Nettop Round-Up: Four Tiny PCs, Benchmarked And Reviewed
We're testing four nettops: Arctic Cooling’s MC001-BD, ASRock’s CoreHT 252B, Giada’s i50, and Zotac’s Zbox AD03BR-PLUS. All of these tiny, quiet systems take a very different approach to compact computing, and we fill you in on what makes them unique.
Nettop Nirvana
Intel’s Atom CPU might have been the driving force behind the popularization of the nettop form factor, but manufacturers are squeezing more powerful hardware into these tiny machines. Sometimes, more potent graphics performance is added via a mobile chipset. Sometimes, processing m muscle is emphasized instead with a CPU designed for powerful notebook. And now, APUs belonging to AMD's Fusion initiative are an option, serving up efficient power use and higher-performance graphics on a single processor die.
Truly, the nettop is no longer a stripped-down machine barely capable of Web browsing and word processing. These tiny PCs are tailor-made to excel in specific applications, which often includes use in a home theater.
We’re taking a close look at four very different nettops. Before we examine them, here are their specifications:
Header Cell - Column 0 | ASRock Core100HT-BD | Giada i50 B5541 | ArcticMC001-BD | Zotac Zbox AD03BR-Plus |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nettop Specifications | ||||
Chipset | Intel HM65 | Intel HM55 | Intel NM10 | AMD A50M |
CPU | Intel Core i5-2520M (Sandy Bridge), Dual-Core, Hyper-Threaded, 2.5 GHz (3.1 Max. Turbo), 3 MB L3 Cache | Intel Core i3-430UM (Arrandale), Dual-Core, Hyper-Threaded, 1.2 GHz (1.73 Max. Turbo), 3 MB L3 Cache | Intel Atom D525(Pineview-D) Dual-Core, Hyper-Threaded, 1.8 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache | AMD E-350(Zacate) Dual-Core, 1.6 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache |
SystemMemory | Asint PC3-10700, 2 x 2 GB, 665 MHz, CL 9-9-9-24-1T(dual-channel) | Kingston PC3-107001 x 4 GB, 400 MHz, CL 6-6-6-15-1T(single-channel) | Nanya PC3-10700, 2 x 2 GB, 399 MHz, CL 6-6-6-15-2T(single-channel) | Samsung PC3-107001 x 2 GB, 533 MHz, CL 9-9-9-24-1T (single-channel) |
Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Integrated, shared RAM) | Intel HD Graphics (Integrated, shared RAM) | Mobility Radeon HD 5430 (512 MB dedicated GDDR3, 800 MHz ) | Radeon HD 6310 (Integrated, shared RAM) |
Hard Drive | Western Digital Scorpio Black500 GB, 7200 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA 3Gb/s | Seagate Momentus 7200.4500 GB, 7200 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA 3Gb/s | Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 500 GB, 7200 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA 3Gb/s | Samsung Spinpoint 250 GB, 5400 RPM, 8 MB cache, SATA 3Gb/s |
Optical Drive | LG DS-4E1S Slimline4x Blu-ray ROM8x DVD-RW SATA | Not included | LG DS-4E1S Slimline4x Blu-ray ROM8x DVD-RW SATA | Blu-ray/DVD/CD Combo Drive |
Remote | Included | Included | Not included, but Smartphone app available soon | Not included |
Internal Interfaces | ||||
Memory Support | Two 204-pin SO-DIMMsDDR3-1333, Up to 8 GB | One 204-pin SO-DIMMDDR3, up to 8 GB | Two 204-pin SO-DIMMsDDR3, Up to 4 GB | Two 204-pin SO-DIMMsDDR3, Up to 8 GB |
I/O Panel Connectors | ||||
DVI | none | none | none | 1 |
VGA | 1 | 1 | 1 | none |
HDMI | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
USB 2.0 (3.0) | 4 (4) | 4 (1) | 5 (2) | 1 (2) |
Memory CardReader | none | SD/MMC/MS/MSPRO | 4-in-1 Memory Card Reader | MMC/SD/SDHC/MS/MS Pro/xD |
Network | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
eSATA | 1 (combo eSATA/USB 2.0) | none | none | 1 (combo eSATA/USB 2.0) |
Digital Audio Out | Optical/HDMI | HDMI | Optical/HDMI | Optical/HDMI |
Analog Audio | 5 rear, 2 front jacks | 2 top jacks | 6 rear, 2 front jacks | 2 front jacks |
Mass Storage Controllers | ||||
Chipset SATA | 3 x SATA 3Gb/s(2 used for optical and HDD) | 1 x SATA 3Gb/s(used for HDD) | 2 x SATA 3Gb/s(2 used for optical and HDD) | 2 x SATA 3Gb/s(2 used for optical and HDD) |
