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Suggest - Dell Zino HD Or ZOTAC MAG HD-ND01 ??

post #1 of 9
3/28/10 at 5:13am
Thread Starter 
Hi all,

I have been reading this wonderful forum from long time.

I am in confusion now over Dell Zino HD & ZOTAC MAG HD-ND01. I read all 148 pages topic on Zino HD on this forum. It seems lots of people are facing issues with Zino HD.

Main use will be following

My requirement--

# Play downloaded 720p/1080p mkv or mp4 formats using VLC/Media home classic player from internal/external HDD or DVD Drive. I will not be playing those 25 GB BD Discs, It will be mostly BD rips of 1 to 4 GB size.
# Virtual PC/SUN Virtual box/Cygwin
# NO Online video at all (10 minutes use to see youtube clips, Never going to use hulu/netflix)
# I intend to take ONLY DVD Drive. NO BD player due to lots of issues in it now a days.

Please suggest from these configurations..

Dell Zino HD

AMD Athlon X2 3250e Dual-Core Processor (1.5GHz, 512Kx2, 2C) + Integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200
AMD Athlon X2 3250e Dual-Core Processor (1.5GHz, 512Kx2, 2C) + 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330
AMD Athlon X2 6850e Dual-Core Processor (1.8GHz, 512Kx2, 2C) + 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330

OR

ZOTAC MAG
ZOTAC MAG HD-ND01 comes with Intel Atom 330 (dual-core) (1.6 GHz), NVIDIA ION, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD

Can anyone tell me which configuration will suffice my requirement ? Your inputs are really appreciated.
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post #2 of 9
3/28/10 at 8:13am
zotac mag.
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post #3 of 9
3/28/10 at 8:51am
Any of the above should work. I personally wouldn't get the Zino HD, though. Dell kinda priced themselves out of the market with that one, not to mention the countless delays early adopters had with their orders.

How heavy on virtualization are we talking about here? I have two lightly loaded XAMPP servers (basically, I'm the only client) running under VirtualPC on an Intel D945GCLF2 (Atom 330). Works just fine and I didn't notice any appreciable difference compared to when I was running them on a Core 2 Duo E7200.
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post #4 of 9
3/28/10 at 10:32am
Well personally I'd go for Zino+4330, but that's just because I hate the Atom CPUs, but many people like them. If they upgrade it to Mobility Radeon 5xxx it's a no-brainer because you should get bitstreaming with that, but don't know if that will happen.
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post #5 of 9
3/28/10 at 11:12am
Thread Starter 
@bighick

Thank you, I am worried about after sales service. Atleast For Dell their engineer comes home & repairs it. For Zotac there are not much options right ?

@ilovejedd
I am looking at running XP on virtual machine just to test few software or mostly Ubuntu to test few linux software. I dont want to run 4-5 VM machines heavily loaded.

I am mostly inclined towards AMD 3250 + 4300. Anyone owns this config, please post your review ?
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post #6 of 9
3/28/10 at 11:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Praks View Post

I am worried about after sales service. Atleast For Dell their engineer comes home & repairs it. For Zotac there are not much options right?

If that's the case, then get the Dell. I'd actually rather do tech support myself. Add to that the need to customize so I tend to build my own rather than buy pre-built.
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post #7 of 9
3/28/10 at 11:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by zicoz View Post

Well personally I'd go for Zino+4330, but that's just because I hate the Atom CPUs, but many people like them.

Granted, Atoms are underpowered compared to current desktop components. However, since my work computer is a Pentium III 500MHz Windows 2000 Pro and I've had the dubious pleasure of working on a Pentium II Windows 98SE, the Atom is positively blazing in comparison.

Having owned an ATI HD Wonder, a Radeon HD3450 and a couple of Radeon HD4550's, I've developed a strong aversion to Catalyst Control Center. It's come to a point where I'd rather spend extra for inferior and expensive rebadged NVIDIA graphics rather than deal with CCC.
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post #8 of 9
4/7/10 at 5:26am
Thread Starter 
Thank you for reply

Can anyone tell me if Zino HD with (AMD Athlon X2 3250e Dual-Core Processor + 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330) is more/less powerful then ZOTAC MAG HD-ND01 (Intel Atom 330 (dual-core) (1.6 GHz), NVIDIA ION)

I find it very very strange that Intel Atom 330 with NVIDIA ION is able to play all 720p/1080p HD videos very very smoothly with no jitter at all, while so called high capacity AMD Athlon X2 3250e Dual-Core Processor with 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 is lagging way way behind in playing HD videos.

Is it AMD 3250e processor which has lesser capacity then Intel Atom 330 OR ATI has messed up BIG time with drivers ?

Will AMD Athlon X2 3250e + 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 be able to play 720p/1080p ""Downloaded" mkv/mp4 BD Rips (NO Online streaming) ?
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post #9 of 9
4/8/10 at 7:39am
My Zino 2850e, with 3200HD ATI graphics can play mkv/mp4 h.264 1080p BD Rip content (file size 6-12GB) just fine, with no stuttering and minimal processor usage.

Also no problem playing 1080p apple trailers, etc. So, i don't see why a zino with a higher spec would have a problem playing that content.
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