Zotac MAG HD-ND01 Review
Part 1 - Introduction
The Zotac MAG HD-ND01 aims to be a multimedia Mini-PC that sits anywhere in your home, in the kitchen or the living room, you decide. With sleek styling it should look decent enough for most people wherever you end up placing and using it. If you do want to hide it and your flat screen TV supports the specific VESA mounting ability you will be able to fit the Zotac behind your TV using the bracket that is shipped with the unit, hence keeping it out of sight.
Having a tiny yet fully capable PC sitting behind your TV certainly can not be a bad thing can it? Together with a wireless mouse and keyboard you can turn your High Definition TV into much more than just a TV. Browse the internet, watch YouTube videos, check your email, play your favourite movies and music, open a spreadsheet and formulate a shopping list, all that from the comfort of your sofa!
Part 2 - Specifications
Since the Zotac in essence is a desktop PC, it aims to do things any normal PC can do - but with an extremely small form factor so you can place it anywhere you like in your home. Looking at the specifications below you will notice that there generally are two options available. Lets take a look at the specifications for the two models:
Full Names:
ZOTAC MAG - MINI ALL-IN-ONE GIANT - ZOTAG MAG HD-N01
Dimensions:
186mm x 189mm x 38mm
Graphics Capabilities:
NVIDIA ION series chipset with DirectX 10 support
Integrated 300MHz RAMDAC, supports resolutions up to 1920x1440 at 75Hz
1 x VGA Output
1 x HDMI Output
Simultaneous use of VGA & HDMI outputs (Dual Display)
Microprocessors:
Option 1: Intel ATOM 230
Option 2: Intel ATOM 330
Memory:
Option 1: DDR2 667MHz 1GB
Option 2: DDR2 800MHz 2GB
HDD:
1 x 120GB 5200 RPM Harddisk
Media and Slots:
6 x USB 2.0 ports (1 Front. 1 Top, Four Rear)
1 x eSATA port
4-in-1 Memory Card Reader (Supports SD/MS/MS Pro/xD)
Networking:
Onboard RTL8211XL Gigabit LAN (10/100/1000Mbps)
Onboard 802.11n WiFi
Onboard Audio:
8-Channel Digital LPCM Audio (HDMI Connection)
2-Channel High-Definition audio (analog connection)
Intelligent Jack-Sensing function
Optical S/PDIF Output
Power Management:
Supports ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)
Brackets:
1 x foot bracket for making the Zotac stand on its side.
1 x VESA mounting bracket to mount the Zotac on the back of your TV.
Operating System:
None, for you to decide and install
Part 3 - Operating System
Buying the Zotac is the same as buying a PC without an operating system. Which operating system you would like to use ultimately comes down to your own decision. Most other Zotac reviewers ends up using either Windows Vista or Windows 7, both which is a little "heavy" for the Zotac as reported by those reviewers. This may of course spoil your overall experience.
There is also another problem, are you seriously going to spend up to R4000 on Windows when the Zotac costs half that price? Didn't think so.
Taking the above factors into consideration I decided to try out Ubuntu 9.10 - Karmic Koala, the latest release in the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution.
Prerequisites:
Whether you use Windows 7 or Ubuntu you will have to use a decently sized Flash Disk large enough to contain a full image of your operating system. For Windows 7 you will probably have to use a 4GB Flash Disk and for Ubuntu you will get away with a 1GB Flash Disk.
You will also need to follow the instructions as provided on the shipped CD-ROM on how to create a bootable Flash Disk and how to put your operating system on it. For Ubuntu there are great online articles as well. Once you have setup your Flash Disk you will have to enter the Zotac's BIOS and configure it to boot from the Flash Disk.
The instructions are beyond the scope of this review so I will not elaborate on this apart from stating that Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop installed like a dream and everything seemed to work as it is supposed too, except for the sound which I will elaborate on later.
Part 4 - Playing Movies and Overall Use
Reminder: Please remember that there is no optical drive fitted to the Zotac so in order to play Blue-ray, HD-DVD or DVD movies you will have to have an external player.
The Zotac have absolutely no problem playing standard definition movies such as those with DVD quality. There is no detectable stuttering and the movie quality is great. Unfortunately for my test I could not fully test the 8-channel onboard audio system as Ubuntu was not able to detect all of the onboard sound capabilities. Although the sound works just fine I could for example not use the well known Linux mixer tool called alsamixer to make mixer adjustments.
Playing 720p resolution movies worked perfectly as well. I used both the well known VLC Player as well as Ubuntu Gnome's Totem Movie player and tried various file formats such as wmv, avi, etc.
Full-HD and high quality HD using the H264 Codec and stored in MKV format is where the Zotac starts choking. Whether it is the 5400RPM HDD, the Atom processor or the NVidia decoder struggling to play the movies I am not sure. A constant stuttering made these movies impossible to watch and I think the only way you would be able to get past this is to use an external player, which sort of defeats the object. I tried improving playback by making various adjustments to the players I used but to no avail.
The Full-HD playback problems were also reported by other reviewers so I would like to get some more feedback on this problem as the Zotac is advertised as a Full-HD capable unit and hence should not have trouble playing these formats.
Games
How about playing the odd game though? If you have the Zotac hooked up to your TV, wouldn't it be great to be able to play games on it as well? Before you start jumping up and down with excitement you have to realise that the Zotac is not well spec'd for games - especially not those in the 3D genre. But how about 2D platform games? I immediately thought that trying Secret Maryo Chronicles, a fun little Super Mario clone for Linux would show whether the Zotac can at least handle 2D OpenGL/DirectX based games. Secret Maryo ran just fine and I would expect games such as Plants vs Zombies to perform equally well. For games such as Gears of War and Battlefield Bad Company 2 I would strongly recommend sticking to your PS3 or XBox360.
Web Browsing
Web browsing with Firefox works like a charm and is snappy. At one point I had at least 20 tabs open in two separate instances and the Zotac had absolutely no trouble running it.
Part 5 - Overall Experience:
Noise: The Zotac's CPU fan generates a considerable amount of noise, a common problem with small, high RPM fans. While other reviewers did not find the noise irritable I have no choice but to strongly disagree. If there is a single thing I dislike about the Zotac, it is the fan noise. The noise is consistent, whether the Zotac is running idle or not. Considering the hot air coming out of the top vents I expect the Atom CPU together with the ION GPU is pushing the cooling capacity of the Zotac to the limits.
Use of Ubuntu: While other reviewers complained about a laggy experience when using Windows Vista or Windows 7 I definitely do not have the same complaints using Ubuntu on the Zotac. Open Office apps runs snappy, browsing is snappy and everything just feels as if it is running on a very capable desktop PC. In fact, I wrote and published this whole review on the Zotac itself.
Pro's:
- The Zotac is probably cheaper than anything else in its class and it performs equally well.
- Decent looks and VESA bracket a plus.
- Great overall performance when using in combination with Ubuntu
- Very capable when using it within its limits, will probably outperform much more expensive laptops.
- Everything just works, its networking, its sound, its video outputs, its USB capabilities, overall a very stable platform.
Con's:
- Very noisy internal cooling fan.
- Could not get Full-HD movies to play smoothly.
- No optical drives and no keyboard and mice means you will probably have to spend some additional money to get your Zotac fully up and running. I'm guessing the person buying the Zotac are the kind of person that takes this into account though.
Combination Score
7.5/10
Zotac Review by Maximus (Don Schoeman)
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