Zotac ZBOXNANO-AD10-U AMD A50M (Hudson M1) 1 x 204Pin AMD Radeon HD 6310 Mini / Booksize Barebone System

Pros: Nice size/performance ratio. Hooked up to 46" sony and a 3T drive, 4 gigs mem, 64 gig ssd, Win 7 pro. It works.

Cons: HDMI sound issue seems to be more of win 7 problem than a Zotac issue. I have a stereo on this set up anyway, just plugged in thru the audio jack. Works fine.

Other Thoughts: Load your OS first and then LOAD YOUR DRIVERS. Those of you complaining about the USB 3.0 not working or wifi not working. Put in the driver disc and USE it.

Pros: This computer is really small - about the size of a box of tissue, but only half as wide. It has a built-in IR port and comes with an external IR receiver if you want to hide the box. I needed an IR receiver (which are hard to find without a remote), so I used the external one on another full-size HTPC with a Logitech remote, and use the included remote with the built-in IR port for the AD-10.

I installed Lubuntu, and run XBMC as the GUI. It works fairly well over wireless, with the AP being in the next room. Larger movies (>2GB BR Rips with DD) can cause some lag, but most everything else plays without an issue. With the SSD that Newegg tossed in for free (NE, PLEASE bring that deal back soon!), it only takes about 30 seconds to reboot.

To install Lubuntu and XBMC I followed an online tutorial that was based on this exact mini-pc (Google for it), and it worked without any issues. However, being familiar with Linux really helped. Ubuntu has all the drivers needed, so it's a relatively straight-forward install. The only tripping block is the AMD GPU, which can be a little touchy. Again, follow the directions and think it through first, and it's easy.

The little included remote works fairly well from across the bedroom (about 20ft), but it's sight angle is somewhat narrow. Hardware install was easy, once I figured out how to get the case open - reading the instructions carefully helps here.

I also have a little Logitech wireless keyboard/touchpad plugged into it for those times when I can't get by with a remote. It works with Lubuntu without any issues. I really could use this little thing as a full-blown PC if I needed to.

Cons: The system fan started with a loud, high pitched buzz that I couldn't get to go away. After a week or so it quieted down, but you can still here it when the room is quiet. We have an air cleaner that generates low volume white noise, which mostly washes out the buzzing. Not sure I could stand it otherwise.

Also, I'm not sure if it's an issue with the driver, XBMC, or the graphics card, but we get a green line across the top row of pixels over HDMI. It's usually pretty easy to ignore, but the perfectionist will probably get annoyed. If I'm in the Lubuntu shell it doesn't appear, though.

WiFi could be faster, but it's usable for most of my videos.

Other Thoughts: This was a good buy. Memory on NE was less than $50, and if they ever bring back the free SDD deal I'll be ordering another AD-10 for the gym (i.e. garage) TV.

Pros: Compact size
Great design - ports are easily accessible
Highly flexible configuration for customization
Perfect Ubuntu XBMC HTPC

Cons: weak WiFi signal in default BIOS configuration

Other Thoughts: I was a bit skeptical about this purchase but for the price, I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a try.

My AD10 came bundled with a *free* 64GB SSD drive, a nice add-in from NewEgg (thank you), and with the price as low as it was, I was eager to get my hands on it! I also purchased the Kingston 4gb ram recommended by NewEgg. (you will need to get RAM for it, because it won't do much without it)

The entire package arrived well packed, and no issues. I purchased the Logitech 400 wireless keyboard with the touchpad to use with it.

I followed the instructions I found on Zotac's website for creating a USB book disk (Ubuntu 12.04LTS 64bit) and within seconds of plugging this little wonder in, I was running the computer and it was most impressive how much power this little box had!

Smooth, quiet and quite fast - I was up and running under the Ubuntu OS in under 30 minutes, including OS installations package updates/downloads!

The bluetooth features paired with my iPhone without a hitch, which makes using my iPhone as my remote a snap!

XBMC FLIES on this machine, due to the speed of the SSD drive and 4GB ram (and no windblows OS) so it's just a screaming little box of love!

If your needing a machine for your entertainment system, and you love 1080P video streaming from anywhere in your home, or over the internet - this little machine is the one!

I'm going to buy 2 more for my man-cave for games and watching sports events, movies, concerts and more.

System Recap:

Operating System: Ubuntu 12.04LTS 64-bit (FREE) with XBMC installed.

RAM: Kingston 4GB (don't have the model number now, update soon)
HDD: 64gb Toshiba SATA 2.5in SSD drive
KEYBOARD: Logitech wireless 400 model with trackpad.

