The mini-PC segment has been on the rise for the past two years, and Zotac is one of the better known brands in the sector. The push by both AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to make their respective processors smaller and more power efficient has pushed the sector upwards.
It’s no surprise that Zotac brought a number of new and refreshed Zbox models to the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show. Zotac is trying to cater the needs of both gamers and those who only need their machines for more lightweight use with the lineup it brought to CES.
The most interesting addition to Zotac’s lineup is the gamer-centered Zbox EN860. The EN860 comes with a built-in GTX 860M, three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, two Ethernet ports, and a TOSLINK audio connector for home theater connectivity. Zotac says the system has G-Sync support, and will be able to drive 4K. Zotac has yet to confirm what processor will be machine, though very likely it will be Intel’s new power sipping Broadwell.
Next up is a new edition to Zotac’s C-series of mini-PCs, the Zbox CI 321 Nano. The CI 321 Nano features a GHz Intel Celeron 2961Y dual-core Haswell processor as well as 4GB of RAM and up to 64 GB of storage (with the Plus model). As far as connectivity goes it has 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI and DisplayPort.
Lastly, Zotac’s Zbox Pico got a slight refresh as it now features an AMD Mullins A4-6400T, R3 Graphics, 2 GB of DDR3 memory, 32GB of storage and mini-DisplayPort.
Pricing is unknown at this time, but it will be interesting how the refreshed Mullins competes with the previous-gen Intel version.
