The computer is powered by an Intel Ivy Bridge Core i3 CPU

Feb 5, 2014 14:38 GMT  ·  By

There are very few miniature personal computers as successful and often updated as the Zotac ZBOX series, so it's not that big a shock to find out that the ZBOX itself has gone through a nice hardware revision.

The computer continues to have that small, box-like case with a glowing circle on the top, as well as a pair of Wi-Fi antennas, but its insides are a bit different now.

The newest configuration is called ZBOX ID45 Mini PC and merges the benefits of an Intel 3rd Generation Core i3 with those of an NVIDIA graphics card.

And said graphics card is the 2 GB GeForce GT 640. Not exactly mighty or resplendent, but better than anything Intel has to offer in its CPUs.

It might have been possible to provide both better CPU performance and graphics if a recent AMD APU was chosen as the main platform, but that's not the case. Alas.

Anyhow, the Core i3 3227U, a dual-core unit with 1.9 GHz clock and 3 MB L2 cache, is backed by 4 GB of DDR3 RAM.

Information is stored on an HDD (hard disk drive) of 500 GB, but only on the PLUS models. The normal ZBOX ID45 lacks pre-installed memory and storage.

Moving on, the ZBOX ID45 features 4K video decoding support (comes with the NVIDIA graphics), high quality HD video processing, 802.11ac Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and three video outputs (HDMI, DVI and VGA with included adapter).

Finally, the newcomer is bundled with a VESA75/100 mount, which lets you mount it on a wall or to the back of your monitor.

The Zotac ZBOX ID45 Mini PC is apparently priced at around $358 / €358, and $416 / €416 for the PLUS.

"ZOTAC has always married the capabilities of energy-efficient Intel processors with incredible NVIDIA GeForce graphics since the first ZBOX shipped with NVIDIA ION," said Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International.

"The latest ZBOX ID45 series pushes that synergy even further with greater performance while maintaining excellent energy-efficiency."

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Zotac ZBOX ID45 mini PC
Zotac ZBOX ID45 mini PC
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