14 DAY TRIAL // Zotac has been dealing in small form factor systems for a while now, and it seems that it plans to keep at it for quite some time still, its latest release being the Zbox DVD series.
While full-sized desktops are what most consumers look for when buying a computer for multimedia and/or gaming, there is still a market for more compact solutions.
These so-called compact systems are also known as small form factor PCs, and the range includes more than just Home-Theater Personal Computers (HTPCs).
In fact, regular HTPCs aren't exactly all that close to being the smallest, as is made plain by Zotac's ZBox collection.
The two newest such small form factor systems that the company has put together are, as already mentioned, dubbed the ZBox DVD line.
Two systems are available, the barebone called ZBox DVD ID3 and the fully-equipped ZBox DVD ID31 Plus.
The former is built around the Intel Atom D525 dual-core central processing unit and, being a barebone, does not have all the hardware of a regular PC.
What it does possess is the NVIDIA ION GPU, which has 512 MB of dedicated memory and supports high-definition multimedia, among other things.
The machine also boasts a slot-load 8X DVD writer, DVI and HDMI video ports, a mini-PCI Express slot and two USB 3.0 ports, plus Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n WiFi.
The Plus model has all of the above, as well as 1 GB of DDR3 memory and a hard disk drive, whose capacity is of 250 GB.
“Our ZOTAC DVD series are the perfect mini-PCs for users that demand the best performance and energy-efficiency from a home theater PC for streaming high-definition Internet media while maintaining compatibility with their existing DVD collection,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International.
Both newcomers also feature a 6-in-1 card reader but have, unfortunately, not been given prices as of yet.