14 DAY TRIAL // One would think that a miniature personal computer small enough to fit in one's palm wouldn't possess too powerful hardware, and this held true at first for the ZBOX mini PC, but it is no longer the case. Zotac made sure of it.
Zotac's ZBOX mini PC has been around for quite some time, which means that it went through more than one hardware revision.
Yet another such revision has happened: Zotac has upgraded its central processing unit to Intel Core i5, or at least added this option on the order page.
The third-generation Intel Core processor relies on Ivy Bridge architecture and, thus, fits LGA 1155 sockets.
It is called Core i5 3470T and has two cores, clocked at 2.9 GHz (3.6 GHz Turbo Boost).
The other option, dual-core Core i3 3220T, is also a dual-core, but only runs at 2.8 GHz and lacks Turbo Boost dynamic overclocking technology.
Since we're on the subject of specifications, the ZBOX mini PC features 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, a hard disk drive of 500 GB, Wi-Fi (two external antennas), Bluetooth 4.0, Dual Gigabit Ethernet (surprising, since most normal mainboards have just one), high-amperage USB charging ports (yellow) and two video outputs (HDMI, DVI).
"Users demanded the same performance as larger desktop PCs from our ZBOX but the small size made it virtually impossible to deliver the same performance as desktop PCs," says Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International.
"After many months of engineering and fine tuning, we came up with a solution that enables us to install desktop LGA1155 socket Intel Core i5 and i3 processors without sacrificing size, noise or power consumption that will make our end users very happy."
Zotac ships the ZBOX mini PC with an MCE-compatible remote w/ USB IR receiver and a VESA75/100 mount (lets it be mounted on the backside of VESA monitors). The price should be of around $300 / €300. That's our guess at least.