ZOTAC ZBOX nano AD12 PLUS Review

👤by Tim Harmer Comments 📅11-10-12
A Closer Look

Externally the AD12 is reminiscent of the rest of the ZBOX nano range, whilst featuring far more connectivity than the nano XS AD11 thanks to its use of the AMD M3L (A68) mainboard chipset. We've mentioned before that we find this brushed metal and gloss black style to be a good-looking one, complementing many TV/DVD brands on the market today, if a little prone to fingerprints and dust. It seems something of a shame to hide it away using the VESA mount, though it of course remains an option.



The overall footprint of the AD12 is 127mm x 127mm (LxW), a little larger than the diameter of a DVD. It sits a stocky 50mm above the desk - fairly commensurate with most non-slimline DVD players and set-top boxes; with WiFi aerial attached and upright it requires a clearance of 110mm.

Connectivity on the front of the unit is well thought-out: from left to right there are the power button, power/HDD indicator LEDs, IR sensor, 7-in-one SD card slot, two USB2.0 ports, headphone/mini-Optical SPDIF combo port and microphone port. There's plenty of room around every port so it's fairly unlikely any one ports' connected device would foul on another; only eSATA isn't present of those ports you might want easy access to.



Somewhat surprisingly, the AD12 does not feature ventilation on the right side of the unit, and yet devotes much of the left side to an exhaust. In the long run this could serve to starve the unit of cool air, although other ventilation holes are present on the chassis rear. Considering the AD11's APU had lower specs yet more ventilation this omission is intriguing; it could point to a design oversight, or significantly more efficient APU/cooling.

The left side also includes a Kensington Lock, which could be handy for office environments.



The rear is very much the business end by contrast and packed with I/O, most of which will generally be plugged-in permanently rather than hot-swapped. Left-most is the DC-in, followed by DisplayPort and HDMI, dual-USB3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, dual-USB2/0 eSATA and antenna socket; even though conforming to the relevant standards bulky plugs will cause one connector to foul another socket, such as in the case of large USB thumb-drives. Even so, the layout is still sensible and difficult to criticise except to note that high-speed USB3 connectivity would be ideal on the front as well as rear.

Due to inclusion of two display ports (HDMI and DP), the AD12 is capable of outputting to two display devices simultaneously. Outputting to two HDMI/DVI devices however is only possible with a separately acquired DP->HDMI adapter.

Below the ports is a single grated vent which will aid in the cooling of internal hardware such as the HDD and memory. We should note that this doesn't amount to very much more than passive levels of cooling, and would also be the chief intake for the APUs active (fan-assisted) cooling.



Lastly, we come to the chassis floor, where product model/serial numbers and certification stamps can be found. As in other ZBOX nano models the four rubber feet serve to dampen vibration (and hence noise), which is a nice feature whether mounted on the rear of a TV or just sitting on the shelf of a TV stand. The four chevrons allow the mounting of AD12 to the VESA mounting plate as detailed below, in pretty much any orientation you might want (though with exhaust vent upwards is the obvious choice).



Unscrewing the feet allows access to the AD12's internals, from which the HDD and RAM can be easily installed/removed. Care should be taken when levering the floor off to ensure that securing tabs aren't broken, and avoid using tools to lever up the floor, they could damage the electronics inside. HDDs connect via standard SATA data and power arrangement and the caddy supports 2.5" drives up to 9.5mm thick, encompassing the majority of laptop HDDs and SSDs currently on the market. The AD12 PLUS has a 2GB 204-pin SODIMM of DDR3-1333 RAM installed, but the M3L chipset can accept up to 8GB of the same type in its single slot.

The general build quality of the AD12 is good, though the base is a little more flexible than one would like. Lack of dampening between the HDD and unit chassis may cause a little more noise than necessary, but that's very much dependant on the noise characteristics of the HDD chosen. Note that non-PLUS models can choose an SSD over a mechanical HDD, eliminating all moving parts apart from the APU cooler.



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