Dell Zino HD - New mini HTPC - Page 6

I ordered through EPP, but there is no discount to be had on the base (or even building off of the base as I did) except the free shipping.

CD

Can you share how did you get it through EPP?

Relatively sure the dual-core 3250e upgrade is going to be a must, at least for smooth operation. I've still got old machines that are likely on par with the base config (single-core Sempron 3200+ & Celeron 430) and performance just isn't up to snuff. I also seem to recall that the 780G can only do 2-channel audio via HDMI from reading renethx's Guide to Building a HD HTPC thread. Not overly concerned with this but I know it can be a deal-breaker for some.

Decided to put the Zino HD on the backburner pending further reviews and free shipping - with the upgrade to 3250e & Win7, the total came up to $400 (inclusive of shipping and taxes). Snapping up an Acer AS1410-2285 CULV laptop from Amazon instead. They end up being the same price ($400) but at least the AS1410 can double as a laptop should the need arise.

Might still get a Zino HD in the future. My parents' HTPC is a lowly Intel D945GCLF2 and would have to be replaced when they swap their old CRT with an HDTV.

Same here, canceled my Zino HD order pending reviews and ordered Gateway CULV laptop in the meantime

interested as well. I only checked via the website..wonder if I'd have to call. I do plan on doing the processor upgrade (and possibly gpu, will probably wait on more reviews to see if I need it for my needs).

SPDIF audio is a must for me. Can anybody think of a reason why a USB to SPDIF device would not work with the Zino?

Yup, I called. The rep said it isn't even on their list yet, as far as what discount EPP entitles you to...but they can still place the order. You're not going to get anything off the base, or building on the base anyway; just the shipping.

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OK. Still lot's more testing to do but here are some quick things I checked today.

720P content from Hulu's website (The Seeker)
Played smooth in a window but got a little jittery full screen on 1080p Westinghouse LCD. However, even then it was not too bad and still watchable. CPU load seemed to be about 95%. With flash acceleration and a good network, it migh be OK.

Now, I don't know if it is a CPU limitation here or the internet connection here at work as web stuff can be slow here at work. Will take the box home over the weekend and try it more.

I also got my hands on a 6850e so I will pop that in and give it a try as well to see if that makes a difference.


I also tried setting the affinity of playback to 1 core and played content. It did get a little jittery when full screen as well with 1 core shut down during playback. It was more noticable than the jitter of the 720P content playback. Therefore, this would appear to make flash player in deed multithreaded as the 2nd core does help. What I don't have an answer for right now is if a faster single core would do it better.

Windowed content did play OK with 1 core shut down but full screen seemed to push the envelope a little. Now, I would not read too much into this just yet as setting CPU affinity does not really equal single core.

What is unknown is how with flash acceleration impact playback. Furthermore, I have not turned off Aero graphics, or any of the unneeded applications/processes (spelling?) that could tie up resources.

Again, this was just a quick look (about 20 mins of quick tests) so don't read too much into any of this.

Right now, 3250e seems to be a good CPU selection for HTPC stuff.

Thanks for feedback! Looking forward to 6850e thoughts on 1080p screens.

Just a suggestion (should've mentioned it earlier), try using Google Chrome. I was getting somewhat choppy playback with Firefox and Internet Explorer on slower processors but video was silky smooth when I switched to Google Chrome.

I am curious how it would handle HD movie watching and unzipping or downloading on the background... I doubt it would handle it, because my current dual core AMD 2.3Ghz cpu barely handles the task without choppy playback when unzipping.

Where is the HD movie located? Just a thought, if the zip file and HD movie are located on the same hard drive and you're unzipping to the same drive, I think that instead of processor speed is the cause of choppiness.

I'll know more over the weekend when I can get it on my home network. I think I have a better connection at home than I do here.

Maybe my HD, btw I have AM2 X2 BE-2400 2.3GHz

You serious, $229 bucks for a fully capable HTPC. No weak atop processor but a full blown laptop processor. Sounds to good to be true.

I, too, am very curious -- especially in light of the new 'HT' models announced by ASRock (see the ASRock site if you don't know what I am referring to, or search for '330HT'). I am a newbie and cannot post URLs yet

No prices that I can find, yet. And no vibes as to when either the new ASRock line or Dell Zino HD will be available in Canada

So, is there a definitive answer on being able to play 5.1 via HDMI? Javajack in his blog says 780 chipset supports DD & DTA 5.1?

Thats the only thing holding me up... Please advise..

Do you mean 1080i/p fullscreen (via the HDMI output) or fullscreen on the notebook's screen (like a 1366x768 resolution)?

