Does Size Matter? Four Very Small Nettops Get Reviewed
We're comparing four diminutive PCs: ASRock’s Vision HT, Jetway’s Mini-Top JBC700, Lenovo’s Q180, and Zotac’s Zbox Nano XS AD11 Plus. Despite their similar sizes, each tiny computer offers a unique feature set. Are any of them right for you?
Benchmark Results: Synthetics
SiSoft Sandra is a solid diagnostic that's able to help expose the low-level differences between each platform's components.
ASRock’s Vision HT wins Sandra's Arithmetic test by a mile thanks to its Ivy Bridge-based Core i5-3210M. Jeway’s Mini-Top does half as well. Keep in mind, though, that it's equipped with a dual-core Celeron and could potentially host a much faster processor. The Zotac Zbox nano AD11 and Lenovo Q180 trail, nearly tying as a consequence of their slower CPUs.
The Multi-Media CPU benchmark hands back similar results, though the Ivy Bridge-based ASRock machine increases its lead thanks to support for AVX extensions. The Celeron G540 in Jetway's Mini-Top reverts to SSE4.2, and the other two processors are limited to SSE2.
Sandra’s memory bandwidth benchmark almost mirrors the CPU results, although the Jetway's Celeron catches up a little to the ASRock's Core i5 here. Zotac’s AD11 platform manages to push a little more bandwidth than Lenovo’s thanks to higher memory clocks.
It’s perhaps most interesting to see Intel’s HD Graphics 4000 in the ASRock Vision HT edge out Nvidia's discrete GeForce GT 520M in the Jetway Mini-Top. It’s also puzzling to see the Zotac Zbox’s E-450 APU with 80 ALUs demonstrate a slight advantage over the Lenovo Q180’s discrete Radeon GPU with 160. More than likely, this is a result of the Atom processor bottlenecking performance.
While the Media Center result is similar across all four systems, the Application Start-Up and Windows Defender tests really differentiate them.
First, we see how the SSD in Zotac’s Zbox nano XS AD11 really helps performance, making the system snappier with faster application start-up. The trade-off, of course, is capacity, which is limited to 64 GB. With that said, boot time is wonderfully short. Next, we see how the 7200 RPM Western Digital drive we installed in the Jetway Mini-Top outperforms both 5400 RPM disks. ASRock and Lenovo demonstrate similar storage performance as a result of their slower repositories.
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Nintendo Maniac 64 So I'm guessing there aren't any nettops yet that use the low-voltage Trinity APUs? (17w A6-4455M and 25w A10-4655M)Reply -
daglesj Beware with the Lenovo Q180 if you buy the barebones DOS version to install Windows 7 64bit on it.Reply
The Audio doesn't work. The drivers Lenovo have up on the site are incorrect for 64bit. So far they haven't got round to changing it after 6 months.
If you buy the version with Windows 64bit installed it works. But they just wont release the right driver. -
The big problem with net tops is longevity and lack of upgrade abilities. If all you plan to do with them is surf the web,send email, chat and watch 2D video. You most likely won't care what hardware is in them. But that's not the negative about these small form factors. Its heat, and a question of how that heat will affect the hardware in such a small form? Not to mention the small PSU's and the question of why would you buy one of these over a decent well designed notebook? Even if you like the form factor and want to run Linux on one of these. Chances are Linux will challenge you on some problem with the hardware.Reply
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daglesj For day to day office work they do the job perfectly. I know quite a few businesses that are keen to drop their old 130W desktop boxes for something easier on the power bill. I rolled out a load of Atom ION boxes about 3 years ago and all of them are still going strong in some quite challenging environments. A few of them were even overclocked to give a little extra pep and no problems yet.Reply
The main thing that holds these boxes back are the HDDs. They still keep slipping 5400rpm drives in them. You put a 120GB SSD in there and you have a near perfect general office PC. -
silverblue Looking at the D2700 vs. the 450 reminds me of days gone by with the P4D and the Athlon 64 X2. The higher clock speed plus HT of the Atom helps a lot with encoding but despite its clock speed disadvantage, the 450 easily holds its own.Reply
The next generation of both these CPU families would be worth watching out for. -
jaquith I've been debating about purchasing a MINI PC vs Building, sadly one of my HTPC's just recently took a swan dive. So do I purchase something like the ASRock Vision HT for ~$700+ ($800), Build or Repair?!Reply
The only potential drawback to these MINI PC's as an HTPC is lacking of an internal 'TV Tuner' option. However, since Cable DVR's are very common place now the 'TV Tuner' need is getting smaller every day. I have Verizon FiOS and the newer black DVR's and a HTPC to record requires a CableCARD and PCIe CableCARD e.g. Ceton InfiniTV 4 but then you run into oddball things like "Copy Once."
The Pro's & Con's are all from their size, but ~$700+ is a huge price and IMO reduces the demand. The only complete system in this article is the Lenovo Q180, the ASRock Vision HT 821B requires some form of OS and sure there's 'free' OSes but Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 64-bit will add an additional $100.
Any of these listed can be used as a simple Desktop replacement. The workaround for storage is to either purchase a large capacity 'drive' (SSD or HDD) that can 'fit' or some form of external storage including an external drive (USB or eSATA if applicable) or Windows Home Server or similar network storage device. -
chewy1963 silverblueLooking at the D2700 vs. the 450 reminds me of days gone by with the P4D and the Athlon 64 X2. The higher clock speed plus HT of the Atom helps a lot with encoding but despite its clock speed disadvantage, the 450 easily holds its own.The next generation of both these CPU families would be worth watching out for.Reply
Just about the same performance between them back in the day. Of course it's different OS's and software, but, that was from the good ole days when Athlon 64 x2 ruled the x86 performance race. -
stevelord I bought an Asus nettop last year from Walmart. And despite putting a SSD in it + 4GB of memory, it crawled at even loading web pages...especially forums. Wife noticed the speed difference and after lots of complaining sent me back to return it.Reply
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cleeve Nintendo Maniac 64So I'm guessing there aren't any nettops yet that use the low-voltage Trinity APUs? (17w A6-4455M and 25w A10-4655M)Reply
I couldn't find any, but this article has been in the works for a while so some might have cropped up. -
cleeve jaquithThe only potential drawback to these MINI PC's as an HTPC is lacking of an internal 'TV Tuner' option.Reply
The Jetway Mini-Top in this article *does* have an internal TV tuner option. :)