Zotac unveiled a number of products at CES 2014 in Las Vegas including several small form factor (SFF) PCs. In addition to the ZBOX Steam Machine, Zotac showed off a ZBOX 01520 computer in a spherical form factor. The ZBOX 01520 comes in bare-bones and PLUS SKUs, similar to the other, existing, Zotac ZBOX computers.
On the outside, the new PC is a small black orb with straight edges on the back and bottom to support it. Inside, Zotac has fitted a tiny motherboard, an Intel Core i3-4010U dual core processor clocked at 1.7 GHz, two SO-DIMM slots (up to 16GB), a spot for a single 2.5" hard drive. The motherboard further includes one mSATA slot for a solid state drive and wireless radios for 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
Greek tech site Tech Blog managed to snap photos of the new Zotac PC.
Rear IO on the ZBOX 01520 orb includes four USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI video output, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and a single 4-1 card reader slot.
The bare-bones kit includes the motherboard, CPU, and case while the PLUS version adds 4GB of DDR3 memory and a 500GB hard drive. Users can add their own mSATA drive for increased performance.
Beyond the basics, details are scarce on the new Zotac PC. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced. Stay tuned to PC Perspective for more details on the SFF PC as it becomes available.
Are you interested in the spherical ZBOX 01520?
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I could absolutely find a use
I could absolutely find a use for this little thing, given the price is right. Which I assume it won’t be. 🙂
I’d paint it like a football
I’d paint it like a football and leave it beside my desk, just to see how long it’ll go before somebody kicks it.
its the wrong shape…. maybe
its the wrong shape…. maybe a soft ball?
I’ll take 2! to place on
I’ll take 2! to place on opposing sides of my new Mac Pro, for networked Linux file servers, or print servers, or for offloading some rendering post processing tasks to!
These things confuse me. I
These things confuse me. I get the idea that new shapes and sizes are cool, but when you actually get these hooked up, you have 87 wires coming from the back that make it look atrocious. Maybe with some super cable management skills…
I feel like the appeal here with these SFF PCs is to make people wonder what the thing is, or wonder where you computer is. I just don’t think anyone is going to walk up and not know that this is a PC. When you have an HDMI cable, speaker cables, and three or four USB cables for your mouse, keyboard, printer, etc streaming out the back and going in every direction, it kind of gives away the mystery.
Am I wrong here?
I always think HTPC when i
I always think HTPC when i see these things you could also stick it in a closet with a bunch of usb 3 hard drives for a nas the smaller form factor wouldn’t help of course but the low power mobile part is nice for that kind of set up. Plus they appeal to the same people an AIO would wireless keyboard and mouse plus a monitor. It doesn’t take up much more space then an AIO but you don’t have the upgrade problem an AIO has where you end up replacing your monitor when you just wanted a faster pc.
I could maybe see HTPC, but I
I could maybe see HTPC, but I couldn’t imagine having my HTPC without a cableCARD adapter. I suppose you could get an external one, but then your ascetics go out the window again. Lol. I like the idea of an AIO alternative, but I like the VESA mount cases better for this.
There’s definitely a market for these, I just couldn’t see myself buying one, even though generally I like SFF.
Looks like $0.05 worth of
Looks like $0.05 worth of plastic. Nice layout for the I/O at least.
This looks a lot like the
This looks a lot like the Google Nexus Q. Remember that thing 😉
I don’t get what this is
I don’t get what this is for… this clearly isn’t designed to be hidden away or mounted behind a monitor/TV. I’d say it would be a capable XBMC box, but then why is there no IR receiver?
It’s just a BRIX you can’t hide, or I guess the new NUC models http://www.amazon.com/Intel-D34010WYKH-DisplayPort-i3-4010U-Support/dp/B00HOJAVDG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1389218697&sr=8-2&keywords=d34010wykhthat support 2.5″ drives are closer, but they DO have IR.