Zotac Zbox + RAM + HDD = $250

[Rajahal]

Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11-U Intel Atom D510 NM10 Chipset 1 x 200Pin Next-Gen NVIDIA ION GPU Mini / Booksize Barebone System +

Patriot 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 + Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD2500BEVT 250GB

 

$250 shipped

 

I recommend upgrading the HDD to an SSD, but otherwise this is a great deal for a full featured XBMC HTPC.  I run the same Zbox at my home (with OpenELEC).

[aRe-eYe-pEa]

I bought this combo and I am also very happy with it.  It was running fine with the free HDD & ram.  The upgrade to SSD was huge and keep in mind that this has only 1x 200 pin SO-DIMM.  So while the ram and HDD are free in this package make sure you factor future proofing in your decision.  I had the SSD laying around and I am currently ok with running just the 2GB ram that came with this deal.  Just things to consider.  It's still cheaper than a PS3. 

[Rajahal]

I don't see any reason to run more than 2 GB of RAM as long as you are using this as an HTPC.

[aRe-eYe-pEa]

First, let me say that 2GB's is more than enough for an HTPC.  Especially in if it is for XBMC.  I also understand you said HTPC specifically.  I am happy with mine.  I purchased it thanks to you posting this deal last time it happened and would do so again.  The reason I bought it was so that I could go with XBMC.  Once I purchased the unit I decided that XBMC didn't do everything I would like it to with the peripherals that I have.  Two HD Homeruns, that can be used with XBMC, a PS3 to stream media to from this unit, and my Hauppauge HD PVR.  I ended up running Win7.  Right now I know everyone who is reading this is finding ways to make all this work.  I like the simplicity of the TV guide within Win7.  I also wanted to be able to have Fancast, HULU, XBMC, Boxee, Orb, Logmein and access to all the prior mentioned hardware.  I guess I am saying I want everything for half the price.  With running Win7 the 4GB's might be beneficial.  Besides, I would think that with 4GB's of ram it would be able to replace one of my parents desktops if something happened.  This is still an awesome deal as is.  I would fully recommend it to anyone.  I just think this approach is also viable in consideration while purchasing. (Sorry for the length.)

[Rajahal]

I agree, for a Windows 7 box 4 GB will be a big benefit.  It will still work with just 2 though...a friend of mine used of these as a basic web surfing box (running Win 7) with 2 GB of RAM from an old broken laptop he had.  For all the extra stuff that you do, I'm sure 4 GB is pretty much necessary.

 

By the way, since you use yours for more than just a basic HTPC, perhaps you can enlighten me on something.  I'm considering building a stand-alone torrent box.  Currently I run uTorrent on my desktop PC, have it download to a local 500 GB drive there (not the boot drive), and have it seed from the unRAID server.  This is a bit of a pain since I have to manually move downloaded files to the unRAID server, then redirect each torrent to be able to seed from the files.  I also don't like having to run my 100+ W beastly desktop PC 24/7 just to download and seed some torrents.  I've also been experimenting with running Transmission directly on the unRAID server.  As a basic torrent client it works just fine, but I really miss all the features of uTorrent (RSS feeds, the ability to relocate files, etc.), so I don't think it will work out for me in the long run.

 

I'm considering building an SSD-based Zbox as a simple Windows 7 box that does nothing besides run torrents and maybe play the occasional youtube video or music player through the home entertainment system (XBMC's youtube integration and music player are somewhat lacking in my opinion).  The Zbox appeals to me as it runs at 26W, whether idle or active, so I wouldn't mind leaving it running 24/7.  I figure I'll use 2 - 4 GBs of RAM as needed.  The Zbox would boot off a budget 30 or 60 GB SSD (primarily to keep heat and power usage down, not for speed so much), as all files would be stored on the unRAID server.  I would run full uTorrent, but all downloading would go to the unRAID server's cache drive, and all seeds would be from the server's data drives.  I realize I would still have to manually move downloaded files from the cache drive to the data drives, unless maybe I can recreate the entire server's directory structure on the cache drive...I'll have to experiment with that.  What do you think of this idea?  Is the Zbox powerful enough to handle running hundreds of torrents at a time?  I expect the Atom CPU might choke under that kind of load (especially when re-checking torrents).  I know when using my friend's Zbox running Win7 I found it a bit too sluggish to be my every-day computer, but for most things it was fine.

