Zotac Zbox ID83 Plus

The Zotac Zbox ID83 Plus ($472.99 list) is a reasonably priced small-form-factor desktop that packs a decent punch into its compact chassis. With a third-generation Intel "Ivy Bridge" processor, generous port selection, and support for dual-display output, it has the chops to go beyond its intended media-consumption purposes, in turn allowing users to dabble in some media creation as well as daily computing tasks. These attributes, alongside its sub-$500 sticker price, help overshadow its shortcomings, like the absence of an operating system or bundled peripherals, and make it a viable way to rev up any home theatre.

Design and Features
The Zbox ID83 Plus measures 7.4 by 1.7 by 7.4 inches (HWD), making it smaller than the Acer Aspire AX1930-UR10P but roughly on par with the compact Giada i53 Mini PC. With a silver strip lining the outer edges of its otherwise all-black body, its two-tone finish makes for an appealingly simple design. Although the glossy black portion invariably attracts fingerprints, chances are you won't be touching the system very often, since it will likely be nestled behind your TV or monitor. Given its tiny size and quiet fan operation, there's even a good chance that you'll forget it's there. A circular blue LED on the side of the chassis provides a cool visual effect, while the opposite side of the chassis sports four rubber feet to provide a grip for horizontal positioning. Alternatively, the system ships with a stand for vertical orientation as well as a VESA monitor mount.

The Zbox ID83 Plus crams an impressive number of ports onto its limited surface area. The front panel houses headphone and microphone jacks, a 6-in-1 card reader, and a USB 2.0 port. Another USB 2.0 port can be found on the top of the system, while the rear features a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a pair of USB 3.0 ports (marked in blue to prevent confusion), an Ethernet port, an optical S/PDIF (5.1 digital audio) port, and HDMI and DVI outputs. The latter two outputs allow for two displays to be used simultaneously. Additionally, the rear sports a screw-in jack for the bundled antenna, which helps strengthen the Zbox ID83's 802.11n/g/b Wi-Fi signal. The Zbox ID83 Plus also sports Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, so users can pair it with a wireless keyboard or mouse without having to deal with wires or with dongles. Although it does come with a remote that can navigate through your preferred media-playback interface, users must nevertheless separately purchase peripherals.

Opening the ZBox Nano AD12 Plus's chassis consists of removing a pair of thumbscrews on the bottom panel and popping off the side of the chassis, revealing some room for upgrades. Our test unit's single DIMM socket was occupied by a 4GB memory module, which can be replaced with a stick as large as 16GB. The included 500GB, 5,400rpm HDD, moreover, can be swapped with a more capacious 2.5-inch HDD or a solid-state-drive (SSD).

The Zbox ID83 Plus's 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive doesn't come with any bloatware. That's mostly due to the fact that it doesn't ship with an operating system, so users must spring extra cash for Windows 7 or 8 (we installed Windows 7 on our test unit). Moreover, since the system doesn't have an optical drive like the Lenovo H520s, installing the OS may entail the additional expense of an external optical drive.

Performance

With its 2.5GHz Intel Core i3-3120M CPU and 4GB RAM, the Zbox ID83 Plus packs a decent punch beneath its trim chassis. Its PCMark 7 score of 1,855 points fell behind the rest of its peers, like the Editors' Choice-winning Gateway SX2380-UR318 (2,056 points) and, to a greater extent, the Giada i53 Mini PC (4.337 points). Nevertheless, the Zbox ID83 Plus's Cinebench R11.5 score of 2.52 points managed to outmaneuver the the Gateway SX2380-UR318 (1.50 points) and the Giada i53 Mini PC (1.50 points) while falling short of the Aspire AX1930-UR10P (3.50 points) and the class-leading Lenovo H520s (4.90 points).

Although geared primarily toward media consumption, the Zbox ID83 Plus also displayed some finesse for moderate levels of media creation. It finished our Handbrake video-encoding test in 1 minute 26 seconds, edging past the i53 Mini PC by three seconds (1:26) and the Gateway SX2380-UR318 (2:25) by over a minute. Moreover, its performance in our Photoshop CS6 test (6:39) outflanked the Gateway SX2380-UR318 (7:26) while landing behind that of the i53 Mini PC (6:39) by a fairly sizable margin. Similarly, it exhibited some surefootedness for 3D rendering, with ascore of 1,118 points in 3DMark11, which came close to the class-leading Gateway SX2380-UR318 (1,170 points) while trumping the Giada i53 Mini PC (979 points).

The Zbox ID83 Plus's integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU isn't geared towards high-end gaming, so it unsurprisingly couldn't crack the 30 frames per second (fps) playability barrier in either our Heaven or Aliens vs. Predator benchmark tests.

With its third-generation Intel "Ivy Bridge" processor, generous port selection, and support for dual-display output, the Zotac Zbox ID83 Plus has the capacity to go beyond its intended media consumption purposes. Although this helps overshadow its shortcomings, it's not enough to bump the Gateway SX2380-UR318 off its perch as our current Editors' Choice. If you're a patient person who doesn't mind separately acquiring an OS and peripherals, though, it's a good way to rev up your home entertainment center.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/ZZvGc-4x32M/0,2817,2416942,00.asp

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