Good Things In Small Packages: Seven Nettop Platforms, Tested

Three Nettop Form Factors, Taken Apart

Before we move on to the benchmarks, lets take a look at the enclosures themselves. As mentioned on the previous page, we’re dealing with three different form factors here, each available as a barebones or built-up Plus version.

We have the Plus models with storage and memory pre-installed, but don't be afraid to take the do-it-yourself route. Zotac makes hardware installation very easy. Remove the screws, take off the bottom of the chassis, and you're granted access to the memory slots and drive bay. You don't even need any tools; Zotac uses knurled screws. Once more, the Blu-ray model is the exception, relying on small Phillips-head screws.

There is one more design detail we’d like to mention: the illuminated ring on the top of the Zboxes. Their color is an indication of the hardware contained within. Blue denotes Intel, green stands for AMD, and orange is assigned to VIA (in this case).

An Upstanding Solution: Zotac‘s Zbox

A Tiny Computer: Zotac Zbox nano

Widebody: Zotac Zbox Blu-ray

  • JOSHSKORN
    In all honesty, when it can run Crysis...I'll be impressed. Until then...alrighty.
    Reply
  • falchard
    I think this review is bias. Its missing the AMD small form factor benchmark. Any game.
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    JOSHSKORNIn all honesty, when it can run Crysis...I'll be impressed. Until then...alrighty.
    Well, if you run it in:

    -320p resolution
    -Directx 8
    -All eyecandy off

    You'll get around 5-10 FPS.
    Reply
  • bavman
    These things suck. Why would you dish out the $300-400 theyre asking for them? I recently built a file server that was basically a dumbed down tower with an g620 cpu, 4 gigs of ram for under $200 (excluding all the hdds). Throw in a $50 graphics card and it would dominate any of these nettops.
    Reply
  • we_san
    Just curious. Are these in the same price segment ?
    Reply
  • friskiest
    bavmanThese things suck. Why would you dish out the $300-400 theyre asking for them? I recently built a file server that was basically a dumbed down tower with an g620 cpu, 4 gigs of ram for under $200 (excluding all the hdds). Throw in a $50 graphics card and it would dominate any of these nettops.
    You pay for the size, power and niche factor in here,.. these are Nettops,.. you're not supposed to play AA or AAA games in here,. just browse the net,. watch movies and listen to music- as implied
    Reply
  • Nintendo Maniac 64
    What I really want to see is a nettop using AMD's 17w A6-4455M. Being a Trinity APU, it actually WOULD have enough grunt to run Crysis, and without it looking like crap to boot!
    Reply
  • molo9000
    Shame these still aren't good at H.264 decoding. They would make great HTPCs.

    The hardware decoding of the VIA chipset would be a killer feature, if there actually was some software that supported it. Seems like XBMC doesn't support it either.
    Reply
  • hmp_goose
    The point of the Nano was power consumption, right? Didn't we just debunk that?
    Reply
  • daglesj
    I rolled out a load of Ion 330 Asrock boxes a couple of years ago for business use. Customers still love their little black boxes. These were the early 1.6Ghz dual core Atoms.

    For work use (basically 95% of what 95% of the worlds computers users actually do in the REAL world) they work great.

    There is more to life than endless benchmarking and Crysis.
    Reply