Zbox HD-ID11 Review

Since there’s no scope for internal expansion, the opportunity to expand the Zbox from external sources was always going to be well catered for. Along with six USB 2.0 ports you’ll find eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet, a 6-in-1 memory card reader along with DVI and HDMI video output and SPDIF and analogue I/O audio outputs. It’s a very well thought-out design, and its of no surprise that the unit is already a hit among Linux AV enthusiasts. There’s particular interest from followers of the XBMC project, since the live CD will run on the Zbox straight out of the box.

Driver support is a little lacking, but it’s still early days. Using the default Nvidia GPU driver, we were running a full 1080p stream via HDMI from our file server within minutes. CPU utilisation was remarkably low (as expected) despite silky-smooth playback. Sound was a sticky issue for a short while, but with workarounds acting as placeholders for future driver updates, it certainly makes the Zbox a highly compelling option for home theatre buffs…

Verdict: 4/5
…That is until the single internal fan reaches top speed. Its biggest problem running a Linux OS right now is the fan spins up far too high, destroying any hope of a relaxing evening’s HD entertainment. Again, it’s just a matter of time until this issue is ironed out (hopefully by the time you read this), making it just another case of early adopter blues. With the kinks ironed out, though, the Zbox will flower into a simply breathtaking piece of small-form-factor engineering.

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