I wonder why it seems necessary to have 29 different skus. Surely at some point they're not being any more competitive and ensuring a glut of confusing all-alike choices at very similar price points.
I guess some are just tiny changes being sold to different companies but, still...
Maybe some of these models are just historical comparison / not quite discontinued yet, such as the ID45.
I'm between CI320 and CI321... Which one will be more powerful and reliable for 24/7? I know, the Bay Trail in performance per Watt is probably unbeatable, but I've tried one with Windows 10 (beta) and it's performance could be better. Maybe is something related with the HDD, and an SSD could make the CI320 a faster and snappier machine.
But if I can obtain a more powerful machine (in terms of both CPU and GPU, not only the GPU) with the CI321, then I'll go with that model. I know the Celeron has an Intel HD Graphics with 10 SPUs, while the Bay Trail has only 4. But as I said, the CPU performance is important for me too. At 1,1GHz and only being a Dual Core, how much faster can be this CI321 compared to Bay Trail CI320?
And finally, what about the new HP Stream mini & Pavilion mini, with Celeron and Pentium Haswell respectively?
Thank you, I just signed for the first time in AnandTech only to post this question, and to ask the editors a full Barebones comparison (it would be great, with the Zotacs, HPs minis, Intel NUC and Gigabyte Brix among others).
Keep doing AnandTech the best hardware review web, as it has been all those years.
If you need more performance than the CI320 or CI321... I'd go for the MA320. It has a bit more CPU power than both those Celerons (single and multi-thread) and the GPU power is much higher. And for the price... it's a steal.
I second that. Such a comparison would be really relevant now. I'm a bit confused by all the SKUs from so many manufacturers at similar price points and it would help to see which is best for any price category and type of workload.
I have an EN760, and it absolutely destroys a Mac Mini in gaming performance. It will play most modern games at 1080p with high settings. It's also basically silent. At low load it's completely silent, and while gaming it's barely audible.
If the Mac Mini fits your exact use case, it's a good value. But various ZBoxes are good for gaming, or fanless, or pocket sized. That allows many other use cases that the Mac Mini won't satisfy.
If you have any interest in gaming, the EN760 is a great choice. It's got an i5 and gaming graphics, and it's completely silent at low to medium load, including video playback.
The i7 based units, especially the EN730 and 750, reportedly have significant fan noise, so I wouldn't choose one of those for HTPC.
If you don't do any gaming, I'd probably go with something in the ID series (ID45, ID86, ID91, or ID92). They have the same case design as the EN series, but less powerful hardware. Because that case design has good cooling, they should be silent or very quiet, and also very stable.
Zbox systems have very high failure rates of about 75% from my personal experience of 40+ Zbox systems. They only have 1 year warranty also. Stay away.
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FelixDraconis - Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - link
I wonder why it seems necessary to have 29 different skus. Surely at some point they're not being any more competitive and ensuring a glut of confusing all-alike choices at very similar price points.I guess some are just tiny changes being sold to different companies but, still...
Maybe some of these models are just historical comparison / not quite discontinued yet, such as the ID45.
Alphonse84 - Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - link
I'm between CI320 and CI321... Which one will be more powerful and reliable for 24/7? I know, the Bay Trail in performance per Watt is probably unbeatable, but I've tried one with Windows 10 (beta) and it's performance could be better. Maybe is something related with the HDD, and an SSD could make the CI320 a faster and snappier machine.But if I can obtain a more powerful machine (in terms of both CPU and GPU, not only the GPU) with the CI321, then I'll go with that model. I know the Celeron has an Intel HD Graphics with 10 SPUs, while the Bay Trail has only 4. But as I said, the CPU performance is important for me too. At 1,1GHz and only being a Dual Core, how much faster can be this CI321 compared to Bay Trail CI320?
And finally, what about the new HP Stream mini & Pavilion mini, with Celeron and Pentium Haswell respectively?
Thank you, I just signed for the first time in AnandTech only to post this question, and to ask the editors a full Barebones comparison (it would be great, with the Zotacs, HPs minis, Intel NUC and Gigabyte Brix among others).
Keep doing AnandTech the best hardware review web, as it has been all those years.
Regards.
heffeque - Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - link
If you need more performance than the CI320 or CI321... I'd go for the MA320. It has a bit more CPU power than both those Celerons (single and multi-thread) and the GPU power is much higher.And for the price... it's a steal.
close - Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - link
I second that. Such a comparison would be really relevant now. I'm a bit confused by all the SKUs from so many manufacturers at similar price points and it would help to see which is best for any price category and type of workload.tanyet - Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - link
Seeing the prices for these things without drives, memory or an OS makes me understand why the mac mini is such a good value.barleyguy - Thursday, January 15, 2015 - link
I have an EN760, and it absolutely destroys a Mac Mini in gaming performance. It will play most modern games at 1080p with high settings. It's also basically silent. At low load it's completely silent, and while gaming it's barely audible.If the Mac Mini fits your exact use case, it's a good value. But various ZBoxes are good for gaming, or fanless, or pocket sized. That allows many other use cases that the Mac Mini won't satisfy.
bradlinder - Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - link
Actually the PI330 is also new. Zotac released the PI320 with an Atom Z3735F processor in 2014. The new model has a slightly faster Bay Trail chip.dirkdigs - Thursday, January 15, 2015 - link
which zbox is recommended for HTPC? i have a network attached storage.barleyguy - Saturday, January 17, 2015 - link
If you have any interest in gaming, the EN760 is a great choice. It's got an i5 and gaming graphics, and it's completely silent at low to medium load, including video playback.The i7 based units, especially the EN730 and 750, reportedly have significant fan noise, so I wouldn't choose one of those for HTPC.
If you don't do any gaming, I'd probably go with something in the ID series (ID45, ID86, ID91, or ID92). They have the same case design as the EN series, but less powerful hardware. Because that case design has good cooling, they should be silent or very quiet, and also very stable.
shamans333 - Friday, January 16, 2015 - link
Zbox systems have very high failure rates of about 75% from my personal experience of 40+ Zbox systems. They only have 1 year warranty also. Stay away.kjhambrick - Friday, August 21, 2015 - link
Maybe you're doing it wrong ?I've got over 60 of various models out in the wild running as Linux Appliances.
I've had only one fail due to a lightning storm and it not being on a UPS.
Some are going on 5-years now ...
kjhambrick - Friday, August 21, 2015 - link
Eeek !I don't see the R-Series in the Table.
Has Zotac Dropped the new RAID Boxen ?
I was hoping to start deploying these running RAID-1 + CentOS for Biz-Critical Appliances.
Thanks.
-- kjh
http://www.zotac.com/products/mini-pcs/zbox-r-seri...[compare]=1&cHash=ddb8f7a408d0ad10984c3d6300aa3b22