2012-11-26, 12:38
Hello everybody,
the different zboxes from zotac are always a good candidate for a xbmc machine.
First the spects for the maschine:
The zbox ID 81 has an Intel Celeron 857 with 1,2 Ghz.
I use 8 GB Corsair PC1333 Ram and an OCZ Agility 2 64 GB SSD.
So the total cost are:
Zbox: 220€
Ram: 35€
SSD 50€
Windows 8: 15€
Total: 320€
Putting the SSD and Ram in the zbox is very easy, no tools required. Remove 2 Thumbscrews open the box, plugged both in, that´s it.
I installed windows 8 Pro 64 bit in about 25 minutes, and the box is ready to use, Bluetooth, wlan, IR receiver all are working.
The setup with which I´m working know, is the following:
Zbox is behind the TV, connected with HDMI direct to the TV
Windows 8: Starts direct in xbmc, without Windows Explorer. Only Ultrastar is installed, besides XBMC.
Data is on a Synology DS 411.
It is for watching shows, movies, Ultrastar (Karaoke)
System starts very fast, from powerbutton to xbmc usable around 15 seconds, turning it on with the remote, 2-3 seconds.
The XBMC UI doesn’t lagging except with AEON skin in the Coverflow view (16-20fps).
Using “Advanced Launcher” to launche games in emulators works, but some skin/view combinations are a bit laggy (15-20 fps)
I use Neon and Metropolis both work without slowdowns.
I can watch 1080 mkvs without a problem, but the WLAN isn’t very strong. From Router to Zbox are 5 meters without anything to interrupted the signal and it works fine. But after I mounted the zbox behind my TV it has problems with 1080 files and is buffering a lot so watching isn’t fun.
Power and sound:
Out: 0,1 W
Standby (turned out with remote) 1,6 W
System on, xbmc closed 16 W
Xbmc started 32 W
Watching SD file 22W
Watchin HD file 22-25W
Ultrastar 29W
GBA Emulator, playing: 28-31W
If I sit in the living room and am completely silent I can hear the box a little bit. If I play the with the emulator or watch something even on a low sound volume, I can’t the zbox at all (also because the zbox needs less power when I watch something and you can here that the fan spins down)
The last thing i have to test, is if i am able to play PSX and N64 Games on the machine.
So, I hope this helps some people. I know not a very structured review put its short so I hope it´s okay.
If someone has some questions about it, I will try to answer them.
the different zboxes from zotac are always a good candidate for a xbmc machine.
First the spects for the maschine:
The zbox ID 81 has an Intel Celeron 857 with 1,2 Ghz.
I use 8 GB Corsair PC1333 Ram and an OCZ Agility 2 64 GB SSD.
So the total cost are:
Zbox: 220€
Ram: 35€
SSD 50€
Windows 8: 15€
Total: 320€
Putting the SSD and Ram in the zbox is very easy, no tools required. Remove 2 Thumbscrews open the box, plugged both in, that´s it.
I installed windows 8 Pro 64 bit in about 25 minutes, and the box is ready to use, Bluetooth, wlan, IR receiver all are working.
The setup with which I´m working know, is the following:
Zbox is behind the TV, connected with HDMI direct to the TV
Windows 8: Starts direct in xbmc, without Windows Explorer. Only Ultrastar is installed, besides XBMC.
Data is on a Synology DS 411.
It is for watching shows, movies, Ultrastar (Karaoke)
System starts very fast, from powerbutton to xbmc usable around 15 seconds, turning it on with the remote, 2-3 seconds.
The XBMC UI doesn’t lagging except with AEON skin in the Coverflow view (16-20fps).
Using “Advanced Launcher” to launche games in emulators works, but some skin/view combinations are a bit laggy (15-20 fps)
I use Neon and Metropolis both work without slowdowns.
I can watch 1080 mkvs without a problem, but the WLAN isn’t very strong. From Router to Zbox are 5 meters without anything to interrupted the signal and it works fine. But after I mounted the zbox behind my TV it has problems with 1080 files and is buffering a lot so watching isn’t fun.
Power and sound:
Out: 0,1 W
Standby (turned out with remote) 1,6 W
System on, xbmc closed 16 W
Xbmc started 32 W
Watching SD file 22W
Watchin HD file 22-25W
Ultrastar 29W
GBA Emulator, playing: 28-31W
If I sit in the living room and am completely silent I can hear the box a little bit. If I play the with the emulator or watch something even on a low sound volume, I can’t the zbox at all (also because the zbox needs less power when I watch something and you can here that the fan spins down)
The last thing i have to test, is if i am able to play PSX and N64 Games on the machine.
So, I hope this helps some people. I know not a very structured review put its short so I hope it´s okay.
If someone has some questions about it, I will try to answer them.
