Buying a pre-built HTPC -Zotac Zbox AD04 or Zbox ID80 Plus?

[manniraj]

So much to everyone's disappointment here, I picked up the Zotac ID80 running Cedar Trail. I got the Plus version as well as this is the only one that was in stock. I want to swap out the 320 GB HD for a SSD. And I want to upgrade the Ram as well. My questions are:

Should I Upgrade from Samsung 2GB 204-pin DDR3-1066 SO-DIMM RAM to Any Good Brand (Transcend, Kingston, Corsair, etc.) 4 GB 204-pin DDR3-1066 SO-DIMM RAM? But then the 2GB stick will get wasted - Instead can I put another 2GB Stick - Does it have to be the same brand and model or can I buy any make?

I am thinking of getting a 64 GB 2.5-inch SATA 3.0 Gb/s SSD Hard Drive - IS this overkill if I plan to run primarily XBMCbuntu with the possibility of upgrading to Win 7 HP later? Or should I save some money by getting a 32 or a 40 GB SSD?

Thanks,
V

In my view to get the max out of your 4gb ram you need the 64bit win 7, otherwise hold on to the 2gb as 32 bit will not be able to cater to the 4gb ram it will still take it as 2gb. I am not sure about the xbmcubuntu how this have impact on the ram capacity. But if you are into only for movies/music and no gaming then 2gb should be sufficient. Also there is no need of a SSD if your htpc does only the duty of serving movies/music. It becomes useful if you are going to startup multiple appln which I do not think you will be doing it. So take your call..

Thanks

 

[Vcash]

So the only reason I wanted to get a SSD was to kick up boot times.Are you saying that there would not be much incremental improvement?

I also wanted to install the additional RAM because it's fairly cheap at this point but again if there won't be much change, I'd rather leave it alone - I will only be streaming movies - 40% 720p, 20% 1080p and the rest SD. I also plan on staring off with xbmcbuntu and then upgrading to Win 7 HP down the line.

 

[baijuxavior]

So the only reason I wanted to get a SSD was to kick up boot times.Are you saying that there would not be much incremental improvement?

My Win7+XBMC system on AMD fusion E350 boots in just 20 seconds. If you need faster booting then use openelec which will boot in less than 10 seconds.

 

[babhishek]

and just as a reminder to the op : zotac's are available in india !!

i have the zotac mag ion330 for the last 2 years ( or 20 months) if i recollect correctly.

 

[Vcash]

My Win7+XBMC system on AMD fusion E350 boots in just 20 seconds. If you need faster booting then use openelec which will boot in less than 10 seconds.

Thanks! Sticking with the 5400rpm HDD.

and just as a reminder to the op : zotac's are available in india !!

i have the zotac mag ion330 for the last 2 years ( or 20 months) if i recollect correctly.

I knew it was available here. But I ended up getting the latest Atom processor powered box for around 15k. Would not have got that deal in India.

 

[Abe]

I believe that Zotac AD04 does not support HDMI 1.4a 3d playback but the ID80 does if it has the right software. So another point for the Intel setup.

My main criterion is stutter and lag free performance both while playing 720p and 1080p videos as wellas while browsing XBMC menus.

I believe that the E450 has better performance than Cedar Trail but that does not translate into the real world because of non linux optimization for the Brazos platform.

How has your experience been with XBMC live or Openelec on your AMD setup?

E450 works nicely with Linux. Openelec is awesome and super smooth on the Zotac AD04-Plus i picked up last week. I would go E450.

Openelec 2.0 Beta 5 has awsome support for AMD Fusion processors E450 included. OpenELEC 2.0 Beta 5 released | OpenELEC - The living room PC for everyone
I have been custom configuring XBMC Linux HTPC's for a while, recently heard of OpenElec. It is a complete out of box experince, everything just worked and ready customized the way i usually setup my HTPC's. Lean, Light, with XBMC + plugins, Torrent and Samba Service. Also remote worked out of the box too. It even comes with XBMC network and open-elec settings addon. Baisically, OpenElec + Zotac Zbox (E-450/350 AMD APU) is the best HTPC at the 200-300 value you can get!

given the performance edge over the Ion, and the linux support, and they are pretty much the same price if not a bit cheaper in some locations (I picked up mine @BestBuy). It's a no brainer for me. Go with Zotac E450 or E350 series zboxes. They are awsome! :yahoo:

 

[saikatbiswas82]

One thing I'd like to share here. I have gone through all the posts here and could not help myself posting this.

First of all...
1. Do I need a small PC for performance or space constraint?
- Space constraint - Fancy sleek PCs are fine. Like Lenovo Q series, Zotac
- Performance - Giada Mini PC

2. Do I need this small PC for gaming as well?
- Gaming - Dell Alienware X51

I had all those systems under my radar. But still I want to go ahead with DIY HTPC. Here is the reason.

1. Most branded PCs comes with specific configuration. I cannot customize everything here. BTW... look (for PCs only ) is not that important to me.
2. Branded PCs are expensive.
3. Branded PCs come with warranty - I don't need it as I found all PC compoments last at least 3-4 years. Actually it happened to my past 4 desktop PCs. One more thing to consider, I will definitely go for an upgrade after 4 years.

