14 DAY TRIAL // People who like miniature personal computers usually know better than to expect some sort of super performance level, but ZOTAC has decided that since it isn't impossible to provide it, it may as well do it.
That is why it has updated its ZBOX Nano miniature PC box with Intel's Core-series central processing units.
No Haswell chips though. Only Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs from the Ivy Bridge generation.
"Our engineers have done a phenomenal job combining the raw CPU power of Intel Core processors and Intel HD Graphics 4000 into our tiny ZBOX nano platform. The performance and customizability available in these palm-sized ZBOX nano is unmatched by any of our competitors," says Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International.
The chips people can choose from are Intel Core i3-3227U, Core i5-3337U or Core i7-3537U.
Intel Core i3-3227U is a dual-core model with a clock speed of 1.9 GHz and no Turbo Boost technology, which means that it can't dynamically overclock itself.
The Core i5-3337U is also a dual-core, and it even has a smaller base clock, of 1.8 GHz, but it also has Turbo Boost, reaching 2.7 GHz when needed.
Finally, the Core i7-3537U is a dual-core with a base speed of 2.0 GHz and a maximum speed of 3.1 GHz when applications need that extra punch.
In that order, the ZBOX Nano systems using Core-series CPUs are called ZBOX ID63 series, ZBOX ID64 series, and ZBOX ID65 series.
All computers have 4 GB of DDR3 memory, hard disk drives of 500 GB storage capacity, 802.11n Wi-Fi (external WiFi antenna), Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, High-amperage USB charging ports (the yellow ones), and two video outputs (DisplayPort and HDMI).
Finally, the ZOTAC ZBOX Nano mini PC can have two mSATA SSDs and is bundled with a ZOTAC nanoRAID storage adapter and a VESA75/100 mount.