WEBVTT 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, 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:14.080 whichever you'd prefer. Personally, I'm not fussy. And this has been quite 00:00:10.559 --> 00:00:17.840 popular for a while because it is a 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:19.760 barebones all-in-one net top. So, there 00:00:17.840 --> 00:00:23.840 isn't there aren't many other companies on the market these days that are making 00:00:21.439 --> 00:00:28.400 a net top that is actually completely customizable and doesn't come with the 00:00:26.400 --> 00:00:32.960 things that most people would want to change. like say for example memory, 00:00:30.560 --> 00:00:36.719 hard drive and OS. So that's pretty much the only things they haven't included 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 00:00:38.239 --> 00:00:44.399 ultimate performance nettop, then you could throw in a bunch of RAM, throw in 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 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 00:00:50.239 --> 00:00:56.640 throw in like a the cheapest possible 2 and 1/2 in drive, the least possible 00:00:54.879 --> 00:01:00.640 amount of RAM, and that's an optimal grandma PC. you know, install an old 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 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:08.000 the cheapest possible thing that way. So, it gives you a lot of flexibility. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:12.280 This particular one is their is part of their newest generation of products. So, 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:17.759 this is the HD ID40U. Yeah, their their model names 00:01:15.520 --> 00:01:20.960 aren't really all that uh remembering exactly what they are friendly, but 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:26.320 here, let's go through exactly what is included here. So, it's the Atom D525. 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 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:36.520 which is well I guess the second generation NVIDIA I ion chipset with 512 00:01:32.720 --> 00:01:39.600 megs of DDR3 graphics memory. Has uh two 00:01:36.520 --> 00:01:42.640 DDR2 expansion slots. One 2 and 1/2 in 00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:46.360 hard drive slot that is a SATA 3 GB per 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:49.600 second gigabit LAN wireless N card 00:01:46.360 --> 00:01:51.200 reader. It also has ESATA. I don't see 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 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 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:04.960 audio included. It is extremely silent. I have personally validated this. 00:02:02.479 --> 00:02:10.800 Cameraman's grandpa actually built a PC around the Zbox. Uh guess that was a 00:02:08.160 --> 00:02:15.840 couple months ago and he was just super impressed with how fast it was for what 00:02:13.440 --> 00:02:20.560 he needed, which is basically just like, you know, browsing the internet, 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:23.120 watching a couple videos, you know, just 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 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:33.120 noise. And this is even in comparison to other nettops on the market. It's fully 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:35.840 1080p capable, which is here. Okay. And 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:39.760 it will play 1080p video when I built one around this. I I did actually I 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 00:02:42.160 --> 00:02:47.120 everything else here. I think we've covered already. Uh there's a little 00:02:45.760 --> 00:02:51.040 explanation of that which I'll leave there while we go through the packaging 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 00:02:54.640 --> 00:02:59.440 going to notice that this looks an awful lot like a notebook power adapter. You 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:04.080 got your power brick, you got your little DC plug, and then you've got an 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 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:13.760 lot like a netbook. The only difference is that it doesn't have a 00:03:11.720 --> 00:03:18.319 screen. I guess there's probably some other differences, but I'm not going to 00:03:14.959 --> 00:03:20.239 get too far into that. So, in Canada, 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:25.120 here we go. with a one-year warranty on the Zbox. We have a driver installation 00:03:22.959 --> 00:03:32.720 CD. So, here I'm going to refine my throw away the CD um suggestion to 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:34.400 download the LAN drivers off the CD and 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 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:43.599 or the uh the OEM website because remember for things like audio chipsets, 00:03:41.200 --> 00:03:47.680 you can download them directly from the OEM that makes the chip. Here is a 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:51.840 user's manual. Here's a quick start guide, which presumably includes things 00:03:49.440 --> 00:03:55.200 like where to plug stuff into. You know what it looks like? It doesn't include 00:03:53.200 --> 00:03:58.200 anything about upgrading the RAM and hard drive. So, that's kind of 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:02.319 interesting. I wonder if that's in the manual. I mean, is the assumption that 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, 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:12.239 here we go. Yeah, so it does include instructions for customizing the Zbox. 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 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:19.600 to VGA adapter, some mounting screws, 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 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:25.680 have it sit on your desk like 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:33.600 that. So, it's time to play. Yeah, you 00:04:31.919 --> 00:04:38.160 won't be playing too much on this particular one unless it's like videos 00:04:35.440 --> 00:04:43.680 and stuff. Not really uh not really a gaming machine, Intel adamant. Okay, so 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 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:52.280 know. Okay, so you just press that little switch, take that off, no 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:57.600 problem. Oh, look, it even includes like ventilation built 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 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:07.600 without a drive in it. Makes an enormous difference. You'd be surprised. Okay, so 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. 00:05:11.520 --> 00:05:19.199 That is optical digital audio out as well as our power input. Up on the top, 00:05:17.520 --> 00:05:24.080 we have ventilation. So, you can clearly see the heat sink here that is cooling 00:05:21.440 --> 00:05:28.479 the CPU as well as the NVIDIA ion chipset. That's where your exhaust is 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:33.280 going to go. So, we've got another USB port here. Conveniently located. Oh, there's 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 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 00:05:38.960 --> 00:05:44.560 if you put it on the stand. And then if you obviously attach the vase mount, 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 00:05:46.400 --> 00:05:52.720 got a power switch as well as a couple activity LEDs for wireless as well as 00:05:50.960 --> 00:05:56.639 presumably the hard drive. We have another USB port, so it's a total of six 00:05:54.880 --> 00:06:00.000 and an SD card reader. We have a microphone port as well as a headphone 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 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 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:14.000 had a built-in subwoofer. Uh, so you're only going to get two channels 00:06:11.880 --> 00:06:20.319 out. I guess that's pretty much everything there is to say about it. So, 00:06:16.400 --> 00:06:22.800 basically, you need RAM, drive, and OS, 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 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 00:06:29.039 --> 00:06:34.319 for checking out my unboxing of the Zbox. And don't forget to subscribe to 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:42.400 Linus Tech Tips and leave a comment criticizing how I'm saying this letter 00:06:37.280 --> 00:06:42.400 wrong because everyone seems to do that.