ZOTAC ZBOX nano AD12 PLUS Review
Technical Specifications
For those unfamiliar with AMD's APUs, let us briefly introduce the concept. An Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) combines the general purpose x86 cores of a CPU with a GPUs' programmable vector processing engines (i.e. shaders), resulting in a balanced package capable of both the strong scalar operation performance of a CPU – useful for an operating system and general usage – and the ability to offload processing to a highly parallel GPU when appropriate. Memory on APU-based systems is typically shared, with test results indicating that both increasing the amount of system memory and running it at higher (overclocked) speed can significantly improve graphics performance.
The small package size of most APU-base systems have served to reduce costs in budget markets where high-end discrete graphics and premium processing capabilities are unnecessary. The latest generation of AMD APUs - Trinity - have expanded the graphics capabilities of these systems to the 'budget-discrete' level whilst also expanding the CPU power, drastically improving gaming performance. Software development increasingly allows the use of GPU compute for more traditional tasks which benefit from the parallelism inherent in GPU architecture, leading to the APU being one of the most well-rounded and best bang-for-your buck platforms to choose.
Raise your performance expectations for energy-efficient computing with the palm-sized ZOTAC ZBOX nano AD12 Plus mini-PC powered by the AMD E2-1800 APU. Paired with AMD Radeon™ HD 7340 graphics, the ZOTAC ZBOX nano AD12 Plus delivers the perfect synergy of GPU and CPU performance for a rich multimedia computing experience with flawless high-definition video playback capabilities and ultra-fast responsiveness for regular day-to-day computing tasks.
High performance energy-efficient computing is only a couple thumbscrews away with the ZOTAC ZBOX nano AD12 Plus mini-PC thanks to a user-friendly design that makes mastering the mini-PC quick and easy. Space for a 2.5-inch hard drive and a 204-pin DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM slot enables users to customize the internals of the ZOTAC ZBOX nano AD12 Plus to their own needs – a 320GB hard drive and 2GB of DDR3 are included -- while USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, a 7-in-1 memory card reader (SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/xD/MMC) and eSATA port provide greater external expansion capabilities for perfect palm-sized energy-efficient computing.
High performance energy-efficient computing is only a couple thumbscrews away with the ZOTAC ZBOX nano AD12 Plus mini-PC thanks to a user-friendly design that makes mastering the mini-PC quick and easy. Space for a 2.5-inch hard drive and a 204-pin DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM slot enables users to customize the internals of the ZOTAC ZBOX nano AD12 Plus to their own needs – a 320GB hard drive and 2GB of DDR3 are included -- while USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, a 7-in-1 memory card reader (SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/xD/MMC) and eSATA port provide greater external expansion capabilities for perfect palm-sized energy-efficient computing.
For those unfamiliar with AMD's APUs, let us briefly introduce the concept. An Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) combines the general purpose x86 cores of a CPU with a GPUs' programmable vector processing engines (i.e. shaders), resulting in a balanced package capable of both the strong scalar operation performance of a CPU – useful for an operating system and general usage – and the ability to offload processing to a highly parallel GPU when appropriate. Memory on APU-based systems is typically shared, with test results indicating that both increasing the amount of system memory and running it at higher (overclocked) speed can significantly improve graphics performance.
The small package size of most APU-base systems have served to reduce costs in budget markets where high-end discrete graphics and premium processing capabilities are unnecessary. The latest generation of AMD APUs - Trinity - have expanded the graphics capabilities of these systems to the 'budget-discrete' level whilst also expanding the CPU power, drastically improving gaming performance. Software development increasingly allows the use of GPU compute for more traditional tasks which benefit from the parallelism inherent in GPU architecture, leading to the APU being one of the most well-rounded and best bang-for-your buck platforms to choose.
