Zotac zbox HD-ID40 or Shuttle XS35

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btbluesky

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I am having a hard time choosing one of these two for the HTPC.
Supposedly they're both fanless, comes in barebone. zbox has a newer atom, and with sound optical out (I think), OTOH, shuttle been around for a long time, with good reputation for barebone gear.

Which one is a better HTPC?
 
?!?!
My requirement is fanless. That rules out the dell zino.
If it's not fanless, then of course there are 2+ millions choices.
I need a complete fanless yet cheap HTPC that can do H.264/divx 1080p, that's all.
 
I dont know why you really need a fanless setup, its one thing when you've got the computer at your feet or on your lap, but competely another when its on the other side of the room. But, if you insist, then I dont think it matters which one you get. it looks like they both have atoms with ion2 graphics. All these nettops are the same, pretty cheap and pretty underpowered. I don't think theres any really compelling reason to pick one over the other

EDIT: there are multiple XS35 SKU's, and many of them have intel graphics. avoid those if you want to do any HD playback
 
I have the classic Atom with Gen1 Ion as a pc for the parents. If cost is not a factor it ought to be a good PC. With Win 7 you ought to get full hardware acceleration or you can go XBMC if you prefer.

Regardless be prepared to shell out a good amount of funds tho. The board without ram or anything else was 170 for me. If funds are not an issue I suggest Zotac over shuttle anyday.
 
I'm also an audio buff. So for my purpose....I'm going to use this for TV/living box for a while, and when the next upgrade comes, this would go to be the source component of my audio rack.
You guys might not know, but audio guys pay ALOT for their decent equip, and one of the requirement is, the less noise inside the best, so a fanless source (for computer) is ideal.
Zotac sounds pretty good.
 
The Zotac ought to have both HDMI and optical/coaxial digital audio out so you ought to be set.

Edit BTW it does have a fan but be aware you cant properly run any modern X86 CPU/GPU/mobo setup without SOME airflow. If you provide it with some airflow you can likely slow the fan greatly but if you plan to go fanless you might need to do the build yourself.
 
btbluesky said:
?!?!
My requirement is fanless. That rules out the dell zino.
If it's not fanless, then of course there are 2+ millions choices.
I need a complete fanless yet cheap HTPC that can do H.264/divx 1080p, that's all.
Click to expand...

***whatever***
 
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btbluesky said:
damnit....
Yes, I think initially they had it down as fanless, then testing unit comes with fan...
http://www.zotacusa.com/forum/topic/3649-fanless-hd-id40-fanless-hd-id11/
well, the only choice is shuttle for me.
optical or not is fine. As long as you have some good USB dac, it'd be good.
Click to expand...
I think you're making a mistake by limiting yourself to strictly fanless. You can be all the audio snob you want and buy your argon insulated gold plated 8 gauge audio cables, but the fact of the matter is that if the tiny amount of noise from that fan is going to ruin your audio experience, then you don't have your volume up loud enough.

make sure you plug it in with this: http://www.dedicatedaudio.com/inc/sdetail/2409
 
Activate: AMD said:
I think you're making a mistake by limiting yourself to strictly fanless. You can be all the audio snob you want and buy your argon insulated gold plated 8 gauge audio cables, but the fact of the matter is that if the tiny amount of noise from that fan is going to ruin your audio experience, then you don't have your volume up loud enough.

make sure you plug it in with this: http://www.dedicatedaudio.com/inc/sdetail/24226
Click to expand...

Dude, I gave up.

Clearly he's not going to listen but he doesn't really seem like an audiophile either if he's so willing to absolutely cheap out or totally pick the wrong type of hardware so easily.

He's going to pick out whatever he wants regardless of what we tell him. It could be complete rubbish for an HTPC but he won't care as long as it's fanless. :rolleyes:
 
okay...not sure if anything I said had gotten on someone nerves.
the reason for fanless for audio usage, is not because of the tiny bitsy sound it makes. it's the current it draw when it turns on and off.

if you use a meter on your bus power, it's like 11.xx~12.xx volt, within a range of value acceptable by the BIOS (when it goes out of whack, there would be blue screen...).

when the fan kicks in, there is a draw on that main bus power. and with a already wimpy ass outside transformer provide like ~ 60-90 watt to the box, its noticeable.

if the shuttle one is a bad choice, then you can give me a better suggestion. but please don't bash just because there is a unusual requirement.

I mean its like telling the guy, he don't need a freakin v8 500hp camaro to drive to work. True, but to him it's worth the stretch.

so to me, having a complete Solid state piece of hardware that you'd never fear the fan-died-and-you-didn't-know-fry-the-chipset kind of problem, is worth the stretch.
 
And in case anyone wonder,
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Pocket-Server-CAPS
This recommended by computeraudiophile comes out to be 700~800 fanless atom.
And then there are whole bunch of fanless, thermal pipe, water-cool mini cases, priced from 100-300..case only
http://www.idotpc.com/TheStore/pc/viewcategories.asp?idCategory=32
so you're saying the people buying these products are smoking crack?!

I have a quadcore yorkfield 2600 OC'ed to 3700gz, w/ 8 TB hard drives as main server, loud as a mofo, but love it, it runs 3 vmware images, on top of all the torrents. That's its purpose.

and underpower atom when it gets old, would be useless, except maybe use it as alarm clock, small embedded 24/7 mini webserver....or streaming some wireless video footage on your wireless security camera.....and (drum roll..) an audio source server.

Linn, a uk 30 yrs old company, switched all their sources to digital....selling their custom server (just a computer w/ custom interface and hardware) w/ 3-8k a piece.....

And I'm a fool for paying 30 bucks more for a fanless atom pc?!
 
You arent paying 30 bucks more you are going to pay HUNDREDS more. In the case of shuttle. And the cases you link to are insane as well.

Hell if you are running torrents you are according to statistics something else anyway why am I wasting time in this topic again?
 
btbluesky said:
And in case anyone wonder,
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Pocket-Server-CAPS
This recommended by computeraudiophile comes out to be 700~800 fanless atom.
And then there are whole bunch of fanless, thermal pipe, water-cool mini cases, priced from 100-300..case only
http://www.idotpc.com/TheStore/pc/viewcategories.asp?idCategory=32
so you're saying the people buying these products are smoking crack?!

....

And I'm a fool for paying 30 bucks more for a fanless atom pc?!
Click to expand...

Seriously? For one thing that guy is paying six timesas much on his audio card then his motherboards, nearly three times as much for his harddrive which is stupid crazy for a system that is suppose to be a "server" to be limited to less then 60 gigs. :rolleyes:

So yeah, if you want to do a completely fanless setup that's cool. Just don't try and justify it by pointing out a completely moronic system and saying "mine is just a little more."

When it comes down to it, I just don't understand what your deal is. You point out your Quad core system and how noisy it is, why? Dude, you clearly want an Atom. Get it. We both know you're going to get whatever you want regardless of what anyone else tells you. You're wasting people's time.
 
The fanless discussion seemed to strangely stir up emotions. I like fanless but I'll of course get the XS35GT to get 1080p playback (barebone version and attach an SSD). Anybody have any comments on the XS35GT or does it simply work, as you expect?
 
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