Zotac's 'Smaller Than an SSD' PC

Long gone are the days where a desktop PC consisted of a very large box sat on your desk that sounded like a plane taking off when turned on. Computers continue to get smaller, with Intel's NUC range demonstrating what'south possible without compromising on operation. You can go smaller though, much smaller in fact, as Zotac's Zbox PI225 proves.

The PI225 was actually launched back in September last year, but every bit FanlessTech points out, it's taken until now for stock to go readily bachelor. The most impressive thing about this Zbox is its size, coming in smaller than a 2.5-inch SSD in all merely thickness. And yet, information technology manages to run Windows 10 Home 64-flake.

Inside, there's a dual cadre Intel Apollo Lake N3350 processor running at i.1GHz with HD Graphics 500, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and zero fans. In that location'due south also no Ethernet port meaning you'll be reliant on Wi-Fi without adding an adapter. Power is supplied via a micro USB port, at that place's also two USB Blazon-C ports, and a micro SD slot to add more storage.

You'll notice I didn't mention a HDMI port, and that's because the PI225 doesn't take one integrated into its principal casing. Instead, Zotac includes a Type-C to HDMI dongle, which you'll demand to accept plugged into the tiny PC. Replacing one of those two USB Type-C ports with a HDMI port would have been a better idea in my opinion. All the same, y'all can get Type-C to HDMI cables for a more streamlined solution.

As you lot can tell from the spec, the PI225 is not going to be fast. Zotac claims information technology achieves 4K output at 30Hz, so for 1080p media streaming information technology should work fine. Zotac also includes a VESA mountain bracket in the box and then you tin hide it away behind a display if y'all wish.

At $200, it's not expensive and looks to exist a pace above the HDMI stick PCs in terms of functioning and connectivity. Still, the mandatory use of a dongle combined with very express storage ways the use cases are going to be quite express.

CNX-Software carried out a thorough review of the PI225 and establish information technology is capable of running Linux instead of Windows ten, which could help meliorate performance and gratuitous up storage. There's also a Turbo mode bachelor in the BIOS to improve overall performance, simply with it enabled temperatures can increment quite a bit.