Best Zotac ZBOX nano AD12-U Nettop Computer Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $209.99
Sale Price: $207.98
Today's Bonus: 1% Off

For the benefit of prospective buyers (I'm a frequent Amazon user, but discovered this item after I had ordered it on Ebay), Here's how I got a satisfactory HTPC out of this micro-PC.

I installed 4Gb of ram. Make sure you specify notebook ram, like this:

Kingston KVR1333D3S9/4G DDR3-1333 SODIMM 4GB Notebook Memory

Add any notebook Sata Hdd; I used a 1Tb sata Hdd to have room to record TV.

Problems:

1. Heat

You'll need to go into the bios (press del at boot time) and find the smart fan settings.

I set it to 3, start temp 40, max speed at 80, slope 3. I am running between 57 65 degrees Celsius. Very little fan noise.

2. Wifi works at about 150Mbs, good enough for most compressed files but annoyingly breaking up on large raw .ts files. Can't watch live TV, it's in .ts format.

3. LAN did not work. After Zotac agreed to RMA which I would have to pay shipping costs, I ordered a USB ethernet adapter from Monoprice for $15. Works like a charm....

PID: 9467 USB 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter 1 1 0 $15.64

Much less hassle....

4. IR Remote basic functions are fine out of the box. However, the colored keys MCE green button, info, text did not work. The external USB IR sensor will not work for the extra keys; only the internal IR sensor will, provided you make the necessary registry changes. Here's the link:So, overall, not very good ZOTAC support, it's a low cost very small special PC; they can't afford to provide too much hand holding. So, for any problem, they'll agree to RMA, but the user is stuck with the shipping costs.

After fiddling with the smart fan settings, I'm quite pleased with the low noise and adequate CPU core temperature.

The wifi adapter is ok for internet browsing but not really sufficient for uncompressed video files. My external USB dapter (which I used until my Monoprice lan adapter arrived) at 300 mps was pretty good, but you really need a hard-wired ethernet connection at 1000mps which the USB ethernet LAN adapter provides.

I do recommend this micro-PC even with it's flaws. I attached it to the back of my kitchen TV, can't hear it (unlike my ASROCK), and it's quite responsive for any use. Uninterrupted 1080i or p, no breakup.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

It's a silent and small HTPC, but will do fine what it is supposed to. Have a great remote control.

Best Deals for Zotac ZBOX nano AD12-U Nettop Computer

Zotac makes awesome video cards, but their PCs are awesome too. I put 8gb of ram and a 5400 RPM 1 TB hard drive in mine, comes with 3.0 BT as well, well worth the $200.00 for it even without a hard drive and ram...mines running windows 8 and runs awesome...I wont even buy a PC unless its a AMD processor, and this one runs good at 1.7Ghz dual core

Honest reviews on Zotac ZBOX nano AD12-U Nettop Computer

For XBMC it's the best. It's easy to install and configure and the results are wonderful. I am very satisfied.