ZOTAC ZBox - Next-Gen NVIDIA Ion-Based Nettop - Review - HotHardware

### Article: A Deep Dive into the Zotac ZBOX HD-11: Features, Performance, and Setup

#### Introduction

In this video review by Dave Altavilla of Hot Hardware, we take an in-depth look at the **Zotac ZBOX HD-11**, a compact nettop powered by Intel's Dual-Core Atom processor and NVIDIA's Next Generation Ion graphics. The device is designed for low-power computing tasks such as home theater PCs, light gaming, and media consumption. This article provides a detailed breakdown of the system's design, internal components, configuration process, and performance capabilities, using the full transcription of the video.

---

#### Design and Features

The Zotac ZBOX HD-11 is a highly stylized device with a **piano-black mirrored finish** that gives it a sleek, modern look. However, this finish attracts fingerprints, so Zotac includes a microfiber cloth for maintenance. The system measures **7.4 inches in width**, **1.73 inches in thickness**, and features an illuminated circle on its side—a signature of Zotac's nettop products.

Included with the ZBOX HD-11 are:

- A VESA mount plate for attaching the device to a TV or monitor.

- An owner's manual.

- A warranty card.

The system is powered by a **small power brick** that tucks out of the way neatly. On the front edge, you'll find a headphone jack, microphone jack, 6-in-1 flashcard reader, USB port, Wi-Fi indicator light, hard drive activity light, and a power button. The top edge features a USB port covered by a rubber flap, while the back edge includes an optical audio output port, HDMI output, DVI output, four USB ports, gigabit Ethernet, and an eSATA port.

Vents on the side of the chassis allow for airflow to cool the internal components, which we'll explore next.

---

#### Internal Components and Configuration

To configure the ZBOX HD-11, you need to purchase additional hardware since it is a barebone system. Inside the device, you'll find:

- The **Intel Atom D510 dual-core processor** clocked at 1.66 GHz.

- The **Intel NM10 Express chipset**, which provides PCIe support for the NVIDIA Ion graphics processor.

The ZBOX HD-11 is equipped with an **NVIDIA Ion GPU** paired with **512 MB DDR3 graphics memory**, making it suitable for multimedia tasks and light gaming. Below the GPU, you'll find a heat sink and fan assembly that cools both the Atom processor and the Ion GPU.

For storage, the system supports 2.5-inch SATA drives. In this review, a **Cate 5400 RPM 500 GB notebook-style hard drive** was installed, which snaps into its SATA power and data connectors with ease. The system also uses **DDR2 memory**, specifically a 2GB DDR2-800 module, which fits into the single DIMM slot.

---

#### Performance Benchmarks

The ZBOX HD-11 is demonstrated running Windows 7 with a desktop resolution of **1920 x 1080 (1080p)**. During testing:

- A high-definition video clip played smoothly without any drop frames.

- The system handled a 1080p H.264-encoded QuickTime movie trailer fluidly, with CPU utilization hovering around **10-20%**.

For gaming performance, the ZBOX HD-11 ran **Quake Wars: Enemy Territory** at **1280 x 720 (720p)** resolution and medium image quality, achieving **28-29 frames per second**, making it playable for light gaming.

The system also supports Windows Media Center, which was demonstrated using a USB RF wireless remote control. The interface was responsive, allowing smooth navigation through music, photos, and HD video content.

---

#### Flash Video Performance

One area that requires attention is **Flash video performance**. During testing, the ZBOX exhibited choppy playback in the Adobe Flash Player. However, Dave notes that NVIDIA is working on a new driver update to improve this issue.

---

#### Retail Price and Conclusion

The Zotac ZBOX HD-11 retails for **$250.99**, but it's important to remember that this price does not include storage or memory—users must provide their own 2.5-inch SATA hard drive and DDR2 system memory.

Overall, the ZBOX HD-11 is a solid choice for low-power computing tasks, home theater PCs, and light gaming. Its compact design, multimedia capabilities, and reasonable price make it an attractive option for users seeking a small form factor (SFF) system. For more detailed benchmarks and a full review, visit [HotHardware.com](https://www.hoy.com).

