Zotac Zbox ID89 Plus Review

Performance Analysis

For so small a PC, the Zbox ID89 Plus does very well in our media benchmarks suite. In the image editing and video encoding tasks, for example, it's leagues faster than the last Zbox we looked at (over three times faster in video encoding, in fact), and the Ivy Bridge CPU clearly has a chance to flex its muscles. It's less impressive in the multi-tasking test, no doubt held back a little by the 5,400rpm hard drive, but it still puts in a respectable showing.

While it's definitely reassuring to see that CPU intensive tasks aren't really an issue for Zotac's latest Zbox, its primary purpose for many who buy it is going to be outputting video, and this is something it handles with ease. We chucked a variety of full HD media at it, including encoded trailers, Blu Ray ISO files, and online Flash videos, and it never showed any signs of slowdown, jittery frames or out of sync audio.


However, as expected given the reliance on Intel's HD Graphics 2500, gaming performance is poor at best. It even struggles with older games like Skyrim and Left 4 Dead 2 at detail settings that are far from eye friendly, and would look even worse on a big screen. Even the cheaper ID42 Plus is able to outpace it, thanks to its onboard Nvidia graphics chip. While it would be nice to see improved capabilities in this regard, gaming obviously isn't the focus of the device, and it's a lot easier to overlook when you consider the capabilities of the CPU elsewhere.

We ran both Prime95 and the Unigine benchmark to place maximum load of the CPU, and found that its temperature plateaued at a 70°C (for a delta T value of 46°C), which is well within the chip's limits. This demonstrates that the small fan is adequate to cope with the CPU's relatively low thermal output, and even better is the fact that it makes very little noise. Even in this unrealistic load scenario, it remained barely audible while still keeping the CPU at a respectable temperature.


We also took the opportunity to measure the device's power draw. When plugged in but turned off, it draws 3W, which increases to just 22W when idle. Even with the CPU under full load, we couldn't get the system to draw more than 40W of power from the mains. This is a great result, especially when you consider that the ID42 Plus, which is much slower in most regards, peaked at 59W.

Conclusion

The Ivy Bridge CPU at the heart of the ID89 Plus is clearly its strongest selling point, as it means Zotac is able to cram lots of computational power into a tiny space. The same CPU can be found powering all-in-one systems that cost upwards of £800, which certainly makes the £425 price tag for the full model easier to swallow. If you're interested in any serious gaming, you'll probably want to avoid the ID89 Plus, but the same could be said for most mini-PCs. Low power consumption and low noise output are arguably more important, and in these areas the Zotac model is on the ball.


The ID89 Plus may not have much competition, but Apple's Mac Mini can be found for under £475, and with its mobile Ivy Bridge CPU is likely to be pretty nifty too. It also runs OS X as standard, whereas the cost of an OS is something many will have to factor in on top of the cost of the ID89 Plus. We also feel Zotac could have done a better job on the aesthetic front, as the plastic fantastic look is simply no match for the all aluminium casing that Apple continues to impress with.

Nevertheless, while Zotac's mini-PC may not have the mainstream appeal that Apple's does, it could still be a powerful addition to a home theatre, especially if combined with a Linux build and/or XBMC. The ease of user upgrades from both a software and hardware perspective isn't something to be dismissed, but it's for this reason that we feel the real appeal lies in the £350 barebones ID89, which is the model we'd recommend over this one. Simply put, the £75 saving could be put towards building a system that's superior to the one Zotac has managed.