Looking for a decent, small, cheap media centre is the new zotac mini pc any good? anyone here have one or used one? they look pretty slick, a few people have said online the fan is a bit noisy, anyone know if this is true? maybe someone at ocuk can sneak one out of a box and fire it up lol
Zotac zbox nano ad10
- Thread starter arcon33
- Start date
I bought one in early october from Germany as it seemed it was going to be a long time until UK suppliers had them in stock.
It's a great little bit of kit. I use it as a download server and for remote desktop connection. I got the version without a hard drive and memory. I replaced the memory with a cheap 4gb sodimm and for now it's running a really old small hard drive I had spare. I intend on replacing it with my SSD when my main PC gets an upgrade.
While I was setting it up I had it on my desk beside me and it is generally fairly quiet.
In the bios you can adjust the speeds and at what temperature it speeds up at etc. While I was messing about I think I managed to accidently stop the energy saving settings so it was running at full clocks and full voltage all the time and also the fans weren't on (another setting I must have messed up). I didn't realise for a while. The cpu temp was really high like around 80+ but it worked fine.
It now resides beneath the bottom draw of my wardrobe (along with my router) and works fine!
It's a great little bit of kit. I use it as a download server and for remote desktop connection. I got the version without a hard drive and memory. I replaced the memory with a cheap 4gb sodimm and for now it's running a really old small hard drive I had spare. I intend on replacing it with my SSD when my main PC gets an upgrade.
While I was setting it up I had it on my desk beside me and it is generally fairly quiet.
In the bios you can adjust the speeds and at what temperature it speeds up at etc. While I was messing about I think I managed to accidently stop the energy saving settings so it was running at full clocks and full voltage all the time and also the fans weren't on (another setting I must have messed up). I didn't realise for a while. The cpu temp was really high like around 80+ but it worked fine.
It now resides beneath the bottom draw of my wardrobe (along with my router) and works fine!
Yes the fan is pretty noisy. On the other hand the HDD is the noisiest part of the machine so maybe my hearing is just extra sensitive. I have the Intel ULV version (not the Atom but with the SU chip) so it may be a little different to the one you want.
The other thing that gets me (and this may be a feature that can be turned on and off) is that the fan acts in a weird way some of the time. It stops/revs down every now and then for a second then spins back up. The sleep feature is also very odd, put it to sleep and the fan still spins up and down... A little annoying but not game changing.
The other thing that gets me (and this may be a feature that can be turned on and off) is that the fan acts in a weird way some of the time. It stops/revs down every now and then for a second then spins back up. The sleep feature is also very odd, put it to sleep and the fan still spins up and down... A little annoying but not game changing.