[aRe-eYe-pEa]

As I was reading your post I thought that you might be able to use the ZBox for what you were saying.... Then I got to the hundreds of torrents part.  I am pretty sure that would make the Zbox crap out.  I can't even imagine if you were checking the hashes of multiple files at the same time.  This would be based off of a large file size.  Most torrents that I have gotten have been multiple GB's.  I haven't used a torrent client since the good old days of Azereus not that Vuze stuff that it migrated to.  I have Win7 installed and can bench whatever software you want.  I can access it while at work with logmein.  If you post the things that you want tested I would be more than happy to.

[Gizmotoy]

The deals on these little HTPCs always seem to be Intel Atom-based.  I wish Intel had added HD audio bitstreaming support to the Atom line.  There are AMD Zboxes that support it, but they're never on sale.  *sigh*

 

[Rajahal]

I decided to pop a budget SSD into a friend's Zbox that I'm borrowing and run some of my own tests.  Installed Win7, all the updates, a bit of freeware, and uTorrent.  I copied my uTorrent settings from my desktop over to the Zbox.  I started rechecking a few large torrents, and it seemed to work OK.  I'll have to put some more time into it to see if it will work long term, but preliminary results seem OK.

 

I was using my TV to test out the Zbox because my regular computer monitors were all occupied.  The Zbox was connected with an HDMI cable to my receiver, and the receiver then passes the signal on to the TV.  My HTPC Zbox is hooked up the same way.  Win7 doesn't seem to have the appropriate drivers to pass audio through HDMI, it defaults to the optical audio port.  This seems odd.  Looking in Win7's settings, I see options for audio over HDMI that are all enabled, but they just don't seem to work.  I suppose it wouldn't be a huge deal to pick up an optical audio cable at some point and just use that, but I prefer HDMI.

[Gizmotoy]

You should be able to bitstream everything except the HD audio formats over HDMI from within Win 7 on the ZBox.  You may need to install the Zotac audio drivers instead of just letting Windows use whatever it finds automatically.

[BRiT]

I think Gizmotoy is right, you need to install updated Audio and Graphic drivers to get HDMI audio formats going. Not completely related, but in similar fashion I was having some issues doing so on an Intel GPU until I installed the latest Intel drivers. After that, it worked.

[Johnm]

By the way, since you use yours for more than just a basic HTPC, perhaps you can enlighten me on something.  I'm considering building a stand-alone torrent box. .......

 

I'm a bit late and a bit off topic.

 

Rajahal,

 

I have a 24x7 Newsbin box on a 100MB Internet connection sitting on my desk at work (well, behind my tower out of sight). I am running it in an MSI BOX with an atom D510.

It has 4 gigs of ram, a 2.5" 7200 RPM 120 gig laptop drive for the OS, and a 3.5" 2tb green drive in a caddyless hotswap bay (Like this).

The PC is smaller then a new style PS3 and made heavy steel instead of plastic

For an OS, I am running server 2008r2 standard with all the services i dont need shut off.

 

It is nice and silent and can eat about 40MB/s bandwidth if i dont throttle it back. the Limit is the ram. I maxed it out at 4GB and it is always at 100% ram and the OS drive is spinning due to pagefile writes. The CPU is almost always under 15% unless i'm raring or paring things. I think an SSD would solve a lot of the issues.. also part of the ram issue is the app i am using. Torrent might be just the opposite.

 

The pullout makes it easy to just swap the drives with a blank one so i can take my files home since i can pretty much fill a 2tb drive in a day if i uncapped it.

 

So yes, this would be a good job for a 24x7 atom. a single app server/workstation 24x7.

It is when you are multitasking and several apps at once that would kill it.

also, Pars and Rars will not be super fast, and dont try to run several at once.

 

I would think that zbox would work fine. Maybe you could find a 2 drive or one with USB3 or esata and add an external drive?

[aRe-eYe-pEa]

I used this guys experience to help me when I first setup my Zbox and have no issues.

 

http://blog.insanegenius.com/2010/05/zotac-zboxhd-id11-first-impressions.html

 

 

[Rajahal]

Thanks for the comments, guys.  I'm surprised that review claims the Zbox is loud, since mine is completely silent (running all default BIOS fan settings too).  It does run hot (very warm to the touch), but I haven't had any overheating, stuttering, etc. problems so I just let it.

 

In my case I don't think I'll have any use for an external drive hooked up to the Zbox, since it will be connected to my network (and thus my unRAID server).  The Zbox does have a built in eSATA port (but no USB 3.0) if I ever change my mind about that.