ZOTAC ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus Review

👤by Tim Harmer Comments 📅11-04-12
Technical Specifications

Experience a high-definition computing experience with rich graphics and web content with the extra small and pocket able ZOTAC ZBOX nano XS AD11 Plus. An AMD E-450 with Radeon™ HD 6320 graphics processing forms the heart of the ZOTAC ZBOX nano XS AD11 Plus and delivers stunning hardware-accelerated HD video online and offline, outstanding system responsiveness and Microsoft® DirectX® 11 compatibility.

Storage in the ZOTAC ZBOX nano XS AD11 Plus is handled by a 64GB solid-state drive that delivers lightning-fast boot times for an instant-on computing experience. The tiny ZOTAC ZBOX nano XS AD11 Plus packs plenty of expansion capabilities and features with USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and eSATA expansion and an integrated IR receiver with bundled Media Remote to easily take control of the mini-PC from the comfort of a sofa.




The backbone of the system is the AMD APU, so it behoves us to briefly introduce the concept to the uninitiated. In essence, the Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) combines the general purpose x86 cores of a CPU and a GPUs' programmable vector processing engines (i.e. shaders). The result is 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.

Though they don't yet have the capability of high-end discrete GPU and CPU performance, APUs are increasingly seen as suitable for low-power, space-sensitive scenario's where specialised workloads can be offloaded onto the shader architecture. One such example is that of the Home Theater PC, video decoding being an ideal process which a CPU deals with relatively poorly but a GPU can be programmed to cope with well.



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