---

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the Zotac ZBOX HD-11, covering its design, components, configuration process, and performance capabilities as demonstrated in the video transcription.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi it's Dave altavilla for hot hardware and this little fella is the Zotac ZBOX it's a new Intel dual core atom based netop from Zotac that also happens to be infused with nvidia's Next Generation ion graphics processor from netbooks and netops this adds a significant amount of additional multimedia horsepower under its hood for it would otherwise be a very low power low profile small form factor system for things like a home theater PC or perhaps a bit of bedroom or kitchen Computing we're going to show you what it's made of we're going to show you how to configure one from a barebone solution from Zotac and then we'll show you how it performs stay with us so we're looking at the ZBOX model hd-11 it measures 7.4 in square by 1.73 in thick and as you can see it's highly stylized sort of piano black mirrored finish here attracts fingerprints by the the way so keep the microfiber cloth ready for wiping down when needed but a nice illuminated circle on the side here uh sort of signature of Zotac brand of net top products with the system comes a Visa Mount plate that allows you to mount the system to the back of a TV or monitor a driver CD owner's manual and warranty card what you're not seeing here is the AC adapter the power brake that actually is running the system right now it's a small power brick that also tucks out of the way easily this model is based on an Intel atom d510 dual core processor clocked at 1.66 GHz and an Intel nm10 Express chipset from that chipset off of PCI Express by one lane hangs an Nvidia ion graphics processor with an additional 512 Mega DDR3 Graphics memory on the front edge of the system is a headphone jack a microphone Jack a 6 in1 flashcard reader USB port Wi-Fi indicator light hard drive indicator light and a power button and on the top Edge is a USB port that's covered with a rubber cover and on the back edge of the system is where the power plugs in we've also got an optical audio output port HDMI output DVI output four more USB ports gigabit Ethernet and an e SATA port also you can see here is some venting on the side of the case for the heat sink and fan assembly that's inside and we'll take a look at that next so getting inside the Zbox hd- id11 couldn't be any easier we've got it resting here comfortably on top of our microfiber cloth again taking care of that piano black finish on the outside and uh you just pull these two thumb screws and you are now allowed to pop and slide this cover right off and as you can see you're exposed to all of the internal components of the system now the ZBOX hd-11 is what's called a barebone system it does not come configured with a hard drive or system memory we've actually populated it with a Cate 5400 RPM 500 gig uh SATA hard drive notebook style hard drive and uh as you can see it just slides in underneath that bracket very easily snaps into its SATA power and data connector and you just put a thumb screw on and and now you've installed your hard drive over here we'll spin this around is the system memory and this is a 2 gig ddr2 800 them again notebook components and as you can see this pops in and out real simple this is a 2 gig DDR 2800 rated system memory uh so dim small outline dim and here is that heat sink and fan assembly that is cooling the graphics core uh the ion GPU and the Atom Processor both under one heat sink and fan assembly and then again exhausting out through the side of the chassis uh through the ven vents on the side of it and as you can see all of your I/O components here so pretty straightforward design and all you need to do to configure your own ZBOX is to purchase a 2 and 1/2 in Notebook hard drive we've got a 500 gig 5400 RPM Cate drive there and some soam notebook memory ddr2 specifically uh we chose ddr2 800 so our system is built and we're ready to run it so we'll demo it for you next okay so here we are with the ZBOX and we're driving the signal out to a 50-in plasma television over HDMI we're set up with Windows 7 here with a uh desktop resolution of 1920 x 1080 so full 1080p HD desktop and as you can see we've got a Windows media highdefinition digital video clip fired up here it's called speed and it's a 1080p HD video clip let's put it full screen and show you what the ZBOX is capable of so as you can see even in this fast moving clip no drop frames things are looking pretty smooth and we'll show you a uh high definition quick time clip next and here we fired up some 1080p resolution h.264 encoded QuickTime mov movie clips this is actually the Iron Man 2 trailer from the Apple website but we fired it up here in Windows Media Player because QuickTime actually was a little bit Cho uh obviously there's some optimizations going on still with NVIDIA drivers and various media players but in Windows Media Player and with this content as you'll see things are quite fluid and smooth and we're actually pushing Dolby PR logic THX quality sound over our HDMI cable through our receiver in our home theater test center here and as you can see we're actually pushing about 10 15% 20% sort of oscillating CPU utilization here and Windows Task Manager performance monitor I've actually got four threads and again performance is quite good for h.264 encoded media on the ZBOX driven by the Next Generation ion Graphics chip by Nvidia pushing the pixels so here we fired up enemy territory Quake Wars and this is a firstperson shooter openg GL based game by It software and as you can see we're running the ZBOX pretty smooth at 1280 x 720p resolution uh medium image quality no anti-aliasing enabled and we're pushing about 28 29 frames per second so it's actually playable and so the ZBOX with Next Generation ion under the hood does have a bit of gaming capability it would say low end to light duty uh mid-range at best gaming capability on the zot ZBOX okay so when we first sneak peaked the ZBOX at hot Hardware some of you wrote in and said you wanted to see what the performance of the system would be like running a Windows Media Center interface and so we went ahead and installed a USB RF wireless remote transmitter and Windows Media Center remote right here and through the comfort of our remote I can uh run the Windows Media Center interface as you'll see quite easily it's actually very responsive let's fire up some music real quick we'll do a little bit of light multitasking we'll listen to music while we look at some stock pictures that are on the machine as you can see again the interface very responsive Mr koala here loads right up pretty Snappy and we can even go back and play some sample HD video that comes with Windows 7 pull that up for you again the the interface for Windows Media Center perfectly fluid and smooth about as fast as I've ever seen it run no problems there we will say that flash video currently the ZBOX is uh in development or I should say driver development uh with Nvidia and so right now Flash video is a little bit choppy in the ZBOX um and there is a new driver drop coming from Nvidia that will improve that and make that also as fluid as you're seeing here with this uh Windows media clip but that's the Windows Media Center interface on the ZBOX as you can see no problems here running that at all the ZBOX model that we tested retails for $250 9.99 although remember it's a barebone solution you'll need to purchase your own 2 and 1/2 in SATA notebook style hard drive and ddr2 system memory again soim notebook style components to configure a full system stop by hoy.com for a full detailed review with benchmarks I'm Dave altavilla for hot Hardware thanks for stopping by\n"