Dell Zino HD - New mini HTPC - Page 7

Thanks for the info, keep it coming. I've been looking for an adequate low power system for a while now. Looks like were going to have to wait and see what adobe has up their sleeve. Like you said if you could get the radeon to take some of the burden it would be a huge help.

Yes, I am sure it would.

I found a review of a comparable hardware equipped Nettop at Cnet:

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/ave...?tag=mncol;txt

It is faster than an Atom in most respects.

Interesting find. Thanks for the link.

Just for grins, what are the "Windows Experience Index" scores? And be sure to mention Vista or W7, since they apparently changed the scoring methodology, in addition to "turning it up to 11", er, 7.9

So CULV sounds like it's the best performing CPU for these sort of small form factor systems....
Has anyone heard of a mini-ITX board (or similar) that can take one of these CPU's and a discrete GPU or at least a decent IGP?

I think CULV are only marketed for laptops so i don't think they are available to retail channels. i could be wrong.

Yeah I haven't found any evidence thus far that they're available for discrete mobo's....

Even if Intel does allow them to be used in discrete motherboards, i doubt they'll allow 3rd parties to make them.
And even if they do, they prolly won't allow for discrete graphics from nV or AMD :-(

Man I hope that nV or AMD hurry up & become serious 'vertically integrated' competitors.

AMD looks to be in the best position for that to become a reality...
But that could change if the rumours (albeit not strongly founded) are true & nV comes out with a competitive x86 CPU.

Trying to decide between ZINO and either HP Slim or Dell Studio Slim (I have no idea how to custom build so I need a pre-built). The Zino I'm looking at is coming in at $653 and has the following specs:
Win 7
6850e
4GB
RADEON 4330
250 GB
BD
Wireless N
Basic Sound Card
I'm not looking for the best dollar for dollar deal, I just want make sure that I get something that makes sense and I have no regrets. Should I get a larger cpu (Studio or HP) and just deal with the noise but know that it can handle the video? I will be using it for Hulu, Netflix, Blue Ray, Music, etc.. I have another cpu in the house that I guess I will network in for storage.

Thanks

I reckon it'd handle most standard multimedia tasks you through at it, some things in HD are uncertain at this stage, but there's a good chance it'll be fine.

Keen to see comparative reviews between the lowest specced Zino config & some of the cheap ION platforms.
As well as a fully specced Zino compared to similarly specced out Mac Mini 2009 ;-)

Alternatively, are there far superior options that are pre-built in this price range. Can someone compare/contrast the Zino with say a Studio? Is the biggest difference size and noise?

if you're happy to compromise a bit of size and noise you will find more performance for the same or less $. You pay a bit of a premium for the engineering that's gone into this device. But it depend on whether you need the extra performance, from what you've mentioned I doubt you will. But im not 100% certain yet WRT HD (read: blue-ray) content...

I think I'm going to go for it as I actually found the Studio Slim to be about the same price or more when I started to beef up the processor on that. Is the consensus that these are better than the EEEbox?

no idea what graphics eeebox uses but if it's intel IGP then it's no comparison to the AMD GPU, also the eebox uses Atom doesnt it? Again no comparison...

Not clear on a couple of options here:

1. The discrete 4330 upgrade: The 780g video alone underperforms on 1080i deinterlacing if paired with a non-Phenom or non-Athlon II processor due to slower HT speeds....would the 4330 alleviate this bottleneck?

2. The discrete 4330 uprade: As the 780g does not support 8-channel LPCM, would the 4330 upgrade buy you 8-channel LPCM support?

3. What does the option "X-Fi Hi Def- Software Enabled" mean?

thx in advance

I am haeded to a friends house shortly to test the 5.1 over HDMI to make sure that is working. Will let you know later today.

I'm still not sure whether the Intel CULV processors are soldered or not so aside from the seemingly OEM-only availability, that's another catch for DIYers.

However, the GS45 chipset paired with the CULV processors can certainly support dedicated graphics. Needless to say, that tends to increase costs. The ASUS UL80VT & UL50VT both have NVIDIA G210M graphics cards. You can switch between the integrated Intel 4500MHD for longer battery life or the NVIDIA G210M for faster performance. It also has an overclock feature (Turbo Boost) that allows both cores of the SU7300 to go up to 1.7GHz or a single core to 2+GHz. The HP dm3t has the option to upgrade to an NVIDIA G105M. In both cases, you just have to pay for the privilege as the laptops end up costing around double the price of a cheapie Acer or Gateway CULV.

Also, it should be noted that Intel's CULV processors are not cheap. The 1Ku cost of the Celeron SU2300 is $134 and the GS45 chipset is $53. I'm actually amazed that Acer's AS1410 only costs $400. Dell's Inspiron 11z starts at $449 and that model only has a single-core Celeron 743 which should be roughly equivalent to the base Zino HD's Athlon 2650e. The only thing detracting from the Zino HD's appeal is the $40 shipping charge. I think the upgrades most people are considering are:
Windows 7 HP +30
3250e +60
6850e +110
HD4330 +75

Those bring up the cost of the unit to $319~$444 making the shipping charge an extra 9~12% increase.

Zino HD Update:

OK. Confirmed that 5.1 DD/DTS over HDMI was working fine. Likewise 5.1 PCM (not full bandwidth but still sounded good) was also working on the Zino HD box.

6850e did seem to have the power to handle the Hulu 720P HD (The Seeker Pilot) clip full screen with no jitter. It also made the system feel just a little more snappy inside media center.

Confirmed Netflix streaming also looks good using the 3250e part.

Java Jack,

Thanks for the update! Quick follow-ups with your 720p/Hulu/5.1 test (and I apologize if I missed the detail from your earlier posts)

- Were you using the integrated video card or the 4330 for your successful 720p Hulu test?
- Were you using the integrated audio or the Soundblaster X-Fi upgrade option for the successful Dolby/5.1 test?

If you were using the upgrade, any sense of whether or not they would have been required for the results you achieved?

Thanks!

Amd is talking about putting the cpu and gpu all on one piece of silicon with "bulldozer," but not until 2011. Thats when things will really get good for us HTPC guys. I believe Intel is on about the same time schedule with their sand-something.

Great info. It sounds like we need the 6850e, unless adobe starts supporting hardware acceleration like we were talking about. Do you have a way of measuring its power consumption at TDP and idle?

You can customize a killer studio hybrid with all the goodies, but the price gets insane. It will definitely outperform the zino, at about twice the price.

Edited to reflect Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade. I'm pretty sure it's going to be pretty standard for a lot of people wanting to use this as an HTPC.

Not until I get back to work where I have a Kill A Watt meter.

Keep in mind, I have not tried MKVs or Blu ray rips yet, neither have I tried Divx. I will try to get to those next week.

Sounds like I may need to do a 2nd part to the blog to cover some of the updates.

I was thinking about that the other day. I think I may use this for a series of blogs on XBMC, Boxee, and a Myth TV or Sage TV implementation. Not sure if it will be one blog or a few...I know that people have been doing stuff like that with the Mac Mini, it would be interesting to see how well those might work on the Zino HD.

Hi, I have a Shuttle X100 as my htpc, currently. I can't play 1080p due to the ati x1400 video card that it now uses. Is the 4330 in the zino a MXM II card? I use two WinTv usb 950q as my two tuners. Can I use them on a Zino with an external usb hub? I ask because of the IR and bluetooth usb devices I use for the remote and the keyboard-mouse.