ZOTAC Goes For Iris Pro in Their New ZBOX E-Series Gaming Mini-PCs
by Ian Cutress on March 10, 2014 1:33 PM EST
So far there have been only a few ways to get hold of an Iris Pro 5200 enabled machine. The first CPUs with these processors were in laptops, until Apple put some in the 21.5” iMacs and GIGABYTE pushed for its BRIX Pro that achieved Steam Box status. Fast forward a few months from those announcements and now ZOTAC is getting in the mix by releasing a pair of ZBOX E-Series mini-PCs.
The two models will be the EI750 and EI730, differentiated by their processor. The EI750 comes with the i7-4770R, the top performing Iris Pro HD 5200 CPU, whereas the EI730 is with the i5-4570R, with lower clock speeds, no hyperthreading and a smaller L3 cache.
The ZBOX E-Series are essentially in direct competition with the BRIX Pro in this market, and ZOTAC's aim is to win on z-height. These machines in the images look longer in the x/y dimensions but shorter in the z-dimension, while still retaining VESA 75/100 mounting. Official dimensions put the system at 188x188x51 mm, which seems very small for a 65W CPU.
Both models come with two DDR3L SO-DIMM slots for up to 16GB of DDR3-1600 (1600 supported, ZOTAC have told me the latest BIOS enables up to DDR3-2133), space for a 2.5” SSD, dual DisplayPort and a DVI port, dual gigabit Ethernet ports, onboard Intel 7260 2T2R 802.11ac WiFi and four USB 3.0 ports. ZOTAC will also sell Plus models with 8 GB DDR3-1600 CAS 11 and a 1TB 5400 HDD included.
ZOTAC is aiming for a March launch, with the EI750 base model retailing at £520, or £650 for the Plus edition. The EI730 base has an MSRP of £430, and the Plus edition will be £560. US pricing should be coming to me soon.
| ZOTAC ZBOX E-Series | ||
| EI750 | EI730 | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-4770R | Intel Core i5-4570R |
| Cores | 4C / 8T | 4C / 4T |
| Base Frequency | 3200 | 2700 |
| Turbo Frequency | 3900 | 3200 |
| L3 Cache | 6MB | 4MB |
| IGP | Iris Pro 5200 | Iris Pro 5200 |
| DRAM | 2 x SO-DIMM | 2 x SO-DIMM |
| Display Outputs |
2 x DP 1 x DVI-D |
2 x DP 1 x DVI-D |
| SATA |
1 x SATA 6 Gbps 1 x mSATA 6 Gbps |
1 x SATA 6 Gbps 1 x mSATA 6 Gbps |
| Ethernet | 2 x GbE | 2 x GbE |
| WiFi | Intel 7260 802.11ac 2T2R | Intel 7260 802.11ac 2T2R |
| USB | 4 x USB 3.0 | 4 x USB 3.0 |
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DanNeely - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
If these have 2 antennas as stated in the table, where is the second located? I only see a single external antenna.jobo11 - Tuesday, March 11, 2014 - link
Zotac's site only says 1 antenna:http://www.zotac.com/products/mini-pcs/e-series/pr...
http://www.zotac.com/products/mini-pcs/e-series/pr...
Unless it has a special connector and antenna where there are 2 antenna wires instead. I can't find out which WiFi chip they use on Zotac's page. I wonder if AnandTech was told what chip they use directly by Zotac.
Telithos - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
65W TDP processor in a case that size? I predict abundant thermal throttling or neat aircraft levels of sound (probably both).DanNeely - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
The second shows what looks a laptop style heatsink (the sort typically combined with a blower). The box is 7.4x2" in size, so I'd estimate the heatsink size as 3x1", vs 2x0.5" for the ones in the old 35W mainstream laptops I've dismantled before. That's 3x as large for 2x the heat dissipated, so as long as it's airflow isn't obstructed I'd think normal to below normal mainstream laptop fan noise levels are plausible.jaydee - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
Exactly. Get back to me when someone does full-load testing and see how gimped a CPU you end up with...Daniel Egger - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
I LOLed at "Gaming"...Guspaz - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
The system is substantially more powerful than a PS3 or 360 in every way, including memory, CPU, GPU, and connectivity. Do you also LOL at gaming on those consoles?bj_murphy - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
A gaming system in 2014 is obviously worlds more powerful than anything from 2005/2006. Why even compare the two? The PS3 and 360 are almost done their life cycles at this point, the PS4 or Xbone would have been a better comparison.A5 - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
Yeah, but that doesn't make his point look as good...Guspaz - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
Sure, but Anandtech has done enough benchmarks to illustrate that the 4770R is perfectly capable of 720p gaming at medium quality settings. You're looking at 40 to 60 FPS in most games there.