Zotac ZBOX PI320 pico Micro PC
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,294 words · ~6 min read
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no kidding here guys i legitimately laughed out loud when i first opened up
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the box for the z box pico from zotac i mean not a throaty you know
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that might have attracted some unwanted attention in the office but definitely a
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chuckle i just couldn't believe that they got a whole computer into
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this
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cooler master neptune series CPU coolers are available in a variety of radiator
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sizes to perfectly suit your next build click now to learn more
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so this is the zbox pico it features a quad core 22 nanometer Intel atom
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z3735f that runs at a nominal frequency of 1.33 gigahertz but can turbo boost up
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to 1.83 gigahertz it's got 2 gigs of starter ddr3 low power memory running in
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a single channel config Intel hd graphics built in wireless and bluetooth
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and a 32 gig emmc SSD that can be
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expanded with the built-in microsdxc reader for storage moving along the
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outside of the unit aside from that card reader you'll find a power button that
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lights up the top with a very pleasing zotac logo a 100 Ethernet port two usb 2
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ports and a headphone jack and then finally an HDMI port another
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usb 2 port and power in overall i'm mostly pleased with the
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specs it's obviously not the most powerful pc in the world but you get a
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full x86 computer in an enclosure the size of a couple of stacked smartphones
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and io is okay you get a surprising number of ports considering the size of
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the unit but usb 3 and gigabit lan would have been nice to have and a microphone
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input is in my mind a must-have considering this baby's power efficiency
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and included vasa compatible mount just screams use me as a basic pc for mum to
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use for skype and whatnot a usb headset
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is an option but it will add more cost to this basic setup that could have been
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better spent on a more powerful pc if we were going to spend more money on it
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anyway on the other hand that more powerful pc
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might be significantly more expensive than the zotac zbox pico because this is
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by far the least costly computer i've
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ever touched that comes pre-loaded with a fully licensed copy of Windows 8.1
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don't let the with bing bit scare you away either all it means
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is that bing is the default search engine something you can easily change
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on your own in two seconds other than that it's the real deal full Windows 8.1
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experience unreal you'll have about 18 gigs of space free on the boot drive
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once you set up Windows install some alternative browsers and whatnot so the
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first thing i decided to do of course was use up some of that space by
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installing 3dmark i mean it's all well and good if zotac crammed the hardware
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in there but especially given that this baby is passively cooled by a little
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strip of aluminum around the outside i wanted to see what kind of temperatures
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we'd see on that heatsink if we started pushing it
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not bad i mean the outer housing we measured it with our ir thermometer
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really didn't get that hot and even more impressively at the wall
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that's all the power draw we got i mean i guess i should have seen the
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efficiency coming when i noticed that the included power brick is a tiny and b
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only rated at 5 volts 3 amps or a total of 15 watts
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but i guess if you've made it this far in the video and you're kind of suitably
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impressed by all of that you might be sitting there nodding along going oh
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yeah Linus that's cool or whatever um i suspect there's also a good chance that
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you're sitting there asking yourself well hold on a second who the heck is this product actually made for to which
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i would answer great question zotac has pictures of business people slipping
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them into their pockets but i think the idea of you know jane businesswoman
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abandoning her laptop to carry a pc in her purse that while tiny on its own
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also needs to be accompanied by a battery input devices and a display to
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make it even somewhat useful is sorry zotac frankly ridiculous but that
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doesn't mean it's useless either though a couple much more likely uses for a
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silent compact inexpensive pc that comes pre-loaded with what would normally be a
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hundred dollar os on its own would be a a basic pc for our family member who
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doesn't need a powerful computer or a media pc box now
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arguably a chromecast or Android stick of some sort would make more sense for
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most media streaming applications but one key feature that those are missing
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is steam in-home streaming support with the built-in h.264 decoder and a gaming
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pc somewhere else in the house you can stream games to yourself check out this
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video for a more in-depth look at steam and home streaming it's a really cool
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technology and i think that even though this picot dropped too many frames for
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me to really recommend buying it for this purpose today a hypothetical pico 2
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should be able to handle this kind of streaming really well and i'm excited
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for the future speaking of streaming by the way guys if you aren't satisfied
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with being tied to your computer or tv to watch your favorite network tv shows
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then hulu plus is our sponsor for today
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and they could be the service for you hulu plus is the only streaming service
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that gives you access to new currencies and episodes of shows like american dad
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and bob's burgers through your smartphone tablet roku chromecast or
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shows like community and parks and recreation as well as kids shows and
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hundreds of criterion movies their service is reasonably priced at only
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7.99 a month but they have a special offer going on for Linus tech tips
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viewers or honestly really anyone else who does hulu plus sponsorship spots so
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you know you could use someone else's but we'd really appreciate if you are it's crazy you get two weeks free
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instead of just the one week trial that they offer to people normally so guys
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when you go to sign up for hulu plus be sure to use our link that's huluplus.com
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Linus to let them know that we sent you and get in on the special extended trial
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