ZOTAC Zbox Nano XS AD13 Plus Pro Reviews

The Zotac ZBox Nano XS AD13 Plus is a neat little box that will fit nicely into your home entertainment system. However, you don't get much in the way of performance with this nettop, and you'll have to supply your own operating system.

For what it is—a low-power micro-PC designed primarily to operate as a media-playback HTPC—we liked the Zbox Nano XS AD13 Plus, especially considering its low price. It’s one of the smallest mini-PCs we’ve seen, and the included mounting hardware, remote control, and other accessories make it an overall great value. Despite its lack of an operating system, keyboard, and pointing device (which most other mini-PC competitors don’t provide, either), it’s a great, geeky starting point for building a reasonably performing HTPC. Just factor in $100 or so for Windows (or $0 for a Linux distro), and shop around for a decent Media Center-style keyboard. We also liked that the AD13 Plus is well-built, good-looking, and loaded with connectivity features. Granted, you can get more powerful mini-PCs, but if streaming media to your living-room or bedroom TV is all you’re buying a device like this for, there's no need to pay extra for more processing oomph than you're likely to need. Chances are, you already have a machine or two for doing the heavy computing tasks. For most folks interested in deploying a little device like this in a home theater, planning and executing the project itself is just as much fun as the results. But these types of projects are always even more fun if they don’t deplete your wallet, too. And the AD13 Plus won't.