Product on Review: ZOTAC ZBOX nano AD12 PLUS
Manufacturer & Sponsor: ZOTAC

ZOTAC ZBOX's are designed to provide consumers with feature-rich small form factor and low-noise systems to act as either HTPC or in some instances fully-fledged PCs. A wide range of chassis types are available and the vast majority have a variety of mounting options to suit the needs of your front room, bedroom or study. Intel, AMD and VIA -based systems throughout the ZBOX range grant flexibility in choice of CPU and graphics options, unlike many off-the-self competitors. Though generally 'barebones' - i.e. lacking both RAM and HDD - ready-to-go systems (denoted as 'PLUS' variants) can be purchased which include high-quality RAM or HDD.

Reviewed today is the new ZBOX nano AD12 PLUS, an evolution of the AD10 sporting upgraded dual-core AMD E2-1800 APU running at 1.7GHz with HD7340 Graphics based around the A68M platform. The system supports up-to 8GB DDR3-1333 RAM via a single 204-Pin SODIMM Slot, with PLUS models bundling a single 2GB DDR3 SODIMM. Storage is a similar tale - the 2.5" bay supports SATA III 6Gbps drives, allowing the use of either larger mechanical HDDs or the latest ultra-fast SSDs, whilst PLUS models come with a single 320GB 5400RPM HDD pre-installed. These are by no means an exhaustive list of the ZBOX nano AD12, which also includes 802.11n WiFi, MCE remote and IR sensor, Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth 3.0; who says you need desktop size for premium features?




ZOTAC are perhaps best known as an official NVIDIA partner for their GeForce range of graphics cards and have joined other partners this past month in releasing AIB-specific versions of the GTX 660Ti and GTX 650Ti, two graphics cards based on the latest 28nm Kepler architecture. As we discovered earlier this year you shouldn't assume that ZOTAC is in any way limited to graphics products alone, they're also market leaders in both mini-ITX motherboards and mini-PCs, the latter of which is catered to by their ZBOX range.

In April we reviewed the extremely creative ZBOX nano XS AD11, a more compact system than the nano AD12 with pre-installed 64GB mSATA SSD. Though not quite as diminutive as the AD11, the AD12 may make up for it in processing power and expandability whilst we hope also having slightly better noise characteristics.