Testing and Results

To test the Zbox Nano, we installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit from a USB memory stick, and proceeded to run a series of tests that we thought would best represent what the device was capable of. Graphs where applicable are provided below, and a more in depth discussion of the testing and results can be found on the last page.

Media Benchmarks

Download from: bit-tech.net

We've developed our own suite of benchmarks using real-world and open-source applications to simulate how PCs are actually used. The suite comprises an image editing test using Gimp, a video encoding test using Handbrake, and a multi-tasking test using 7-Zip to archive and encrypt a large batch of files while an HD movie plays in mplayer.

A score of 1,000 means that the test system is as fast as our reference PC, which used a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 at stock speed, 2GB of Corsair 1,066MHz DDR2 memory, a 250GB Samsung SpinPoint P120S hard disk and an Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard. The scoring system is linear, so a machine scoring 1,200 points is 20 per cent faster than our reference system. Equally, a system scoring 1,200 is 4 per cent faster than a system scoring 1,150.