14 DAY TRIAL // Over the last few years Zotac has released a wide number of Mini-PC solutions that were based on Intel Atom processors, but the company has decided to go in a different direction with its Zbox Blu-ray AD03 series that pack AMD's latest Fusion line of APUs.
The new AD03 units look pretty similar to the Zbox ID3x-series Mini-PCs that was launched before them, featuring the same form factor and case as its predecessors as well as most of the hardware specifications.
However, this time, Zotac decided to go with an AMD E-350 APU that makes part of AMD's Fusion chip lineup.
Running at 1.6GHz, the E-350 APU features dual Bobcat cores, a CPU integrated Radeon HD 6310 discrete-class graphics processing engine as well as the UVD3 media decoder that can playback Full HD 1080p video streams.
Zotac's Zbox AD03 will be available in two different versions, a barebone units destined to DIY-ers, and a fully configured model.
However, both come with a Blu-ray drive, 802.11n/g/b and Ethernet connectivity, one Mini-PCI Express slot, a 6-in-1 memory card reader, eSATA 6.0Gbps, two USB 3.0 ports as well as DVI and HDCP video outputs.
In addition, the pre-configured model has one of the two SODIMM DDR3 memory slots populated with a 2GB module and features a 250GB 5400RPM hard disk drive.
Both units can send raw lossless (bitstream) audio formats, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, via HDMI to digital home theatre receivers for unaltered sound quality.
“The AMD E-350 APU platform combined with our Zbox Blu-ray form factor is a phenomenal small form factor solution,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, Zotac International.
The snappy day-to-day performance and superb high-definition video and DirectX 11 3D capabilities makes the Zbox Blu-ray AD03 perfect for users that crave energy-efficiency without sacrificing premium features and capabilities,” concluded Mr. Berger.
Zbox Blu-ray AD03 series models are already listed on the company's global site, but, unfortunately, prices are not provided.