[DeshMindER]

Zbox ID83;

• Intel HM76 Express
  
• Intel Core i3 3120M 2.5 GHz Dual-Core
  
• Intel HD Graphics 4000
  
  Zbox ID88
  • Intel H61 Express
    
  • Intel Core i3 3220T 2.8 GHz Dual-Core
    
  • Intel HD Graphics 2500
    
  
  CPU-Boss Comparison
  
  Both of them costs the same price. Amazon lists the ID88 as the sucessor of the ID83.
  
  The Cpu of the ID88 is slighty better than on the ID83, but I'm concerned about the GPU. The Intel 4000 is way better than the Intel 2500, right?

[Bmul]

The ZBOX-ID83-U is recommend by eskro

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=166625

[Dougie Fresh]

The Cpu of the ID88 is slighty better than on the ID83, but I'm concerned about the GPU. The Intel 4000 is way better than the Intel 2500, right?

It depends on what you're doing with it but for general HTPC usage there's no perceptible difference in picture quality and they both have the same features.

[JiSiN]

I wonder how much CPU Power do we need to get Hi10p (1080p) videos to play smoothly.
is i3-3120M enough? or i3-3220T? or do we even need a stronger one?

[p750mmx]

I wonder how much CPU Power do we need to get Hi10p (1080p) videos to play smoothly.
is i3-3120M enough? or i3-3220T? or do we even need a stronger one?

This one is sufficient in my humble experience: http://ark.intel.com/products/65697/

[veridian]

Hi all,

new to the forum, and also looking for a HTPC - it will be used mainly to stream HD movies from the NAS (using XBMC), maybe ocassionally from the internet, and SD videos (TV shows).

Been eyeing the Zotac ID83 for a while now, and now that I've seen Eskro recommending it, I thought to ask about picture quality when the Zbox is connected over HDMI to a LCD TV (not to a monitor).

Reason for asking is that I have seen a lot of people on various forums having issues with colorspace over HDMI, washed-out colors and black not being really black (in Windows). And all those problems were attributed to Intel's HD4000 GPU and/or buggy drivers (the same picture looks much better over VGA or DVI interface); some people managed to get better results with beta drivers, or by switching to Linux (XBMCbuntu?) altogether.

Also, seen many reviews on Zboxes on the web, but I find it somewhat odd that the reviewers rarely comment on HD picture quality (they rather focus on multitasking, movie encoding, gaming... imho, not the main tasks for a HTPC, unless you're building your own - meaning you're deciding what you will use it for, and building accordingly).

So I'd appreciate if Zbox ID83 owners (or owners of other newer Zboxes) could comment on HD picture quality over HDMI.

Thanks!
/Veridian

[DEcosse]

I'm also about to go with a specific HTPC (till now I've been using older laptop running XP with a VGA to HDMI converter box) and also strongly considering the ID83 - I see for as low as $319 (new)
I'm not a gamer and the video and audio processing looks to meet all my requirements and probably then some. The 3D is a bonus - only used it a couple of times - don't use it much right now but have the capability so why not ensure the HTPC is equipped with it. And of course has Optical out to the Audio amp.
But initially thinking maybe outside my budget - Zbox bare - or even plus with memory & HDD - have no bundled OS
So I was thinking there's another $100 hit right there for Windows 7 (which I thought for sure was going to need) on top of the SDD and memory! Ouch!

However I've been playing with Ubuntu on my netbook - had it installed as dual boot for some time (with windows on the other partition) but honestly found Unity a pain to work with, being a veteran of Windoze.
(you just get comfortable with what you know sometimes!)
I had Ubuntu 12.04 prior and simply could not get XBMC to work - found countless similar reports in search of similar error, (XBMC needs hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering. Install an appropriate graphics drive) although it worked perfectly in Windows and also in a stand-alone OpenElec USB boot Drive
I just upgraded it to Ubuntu 13.10 - did a clean install replacing (not upgrading) the 12.04 and loaded Cinnamon - all I can say is ......... Wow!!!
Cinnamon makes Linux immediately intuitive to the Windows-knowledgeable user and I found my way around it in minutes.
And XBMC loaded and worked flawlessly.
Bottom line - If you were considering Windows platform (for same reasons - requirements and familiarity), I would suggest you seriously give Ubuntu/Cinnamon a look - big saving to the pocket book as you are putting the system together.
So vs windoze, you are saving $100 right out the gate.
It gives you browser access of course for other things you want to run beyond XBMC - for example I have a stream subscription for my football (soccer) team and require browser access to have that on the big screen.
And you can run Netscape directly on it too - although, even though I have Netscape and HuluPlus subscriptions that were comp with my Sony TV, honestly have not even looked at them since discovering XBMC!

So unless someone points me in a different direction, I think for performance vs budget, the ID83 with 64GB SSD, 4GB memory and Ubuntu 13.10/Cinnamon is way I'm probably going.
Should be right around $400.
Be interested to hear of what might be comparable (or better?) performance in that budget