Far from the clamor reserved for its evocative VR backpack, the Chinese brand Zotac returns to its primary passion, that of miniPCs, expanding the basket of those conceived for industrial or corporate use, in the guise of Zbox Pro.
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After the phantasmagoric PC backpack for virtual reality, the team of the Chinese brand Zotac, without too much fanfare, has enriched the range of Zbox miniPCs, and precisely the Pro series dedicated to industrial and business uses, with three new models, all united by efficient low-power Intel “Elkhart Lake” processors with passively dissipated heat.
The smallest model (115 x 776 x 26.7 mm) of the trio is the Zbox PRO PI336 pico, an evolution of a model from last month. The chassis, more compact, does not miss several ports including RJ45 for Gigabit Ethernet, the 3.5 mm jack for headphones, USB 3.1 type A and C, and video outputs in the guise of DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0. Placed under an increased (compared to its predecessor) heatsink allocated at the top, operates the Intel Celeron N6211 processor, a dual core from 1.2 to 3 GHz (in Turbo Boost) launched at the beginning of 2021, with 6.5W of TDP, flanked by the GPU integrated Intel UHD (from 250 to 750 MHz): the RAM, LPDDR4x, stops at 4 GB (except in the Plus variant, from 8 GB), while the storage, from 128 GB, is of the eMMC 5.1 type. Nothing to say about wireless connectivity, substantiated in Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi ax / 6E.
Going up in size (160 x 126.7 x 58.7 mm), on the Zbox PRO CI333 nano there are the ports (one DisplayPort 1.2 and two HDMI 2.0) needed to connect three monitors, as well as USB 3.1 Type-C and A, one SD card slot, one RJ45 for Gigabit Ethernet, one RS-232 serial, and one 3.5mm jack for audio. On the wireless level, Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E always stand out. Leading its performance, with passive dissipation, and 10 watts of TDP, is the quadcore processor, again at 10 nanometers and from the beginning of 2021, Intel Celeron J6412, capable of going from 2 to 2.6 GHz of clock frequency, supported by the Intel UHD iGPU (from 400 to 800 MHz): the RAM, DDR4-3200, can reach 32 GB, through two SODIMM banks while there should be no storage problems since, next to a 2.5 “slot, there is one M .2 2242 / M.2 2260 in which it is possible to place an SSD with a SATA interface.
Still with the same wireless connectivity, the Zbox Pro edge CI342 was unveiled, sized at 147.2 x 147.2 x 31.1 mm, with a chassis along which there are two USB 3.1 (one Type-C), two RJ45 for Gigabit Ethernet, a 3.5 mm audio jack, an RS-232 serial, and two video ports (DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0) to connect two monitors in 4K.
The quadcore (1.2 to 3 GHz) Intel Pentium N6415, with 10 nanometer lithography and 6.5W of TDP, coupled to the Intel UHD Graphics iGPU (350 to 800 MHz burst frequency), drives the miniPC in question, which can count on a single M.2 2280 slot, in which to place an NVMe PCIe x2 or SATA SSD, although the RAM, DDR4-3200, can always be expanded to a maximum of 32 GB.