14 DAY TRIAL // When Zotac made the Zbox Nano miniature personal computer, it intended for it to be a multimedia system, like an HTPC but smaller and better, if possible. Now, it's getting close to the performance of standard desktops.
And it's all because of the new upgrade to the central processing unit, or perhaps we should call it accelerated processing unit.
That is, after all, the correct technical term to refer to the A-Series of chips from Advanced Micro Devices.
And it is one such chip that has been installed in the Zbox Nano now, and it's not just any chip but a quad-core unit, the A4-5000, featuring a clock of 1.5 GHz and the Radeon HD 8330 graphics.
Thus, the Zbox Nano should be a lot better at multitasking than before, and since the graphics quality rivals that of some add-in cards, even games should run well. Obviously, the 4 GB of DDR3 memory will help there.
Moving on, the Ziotac Zbox Nano has a 500 GB HDD, wireless support (802.11ac Wi-Fi with external antenna and Bluetooth 4.0), high-amperage USB 3.0 ports (yellow ports can recharge devices) and a bundled VESA75/100 mount.
"Our ZBOX nano form factor is well-regarded for its compact size and energy-efficiency. With the latest AMD A4-5000 APU, we're able to boost performance all around while reducing maximum energy consumption compared to our previous generation with the ZOTAC ZBOX nano AQ01 series," said Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International.
The Zotac Zbox Nano costs anything from $200 / €200 to $500 / €500, or more depending on whether you choose the one with pre-installed memory and storage or not.
Editor's Note: I played Skyrim on a computer with a GeForce GTS 250 and 4 GB of DDR2, not DDR3, and it ran just fine, at high settings, and even top configurations didn't slow it down much. Sure, I had a quad-core Phenom II, but the graphics performance is what I'm talking about here.