Oh, I'm writing this review from my couch on my AD10!!!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Pros: Free SSD makes this a bargain.
Runs Windows 8 flawlessly - all devices supported out of the box.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I'm using this as a utility PC for web browsing, email, Microsoft office etc. I might try XBMC or media center later. You can't go wrong for 220 bucks. (I added $20 for 4GB memory).

Pros: I use this box as an xbmc machine and it does a good job of running things at least.

Cons: It took a LOT of work to get the internal IR receiver drivers to install, but in the end I got it working fine. What's got me knocking this to two eggs is a constant audio buzz I get through my receiver whenever this machine is on. No matter what input, if this machine is on I get buzz. Something isn't grounded right. I may be looking at an RMA, but I'm afraid it won't solve the problem since another reviewer had the same issue.

Pros: -Tool-less case; the rubber feet are screws.
-Cooling seems adequate even with a 7200 RPM HDD.
-I was able to boot off an old USB Sony external CD ROM and install Windows Home Server 2011 without trouble.
-eSATA connection to my CineRAID works fine (6TB).
-Snappy speed; can serve multiple HD video users.
-No problem after continuous operation for

Cons: -Limited airflow and the exhaust blows pretty warm. No more than I'd expect from such a small unit.

Pros: Small.
Low power usage.
Comes with a remote.
Barebones for customization.

Cons: Remote takes some work to set up with XBMC.
Could use more USB ports.
Can't support a larger stick of RAM.

Other Thoughts: Powerful little box. Running XBMC off Windows 7 with 4GB of RAM and a 128 GB Samsung SSD. Boots extremely quickly. Have XBMC booting as a shell to make it "old-parents-proof". Plays everything I can throw at it without a hiccup.

Remote partially works with XBMC out of the box; the colored and advanced settings buttons didn't work for me, but the basic playback ones did.

Beware! This unit uses LAPTOP DDR3, not regular desktop RAM!

Would happily purchase again - parents love it!

Pros: Very small, low wattage, low heat, runs very well once configured properly

Cons: Would like to see one of these in the 2+ghz range.

Other Thoughts: Warning: If you connect this to your audio equipment you may getting a buzzing or roaring through your amp if you have cable service. This device has a ground plug, unlike audio amps. If you have cable service, then you are also grounding through it. A simple fix is to cut the ground pin off of this power plug and use a UPS. I had this issue and that miraculously fixed it. I have since found out that this is VERY common with audio equipment and powered subs can cause this too.

Pros: Folks with playback issues should verify installation of the AMD Media Codec Package (sometimes called 'Avivo'), and check that AMD *UVD* (Universal Video Decoder) is enabled in your media players.

This should address your playback issues except with Silverlight. which is getting better but still not utilizing the UVD HW acceleration.

Cons: None

Pros: Looks cool. Very small. Lots of features.

Cons: Netflix playback was terrible (highly pixelated, stuttering). YouTube 1080p would stutter as well. It would not handle a 1080p rip in XBMC either.

I could not get it to look good on my 46" LCD TV. It would show up as 1080i and desktop was really blurry. Tried with both Windows 7 64-bit Pro and a Linux distro with XBMC. Was using fast DDR3 1333 4GB RAM as well.

Support is nonexistent. I submitted a trouble ticket on their website and never got a response. I posted on their forums and never got a response. Later, after reporting on my unanswered forum post that I had returned the product, other users responded that it was a problem with the BIOS not reserving enough video memory.

Then someone from Zotac announced a new beta firmware that lets you increase the video memory. Too little, too late for me, but maybe that will help with some of the problems I saw. I doubt it will solve the Netflix HD issues though.

Other Thoughts: I bought a popular dedicated streaming device instead for half the price and it plays Netflix HD flawlessly. The interface and playback is super sharp. My TV recognizes the video output as 1920x1080 60Hz and looks crystal clear. None of the 1080i blurry garbage.

I just feel like these embedded CPU's (AMD or Intel) aren't quite there yet. It takes a good amount of CPU to decode Netflix Silverlight DRM and they do not have enough processing power to handle it and play back full HD quality at the same time.

As for problems with YouTube and XBMC, I don't understand why I had a problem with them when others have not. In fact, I tried a different form factor with the same AMD APU and had no problems. Still got blurry 1080i with it though. Netflix played fine on that system too, just newer Netflix HD had a problem (maybe newer ones use 1080p instead of 720p).