Zotac ZBOX Blu-ray Series ZBOXHD-ID33BR-U Intel NM10 2 x 200Pin SODIMM Next-generation NVIDIA ION graphics Mini / Booksize Barebone System

Pros: Price was good Got it for 209 with 30$ mail in and a free 64gb SSD

Size is good mounted it to the back of my TV so its hidden and runs cool and quite. System was not plastic like others have stated.

Cons: Flash playback is choppy because the ION is not taking the Offload for some sites Youtube is fine Hulu is no ABC is not so lucky for me I don't care so much about that Sliver light / Netflix seems ok at times I can see a stutter but its rare...

Other Thoughts: I am going to disable Hyper threading and see if that helps with any thing.

Pros: Don't know haven't turned one on yet

Cons: Badly made. There was one or two other reviews that mentioned problems with the brackets the screws go into to hold the backplate on. I thought it probably wasn't a big deal.

I was wrong.

1st unit that showed up 3/6 of the plastic brackets that hold the nuts the screws go into were broken. I RMAed it. The replacement was worse.

On the second one 2 of them were broken off entirely and the bits were missing. Meaning they broke before the cover was put on and they packed up the unit and sold it anyway. 2 more of them are very cracked and about to give way.

I've purchased Zotac stuff before and didn't have complaints but two in a row is unacceptable, I won't buy from them again.

Pros: good form factor, almost everything as HTPC, no IR receiver

Cons: HDMI video not working for first unit; need RMA to replace unit. HDMI video for second unit worked for 2 days which allowed me to install Windows 7 64-bit, 4GB RAM and 60GB SSD. After that HDMI failed again, cannot POST using HDMI. I switched to DVI video output, everything works fine; probably need RMA with Zotac.

Pros: nice quiet little machine, runs ubuntu well, zotac sent the rebate in less than a week.

Cons: none so far

Pros: Great form factor and good performance. I have this hooked up to a 46" HDTV and it works very well. It's silent and is running XBMC and Ubuntu 11.10 without a hitch.

Cons: Poor quality case. I removed the back to install the memory and hard drive, when I reinstalled the back only 5/6 screws were holding fast. I removed the back to find one of the plastic tabs that accept the screws was broken off. I reinstalled the back and only 3/6 screws are holding. It cannot be wall mounted because the back of the unit is what attaches to the bracket. RMA or live with it... probably live with it but still annoying.

Other Thoughts: Other than the case, no real issues. Got this on sale with gift card and a rebate.

Pros: Price - $149 after rebate
Works well with XBMC on OpenElec.
Boot time into XBMC is 35 seconds, much faster than my Windows or Ubuntu builds of XBMC.

Cons: Slow wired and wireless speeds. Wireless is slower than G and wired speeds do not even approach older 100Mb cards.
Uses DDR2 instead of DDR3 so the memory is more expensive.
Build quality is questionable... one of the screws for the drive bracket was not machined properly and it took .5 hours to remove the screw.
Will not work with 12.5mm drives.
Does not include IR.
No bluetooth.

Other Thoughts: This machine is working great as an HTPC with XBMC and OpenElec/nightly Eden builds. Menu response is quick and it has handled every 720p and 1080p video I have thrown at it.

If you are looking for a simple HTPC this is a good buy if you do not depend on the included wireless. If wired/wireless was not so anemic, I would give this 5 eggs at the $149 price.

Pros: See previous review

Cons: eSATA port is malfunctioning and ZOTAC are not responding to any call for assistance. Knocked off an egg for the failed port and an egg for the lack of response.

Other Thoughts: I searched online for a solution to this issue and it turns out that I'm not alone. Seem to be a common problem. Come on ZOTAC, step up and stand by your product.

Pros: Small, light, quiet. Picked this up on a whim and am quite pleased with it so far. Have it hooked up via HDMI to a 27" ASUS monitor and all is well.

Cons: Knew this going in but would have liked a few more USB 2.0 ports. Also contacted ZOTAC support to inquire about an SSD in the miniPCIe slot and received no feedback.

Other Thoughts: Using this with 4gb ram, 160 WD blue hdd, WinTV-DCR-2650 tuner, and a Lenovo mini mutimedia remote. These all work well together. I haven't yet tried a blu-ray disk. Initial play back of flash was choppy but updates to all software and hardware seems to have solved this.

Pros: Looks, size. The Blu ray and wireless built-in would be nice if they worked.

Cons: This is a computer that I was building for a client. So it is a time sensitive build.

I put 4 GB of RAM in it and immediately it won't post. So I take one stick out and it posts fine. This doesn't comply with my client's specifications so it's no good to me.

Even though it has an Atom processor of 1.8 Ghz and the Ion graphics, it's far slower than my other builds using the Atom at 1.6 Ghz and an integrated video card.

The built in wireless card is extremely weak, additionally, I couldn't get any of my external wireless cards to work consistently in any of the USB ports.

The over all build quality is very poor.

Other Thoughts: I think Zotac's downfall is attaching everything to the motherboard via USB 2.0 headers. I know for a fact that the blu ray drive is. I believe this because all of the USB devices I attach to it are spacey and don't work well.

It's also possible that this setup is under powered, but with a 90 watt power supply, I don't know how such a light machine could be under powered.

For the money, it's a much better idea to get something from a reputable brand. You would not have the Blu ray but at least you would have everything else.

Pros: None - dead.
Bought because I really liked the form factor, and was willing to pay a bit more for the nettop with incorporated blu-ray, usb3, wireless-N (even if it's not "real" N). Definitely thought it had a lot of potential...

Cons: -Bricked after 1 week
-Was stupid and submitted the rebate immediately after it was up & running, so couldn't return to newegg.
- RMA process with Zotac has been a nightmare. They only issue replacements (normal, I guess), except that I didn't want another one.
- Oh yeah, and the one they sent me came poorly packaged, in the wrong box, with ONLY THE PC - no power cord, documentation, support & driver CD... nothing. Awesome.

Other Thoughts: Got this and installed a Kingston SSD along with the ram and was ready to go. It operated for about a week until I noticed it getting extremely hot, and shut it down. It would not post, and I tried removing all hardware, separately connected the SSD to my other PC to reformat... did it all, but the thing was bricked.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Ian,
I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with one of our products. We work hard to ensure customer satisfaction; if you are unsatisfied, you may review the number of web services available to you in the accompanying link. You may contact the RMA department directly by submitting a support ticket. Thank you, and once again I am sorry for the inconvenience.

External Link(s):

ZOTAC Web Services|