This is what I am waiting on as well. We know that supposedly the 780G will do it, but will the Zino HD specifically? If this unit will push 5.1 out HDMI, then I'll probably pump the proc to the highest and leave the rest at the default... employee discount and I'm pretty sure it will come in under $300 for me.

While I do work for AMD, I can tell you that the Athlon line used in the Zino is the same CPU architecture as our other desktop Athlon parts. They are just clocked down and voltaged down to hit lower power specs. These are not Atom equivalents, these are full fledge desktop designed processors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon_64

While it is an x86 dirivative, Atom parts have a completely different design criteria. They were designed specifically for the netbook, ultra SFF and MID space that had ultra low power requirements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Atom

Basically, we worked on squeezing power out of our existing CPU line for the ultra SFF space to deliver the full computing experience (all the registers and everything) while Intel took a ground up approach to address small mobility devices.

You will note that we are not trying to push our parts into netbooks because that is not a market we want to play in right now.

These are 2 different parts aimed at different applications. They just happend to cross over in these ultra small desktops.

Ouch, I went to the dell website and put in everything I want and the $779. I baught my regor/785 g with 4 gigs of ram and 1tb HD setup for under $350. Minus a blue ray rom say $90. Its still cheaper to build your own system. Any idea if you are going to be able to buy the neo x2 1.6ghz L625 with mobo in ITX form factor.

I saw a benchmark that put the 18W 1.6ghz neo X2(L625) as about 25% faster then atom 330. It looked to be pretty much on par with the Core Duo T2350 1.86 GHz 2 MB 1.3V 31W. Huh, amd looks to be getting the same performance at a lower clock and lower wattage then intel here.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

So I guess the million dollar question is has anyone tried running hulu HD on a T2350 based laptop?

Since he didn't mention Flash specifically and because there are few HD movies available for streaming, I was going on the assumption that he was playing back an HD movie stored on hard drive with working hardware acceleration. Sure, a slow HDD can easily do 30MB/s sequential read/writes. However, the scenario I was picturing is heavy on random read/write and that's a particular shortcoming of mechanical drives.


The Intel CULV's are just underclocked and undervolted Penryn/mobile 45nm processors. You could just use the clockspeed to figure out how their performance would compare to Wolfdales with the same FSB/cache. Given that Core 2 processors tend to annihilate the Atom clock-for-clock and core-for-core, well you get the picture. The mobile Neo X2, yeah, not enough reviews/info yet. By the way, the Athlon 3250e used on the Zino HD seems to be a straight underclocked/undervolted Brisbane. Kinda like a slower Athlon 4050e.


It was actually on a Sharp 32" 720p HDTV at 1366x768 resolution. Alas, I can't test it on higher.


I do believe the T2350 is a discontinued 65nm part. It'll be interesting to see the Neo X2 compared to a Core 2 Duo SU9600 1.60GHz TDP 10W or a Core 2 Duo SL9300 1.60GHz TDP 17W. Clock for clock, I have a feeling the Intel ULV and LV chips will win, but performance on the dollar, AMD would probably nab.

I do believe the T2350 is a discontinued 65nm part. It'll be interesting to see the Neo X2 compared to a Core 2 Duo SU9600 1.60GHz TDP 10W or a Core 2 Duo SL9300 1.60GHz TDP 17W. Clock for clock, I have a feeling the Intel ULV and LV chips will win, but performance on the dollar, AMD would probably nab.

You are probably right I think I remember reading benchmarks of core 2 duo's have a slight performance advantage over same clocked athlon II X2's. So it stands to reason that the intel part will be a little faster if they are both at 1.6ghz.

Hopefully we will see a cpu at 32nm that will clock around 3ghz and use under 20W. I think with this trend for low power consuming chips they might keep the same tranister count as the current core duo's and athlon II's when they go to 32nm. I know amd is talking about a 1billion transister chip in 2011 but maybe they will make a smaller part for us.

I see. Thanks for clarifying.

UPDATE:
Brought the box home and did some more testing. Tried the same Hulu 720p Seeker content with IE, Firefox and Chrome. Tried pausing content to let it fill the buffer.

Results:
Content did play a little better on my home network. Still some slight jitter regardless of browser and regardless of filling the buffer.

Content is watchable as the jitter is slight, but you can see it. It was almost like handheld camera work. There were no long pauses or gaps, no missing dialog or anything like that, just a slight jitter now and again. It seems that the 3250e is just on the edge for the HD flash content. I think if someone were to release a h/w accelerated flash player that the content would play back smoothly. I guess we will find out if Adobe releases a player.

I will give the 6850e a try sometime over the weekend and see how it does.