1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:07,839 Now, this is something that I've been meaning to take a look at for a while. This is the Zotac Zbox or Zbox, 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:14,080 whichever you'd prefer. Personally, I'm not fussy. And this has been quite 3 00:00:10,559 --> 00:00:17,840 popular for a while because it is a 4 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:19,760 barebones all-in-one net top. So, there 5 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:23,840 isn't there aren't many other companies on the market these days that are making 6 00:00:21,439 --> 00:00:28,400 a net top that is actually completely customizable and doesn't come with the 7 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:32,960 things that most people would want to change. like say for example memory, 8 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:36,719 hard drive and OS. So that's pretty much the only things they haven't included 9 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:40,000 and that gives you a lot of flexibility. Like if you want to build sort of an 10 00:00:38,239 --> 00:00:44,399 ultimate performance nettop, then you could throw in a bunch of RAM, throw in 11 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:48,480 an SSD drive and then throw, you know, Windows 7 on there and all of a sudden 12 00:00:46,079 --> 00:00:52,559 you've got a great little config. If you decide you don't want that, you can 13 00:00:50,239 --> 00:00:56,640 throw in like a the cheapest possible 2 and 1/2 in drive, the least possible 14 00:00:54,879 --> 00:01:00,640 amount of RAM, and that's an optimal grandma PC. you know, install an old 15 00:00:58,719 --> 00:01:03,920 copy of XP that you have lying around and great, boom, there you go. It's like 16 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:08,000 the cheapest possible thing that way. So, it gives you a lot of flexibility. 17 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:12,280 This particular one is their is part of their newest generation of products. So, 18 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:17,759 this is the HD ID40U. Yeah, their their model names 19 00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:20,960 aren't really all that uh remembering exactly what they are friendly, but 20 00:01:19,439 --> 00:01:26,320 here, let's go through exactly what is included here. So, it's the Atom D525. 21 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:30,000 So, it's a dual core 1.8 GHz Intel Atom processor. It has the next generation 22 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:36,520 which is well I guess the second generation NVIDIA I ion chipset with 512 23 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:39,600 megs of DDR3 graphics memory. Has uh two 24 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:42,640 DDR2 expansion slots. One 2 and 1/2 in 25 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:46,360 hard drive slot that is a SATA 3 GB per 26 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:49,600 second gigabit LAN wireless N card 27 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:51,200 reader. It also has ESATA. I don't see 28 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:56,079 that. Oh yeah, there's the ESATA. So there's all the included IO HDMI as well 29 00:01:53,840 --> 00:02:00,479 as DVI. You can get VGA with a dongle. And then you've got 8 channel digital 30 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:04,960 audio included. It is extremely silent. I have personally validated this. 31 00:02:02,479 --> 00:02:10,800 Cameraman's grandpa actually built a PC around the Zbox. Uh guess that was a 32 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:15,840 couple months ago and he was just super impressed with how fast it was for what 33 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:20,560 he needed, which is basically just like, you know, browsing the internet, 34 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:23,120 watching a couple videos, you know, just 35 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:28,000 sort of no big deal stuff. But also with how quiet it was, it makes almost no 36 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:33,120 noise. And this is even in comparison to other nettops on the market. It's fully 37 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:35,840 1080p capable, which is here. Okay. And 38 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:39,760 it will play 1080p video when I built one around this. I I did actually I 39 00:02:37,519 --> 00:02:43,599 built it for him. So I did test that as well. It includes a visa mount and 40 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:47,120 everything else here. I think we've covered already. Uh there's a little 41 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:51,040 explanation of that which I'll leave there while we go through the packaging 42 00:02:48,879 --> 00:02:56,080 itself. So, the first thing we find in the package is a power cable. So, you're 43 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:59,440 going to notice that this looks an awful lot like a notebook power adapter. You 44 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:04,080 got your power brick, you got your little DC plug, and then you've got an 45 00:03:01,519 --> 00:03:09,360 AC cord that goes into it. The reason is that the inside of the Zbox is an awful 46 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:13,760 lot like a netbook. The only difference is that it doesn't have a 47 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:18,319 screen. I guess there's probably some other differences, but I'm not going to 48 00:03:14,959 --> 00:03:20,239 get too far into that. So, in Canada, 49 00:03:18,319 --> 00:03:25,120 here we go. with a one-year warranty on the Zbox. We have a driver installation 50 00:03:22,959 --> 00:03:32,720 CD. So, here I'm going to refine my throw away the CD um suggestion to 51 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:34,400 download the LAN drivers off the CD and 52 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:39,280 then throw it away and then download the rest of the newest ones off of the Zotac 53 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:43,599 or the uh the OEM website because remember for things like audio chipsets, 54 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:47,680 you can download them directly from the OEM that makes the chip. Here is a 55 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:51,840 user's manual. Here's a quick start guide, which presumably includes things 56 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:55,200 like where to plug stuff into. You know what it looks like? It doesn't include 57 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:58,200 anything about upgrading the RAM and hard drive. So, that's kind of 58 00:03:56,400 --> 00:04:02,319 interesting. I wonder if that's in the manual. I mean, is the assumption that 59 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:07,439 if you've gotten this far, you probably know how to do that already or what. Ah, 60 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:12,239 here we go. Yeah, so it does include instructions for customizing the Zbox. 61 00:04:10,319 --> 00:04:17,759 Okay, what do we find in the other side? In the other side, we find a DV uh DVI 62 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:19,600 to VGA adapter, some mounting screws, 63 00:04:17,759 --> 00:04:25,680 which I guess we'll need for something, as well as a little stand if you want to 64 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,680 have it sit on your desk like 65 00:04:27,639 --> 00:04:33,600 that. So, it's time to play. Yeah, you 66 00:04:31,919 --> 00:04:38,160 won't be playing too much on this particular one unless it's like videos 67 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:43,680 and stuff. Not really uh not really a gaming machine, Intel adamant. Okay, so 68 00:04:41,759 --> 00:04:48,560 here we go. It comes pre-attached to its little vasa mount. Visa visa, I don't 69 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:52,280 know. Okay, so you just press that little switch, take that off, no 70 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:57,600 problem. Oh, look, it even includes like ventilation built 71 00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:02,639 in. Okay, so we'll have a look. Wow, it's really light actually without a uh 72 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:07,600 without a drive in it. Makes an enormous difference. You'd be surprised. Okay, so 73 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:14,479 on the front we have ESATA 1 2 3 4 USB 2.0. That's a gigabit LAN, DVI, HDMI. 74 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:19,199 That is optical digital audio out as well as our power input. Up on the top, 75 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:24,080 we have ventilation. So, you can clearly see the heat sink here that is cooling 76 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:28,479 the CPU as well as the NVIDIA ion chipset. That's where your exhaust is 77 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:33,280 going to go. So, we've got another USB port here. Conveniently located. Oh, there's 78 00:05:31,919 --> 00:05:37,440 rubber feet here. So, you can actually put it down this way. So, that's the way 79 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:41,039 you'd use it as a desktop. So, there's the front. This is the way you'd use it 80 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:44,560 if you put it on the stand. And then if you obviously attach the vase mount, 81 00:05:43,280 --> 00:05:48,639 then you put it on the back of a monitor. On the front, you can see we've 82 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:52,720 got a power switch as well as a couple activity LEDs for wireless as well as 83 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:56,639 presumably the hard drive. We have another USB port, so it's a total of six 84 00:05:54,880 --> 00:06:00,000 and an SD card reader. We have a microphone port as well as a headphone 85 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:05,440 port. That's all you're going to get for analog audio. So unless you want to run 86 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:09,600 digital, you're only going to get uh 2.0 0 or I guess you could run 2.1 if you 87 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:14,000 had a built-in subwoofer. Uh, so you're only going to get two channels 88 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:20,319 out. I guess that's pretty much everything there is to say about it. So, 89 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:22,800 basically, you need RAM, drive, and OS, 90 00:06:20,319 --> 00:06:26,080 and you are ready to go. So, here's how it works on the back of an LCD. I 91 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:30,400 promised you guys I'd show that. Oh, looks like you can also wall mount it. That's kind of neat. Okay, so thank you 92 00:06:29,039 --> 00:06:34,319 for checking out my unboxing of the Zbox. And don't forget to subscribe to 93 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:42,400 Linus Tech Tips and leave a comment criticizing how I'm saying this letter 94 00:06:37,280 --> 00:06:42,400 wrong because everyone seems to do that.