Last but not the least.
Apart from Graphics Cards, I found everything else (like PC components, all branded pcs) are cheaper in India than in US or UK. So here India rocks again. :clapping:

 

[haisaikat]

Last but not the least.
Apart from Graphics Cards, I found everything else (like PC components, all branded pcs) are cheaper in India than in US or UK. So here India rocks again. :clapping:

Hi Saikat, regarding your last statement can you cite a few examples? I had the opposite feeling though that most PC parts cost less in US even if marginal in some cases. Say for example on flipkart the Core i% 2320 version costs 11K (Intel 3 GHz LGA 1155 Core i5-2320 Processor | Processor | Flipkart.com) but in US (1stChoiceMemory.com - Intel Core i5 Processor i5-2320 3.0GHz 6MB LGA1155 CPU, OEM) same comes to 10K INR. The crux being once needs to search accordingly. I do this search using Google Product Search and that returns best results. Sometimes you need to keep an eye on Cheap Deals, Best Hot Daily Deals and Coupons by Deals2buy.com on 2012-07-27 for coupon codes which reduce the price even further.

 

[rajadeep]

Hi Saikat, regarding your last statement can you cite a few examples? I had the opposite feeling though that most PC parts cost less in US even if marginal in some cases. Say for example on flipkart the Core i% 2320 version costs 11K (Intel 3 GHz LGA 1155 Core i5-2320 Processor | Processor | Flipkart.com) but in US (1stChoiceMemory.com - Intel Core i5 Processor i5-2320 3.0GHz 6MB LGA1155 CPU, OEM) same comes to 10K INR. The crux being once needs to search accordingly. I do this search using Google Product Search and that returns best results. Sometimes you need to keep an eye on Cheap Deals, Best Hot Daily Deals and Coupons by Deals2buy.com on 2012-07-27 for coupon codes which reduce the price even further.

Finding this processor for less than 10k is very easy in the local market... We have become so used to assuming that the price online is the cheapest that we dont even checkput the local computer market... Recently I wanted to buy a 2 TB HDD for my 900b... On flipkart the price at that time was 7k & looked everywhere online it was not less than 6.8k anywhere...Was passing through laminton road so I stoped at one shop,went in,didnt bargain & got it for 6k... I am sure if I had the time to bargain I would have gotten it for Rs200-500 less...

Another argument is that in the US as the online websites dont have to pay the state taxes they turn out to be cheaper... I think in the next few years this rule might be an updated so as to force the online sales to be taxed... This would inturn increase the price by 6-10% depending on which state u are in...

My final deduction is if u are getting it at a fantastic price on sale in the US its good but considering the normal selling price of product & loss of warranty I would say buying from India is cheaper...

 

[haisaikat]

Recently I wanted to buy a 2 TB HDD for my 900b... On flipkart the price at that time was 7k & looked everywhere online it was not less than 6.8k anywhere...Was passing through laminton road so I stoped at one shop,went in,didnt bargain & got it for 6k... I am sure if I had the time to bargain I would have gotten it for Rs200-500 less...
.

I found it for 6375 free shiiping here Seagate 2TB Internal SATA Hard Disk Drive [Barracuda 2 TB HDD Internal] - Rs.6375 : Nolimit India : Buy online with Best Prices and Lowest Rates however do agree that you have got it for a better price.

 

[rajadeep]

I found it for 6375 free shiiping here Seagate 2TB Internal SATA Hard Disk Drive [Barracuda 2 TB HDD Internal] - Rs.6375 : Nolimit India : Buy online with Best Prices and Lowest Rates however do agree that you have got it for a better price.

Ya the prices are starting to cool down a bit now ... I bought mine in May when it was mostly 7k online... Now even flipkart has one at 6.6k... just saying many times u get very good prices if u look in the local market ...

 

[captainrizal]

Vcash, I am using zotac nano with XBMC Dharma installed and it is running well. The only problem with nano is that it does not have optical drive. You will have to connect portable optical drive. I bought it India and it comes in skeleton form without RAM and hard drive. I installed 2gb RAM and 500gb hard drive. Presently using external 1 tb hard drive for movie viewing. The OS is xp but plan to upgrade to win 7.

 

[grunthos]

So whats the latest from the original poster Vcash ? How is the experience of the Zotac with 1080p ?

 

[Vcash]

So whats the latest from the original poster Vcash ? How is the experience of the Zotac with 1080p ?

Sorry - I just saw this post. The Zotac has performed flawlessly with 1080p content. No stutter \ lag or anything of the sort. I recommend this setup.

 

[danieldale33]

I recommend trying a system from dhubcomputers.com. A thousand bucks will get you everything you need, including tv tuner blu-ray wifi, and a GTX graphics card.

 

[RamHawk]

What about the Zbox ID82?

I was thinking of the ID82 so I could have dual-boot and use it as a Win7 machine too. The processor power and upgrade to 16GB of RAM was what I liked about it. However, is the video card enough for true HD content? Does it support 3D HD content?

I put XBMCubuntu on a stock Zbox ID41 but it seemed to stutter on any HD content (1080p). Again, it was a stock unit with default XBMC settings. Pulling files from a home server running Win2008 via wired connection. It seems the buffer was running out.

 

[RamHawk]

...Zbox ID41 but it seemed to stutter on any HD content (1080p)..... Pulling files from a home server running Win2008 via wired connection. It seems the buffer was running out.

Come to find out I had a bad 10/100 hub between the Zbox and my home server. Replaced with a Gig hub and all problems have gone away. :yahoo:

 

[kaushik]

i would suggest if you dont want to get into heavy game play, any old mobo will do with
a low cost GFx card...
yes the cabbie has to look good, so little extra on cabbie