Ethernet & Wireless | ||||
LAN | Realtek 8111E PCIe | Realtek 8111E PCIe | Realtek 8111E PCIe | Realtek 8111DL PCIe |
Wi-Fi | Atheros AR92872T2R 802.11b/g/n | Azurewave AW-NB037H802.11b/g/n | Ralink RT3070L802.11b/g/n | Atheros AR92872T2R 802.11b/g/n |
Bluetooth | none | Azurewave AW-NB037H802.11b/g/n | none | none |
Audio | ||||
HD Audio Codec | Analog and optical:Realtek ALC892HDMI: Intel Display Audio | Analog:Realtek ALC662HDMI: Intel Display Audio | Analog and optical:Realtek ALC892HDMI: AMD HD Audio | Analog and optical:Realtek ALC888HDMI: AMD HD Audio |
Audio Channels | 7.1-Ch HD Audio withTHX TruStudio PRO | 5.1-Ch HD Audio | 7.1-Ch HD Audio | 7.1 + 2-Ch HD Audio |
Price | ||||
With Windows OS | Not Available | $659 at shop.polywell.com(including Windows 7 Home Premium) | $714 at www.arctic.ac(including Windows 7 Home Premium) | Not Available |
Without Windows OS | $800 at www.newegg.com | 2 GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive alternate available at www.amazon.com with Ubuntu for $465 | Not Available | $504 at www.zotacUSA.com, or $399 for barebone (no OS, memory or hard disk) |
Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
-
jdwii MISTAKEReply
But at $504 with no operating system (and $399 for a version without an operating system, hard drive, or memory),
-
Pyree IDK, $800 for the ASRock CoreHT 252B. A laptop cost less, has better performance for that price range, better mobility and space saving plus you have everything (screen, speaker etc). I rather get a laptop for a small office.Reply -
chumly These all seem expensive to me, considering you could probably build a better mini itx slim form factor system from scratch for about half the price.Reply -
molo9000 Nettops? These things are far too expensive to be nettops.Reply
They are small form factor PCs or home theatre PCs, but they are not nettops.
btw: Mac mini should be in this lineup. -
amk-aka-Phantom Very nice article. I was about to request something like it :)Reply
Mac Mini should be in this lineup? Actually, a good idea. I'd love to see how it compares to similar Wintel boxes.
I'm through with these small boxes because they're a pain in the a$$ to service and the hardware isn't good for the price ($800?! gimme a break!), but I see value in them for people who are ready to pay more for the small size.
If I would build a small form-factor box myself, I'd use something like this new Lian Li case which was in Tom's news recently - it can fit proper PCI/PCI-E cards.
Again, lovely article. Keep it up.
P.S. The ASRock box is great. -
compton I second the sentiment that these aren't really nettops. Luckily, the next iteration of Llano should rectify that, creating the golden triangle of CPU , GPU, and low cost. At least that's what I expect anyway. These reviewed units are more HTPC solutions than low cost nettop. Intel has a new half height miniITX initiative with a rare and relatively expensive 1155 mini ITX to match. However, once Intel's iGPU gets a serving of HTPC friendly features, you could build your own full featured, passively cooled system to take these units on performance and price as well. The move to 22nm should make low powered passively cooled CPUs easy to get right. As it stands, each of the solutions tested are pretty good, but I'm not sure that any of them are worth the asking price. In particular, I've always avoided Atom like the plague, and I don't think they're appropriate in small form factor systems that cost more than about $200.Reply -
ruban71 Can we now have a comparison against a couple of ITX builds? Choose an nice looking case and show us what can be put together for similar money.Reply -
I've owned an E350 - struggles with HD playback in a linux system, there doesn't appear to be any support for the amd hardware decoding. So if you were thinking of making a linux htpc out of it, go for something more powerful... It will perform better though as in the article above if using Windows (Using I think - Media Player classic which allows hardware h.264 decode.)Reply