Earlier this year we reviewed the Patriot PBO, an inexpensive multimedia player with HD content capabilities. Although it had a very small footprint, we found the network performance to be poor, and some features were lacking that you might expect from a more capable home theater PC. But of course, not everyone wants to build their own HTPC, and despite the relative small size of most HTPC cases compared to a full tower for example, they're still fairly large next to most other electronic devices in a home theater environment.


The Zotac Zbox on the other hand, is a fully functional HTPC in a very slim size, about the same as the average netbook. Offering a choice of barebone or preconfigured hardware, the model we have for review today includes the Intel Atom D525 dual-core CPU, nVidia ION2 graphics, 250Gb hard drive, 2Gb of memory and a slot-loading Blu-Ray drive. Add to that Gigabit wired and 802.11n wireless networking, 6-in-1 card reader, HDMI, USB3 and eSATA, and you've got a huge amount of functionality packed into one tiny device.

Join us as we take a closer look at the Zotac Zbox Blu-Ray Media Player.