I had bad luck with 2 mini boxes that I purchased using the Intel Cherry Trail processor with integrated graphics. First one, a Minix, received 3 graphics driver updates in a weeks time. There were 3 yellow exclamation marks on graphics lines in the device manager and it appeared to need a new driver to fix it. I backed up the old drivers, just in case. The last update left the box dead. Wouldn't even try to boot to the BIOS. Searched the web and the Minix forum, but found no joy on what to do when the power light is pale green instead of vibrant blue. Using the reset was the only option and if it doesn't work, basically you're screwed! Get a new box. Second purchase (what was I thinking!), a Nexbox with the same Cherry Trail processor with integrated graphics. It arrived DOA. No idea what the problem was with it.
So, I decided to go a completely different route this time. Wanted a different processor. I got the barebones box because I hate Windows Home and didn't want to fool with it. The open box price was great. I have my old SATA hdd from my ASUS laptop and I can install the OS I want and have the amount of RAM I need. Amazing, the ZBox can use up to 16gb!
As everyone says, it's as quiet as a church mouse. I have a performance monitor for the motherboard and the temps don't fluctuate much (all fahrenheit): cpu 244, gpu 242 and main board 222, the fan is spinning away at over 2500 rpm (with variance at higher rpm's).
Had some issues with the internet dropping. And the simple solution for me was moving the ZBox closer to the router and repositioning the antenna. The change in distance is little more than 3 feet. I wouldn't have thought that short a distance would make a difference, but it did.
Installing the RAM and SATA hdd was easy. One little problem, Amazon sent the wrong ram. I ordered 8gb and they sent 4gb. New ram will be here later today (April 28th) and until it gets here I'm using the 4gb. Runs great with 4gb. I'll get to see if there's any difference when the 8gb arrives. And I can report the difference is negligible. You can't have too much ram, but you can have too little. Just depends on how you're going to use the ZBox, 4gb may be just fine for you.
The UEFI/BIOS is robust. Not going to try overclocking the ZBox, but looks like the settings are there if you have the courage to try it. I use to do such things, but with a quad core, and so much ram available, I see no reason to try it. And after installing CPUID, I'm amazed, thrilled and delighted to report the cpu is running as fast as it can. CPUID reports a core speed of 2239-2241 mhz and change! I was not expecting that! The Minix pc I had to return ran at the lowest speed available. [EDIT: During an update where MS wants to finish the updates during a re-boot, CPUZ 1.37 caused a BSOD and trashed the ZBox. No way to boot up or get into BIOS. I tried everything, but another update kills my pc. Ordering another one of these. Not the pc's fault. Setting updates NOT to update.]
Boot up is slow. The reason it's so slow is a pause during boot to give you a change to press the delete key (to enter BIOS) or F8 (for more boot options). I'm amazed the F8 option is there. You can probably change that in the BIOS, but I'm content to have those options there and I'll put up with the longer boot up time.
Never seen a USB and sd card reader using the same access point. A great idea and it's no problem to use. It gives us another 3.0 port and it's a space saver on the motherboard. Ordered a hub that uses the 3.0 USB-type C port putting it to good use. So many 3.0 USB ports available. It's one of the reasons I picked it.
I purchased a new 3.0 USB thumb drive with new class 10 micro sd cards. Couldn't get the UEFI/BIOS to see them. And when it could see them, it couldn't see my SATA hdd. After playing around with the UEFI/BIOS settings trying to get all drives to play nice, I decided to take out the motherboard battery to rest everything back to factory default settings. I decided to reformat the hdd, delete the partitions and rebuild mbr. Then everything was seen in UEFI/BIOS.
I include the following info in case someone else has the same Windows installation problem with their barebones purchase. After searching the web, I find I'm not the only one to have the problem with Windows returning an error msg that it can't install on the selected partition. Found lots of bad and useless information about why this error msg is received and what can and can't be done about it. I found the simple solution on a youtube video. The install went smoothly by following the instructions on how to change mbr to gpt during the Windows 10 install. Setting the hard drive to gpt first didn't work. Had to start out mbr and be changed during the install. That's the way it was for me anyway.
Video plays as expected, no problems there. Mouse and keyboard recognized immediately during Windows install.
Amazon customer service has been great through all the problems, with the Minix box dying and the Nexbox arriving DOA. First one I purchased was received April 5th and I just received the ZBox on April 26th. What a month, less than a month!
I was surprised and thrilled Customer Service sent the 8gb ram stick before I returned the 4gb one I received. Many thanks to them for that. And thanks for refunding the expedited shipping charges for the second purchase of this item! Pray you never get the BSOD during updates!
I'm very impressed with the ZBox and wish I had found it before I purchased those other boxes. As you can well imagine!
| Processor | 1.86 GHz Celeron_2957U |
|---|---|
| RAM | 2 GB |
| Hard Drive | 64 GB SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Wireless Type | Bluetooth, 802.11bgn |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 4 |
