ZOTAC is one of the leading brands when it comes to mini PCs and this year want to shake things up a bit. In addition to hardware upgrades, the latest model sports an all new design. It is a little larger than previous Zboxes, but the Zbox Sphere OI520 has its own charms.
The Zbox Sphere’s unique and eye-catching design allows for some interesting ways to improve performance. First, the 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 4200U with a turbo speed of 2.6 GHz is possible thanks to better cooling. This gives the Sphere a low power design with some serious horsepower when needed. It also comes with a slot for a 2.5 internal drive and a mSATA SSD to take advantage of the Intel Smart Response Technology to improve load-times and responsiveness.
ZOTAC also kept all the usual bonuses such as four USB 3.0 ports, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, up to 16 GB of DDR3L RAM, and DisplayPort output. The new design looks like ZOTAC decapitated the robot from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This is especially awesome for me because I have never liked that book.
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ZOTAC Unveils New ZBOX Sphere OI520 Series
New ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series delivers powerful computing with a touch of individuality
May 21, 2014 – ZOTAC International, a global innovator and manufacturer of graphics cards, mainboards and mini-PCs, today unveils the first ZBOX Sphere to let users express their individuality through computing. The new ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series combines a unique orb form factor with a powerful 4 th Generation Intel Core i5 processor for computing with a touch of individuality.
“ZOTAC is expanding the ZBOX lineup to go beyond the traditional square form factor and the ZBOX Sphere is our first design concept that we’re putting into production,” said Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International. “The new ZBOX Sphere form factor is also one of our easiest to customize too, the top twists off for tool-less upgrades.”
Inside the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series is a high-performance 4 th Generation Intel Core i5 4200U processor with Intel HD Graphics 4400 for an excellent computing experience rich in high-definition content and snappy multi-tasking responsiveness.
Plenty of internal expansion enables the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series to accommodate a 2.5-inch SATA 6.0 Gb/s hard drive or SSD, a mSATA SSD and two DDR3L SO-DIMM slots to easily create a powerful stylish mini-PC.
Support for Intel Smart Response Technology makes supercharging hard disk drives in the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series easy. By combining accelerating the internal hard disk drive with a mSATA SSD, the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series provides the lightning-fast boot and application load times of an SSD with the large capacity of a hard drive.
Wireless 802.11ac and Gigabit Ethernet ensures the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series delivers high-speed networking performance with or without wires. Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity makes adding wireless peripherals to the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series easy and hassle-free.
It’s time to play with the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series!
General details:
- ZOTAC Unveils New ZBOX Sphere OI520 Series
- New ZBOX Sphere form factor
- Intel Core i5 4200U
- 1.6 GHz, dual-core, 3MB L2 cache
- TurboBoost up to 2.6 GHz
- Intel HD Graphics 4400
- PLUS models available with pre-installed memory and hard drive
- 4 GB DDR3
- 500 GB HDD
- HDMI & DisplayPort outputs
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 4.0
- Gigabit Ethernet
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