drive on-the-go use-case being read-heavy, the Corsair Flash Voyager GS USB 3.0 128GB Flash Drive (with read speeds of up to 275 MBps) was ideal for use as a portable Steam drive.
Benchmark Numbers
Despite similar clock speeds and memory configurations, the BRIX Pro manages to have a lead over both ZBOX EI750 configurations in our gaming benchmarks.
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Shadowmaster625 - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Scrolls down to price...Eight HUNDRED frickin dollars!?!?!??!?!??!!!!
Keeps scrolling...
SirKnobsworth - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Right? You could build a fairly powerful dGPU system for that much. Not nearly as small but still...Chapbass - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
If the "not nearly as small" is not a big deal to you, then you shouldn't be looking at a system like this in the first place.8steve8 - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
noise?BPB - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
I think the model with the i5 and the nVidia mobile chip is a much better deal.Anonymous Blowhard - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Bingo. The EN760 (i5-4200U + GTX860M) will absolutely massacre this underpowered iGPU rig. And it's still whisper-quiet to boot.Death666Angel - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Dual Core vs Quad Core? If you need the cores, there is no comparison. If you are looking for just a gaming enabled HTPC, the DC is fine.bitburger - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
With 4K Ultra HD on the box, I would expect to see HDMI 2.0 with support for 4K@60fps.SirKnobsworth - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
DisplayPort 1.2 has no trouble outputting that. I'm more wondering why they bothered including an outdated DVI port.icrf - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
It might, but only at 2:0:0 like everything else claiming to be HDMI 2.0 these days.