| | | Location: Home » Desktop Computers » Zotac MAG Intel Atom N330, NVIDIA ION, 2 GB DDR2, 160 GB HD, eSATA, HDMI HD-ND01-U Mini PC - No OS | |
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Zotac MAG Intel Atom N330, NVIDIA ION, 2 GB DDR2, 160 GB HD, eSATA, HDMI HD-ND01-U Mini PC - No OS | 
| Brand: Zotac
Category: Personal Computer
List Price: $299.99
Buy New: $273.99
as of 7/30/2010 03:56 CDT details
You Save: $26.00 (9%)
New (7) from $273.99
Seller: Buy.com
Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 105
Media: Personal Computers
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
CPU Manufacturer: Intel
Processors: 1
System Bus Speed: 533
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Modem: None
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 1.5 x 7.3
MPN: MAGHD-ND01-U
Model: MAG HD-ND01-U
EAN: 4897022323554
ASIN: B0030UH2J4
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Zotac mini-PC with Intel Atom N330 and nVidia ION chipset | | • | 2GB DDR2-800, 160GB HD | | • | 6x USB 2.0, WIFI, Gigabit LAN, 8 channel Audio, VGA, HDMI, 1x eSATA port, SPDIF optical output | | • | 4-in-1 built in media card reader, included stand, VESA mount, AC adapter | | • | Low power usage, NO OPERATING SYSTEM |
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Product Description
Your Everywhere Mini-PC. From the living room to the kitchen, the ZOTAC MAG delivers a premium multimedia experience. The ZOTAC MAG packs fluid high-definition video playback capabilities into a slim, compact system that is silent and perfect for all home environments. Includes 2gb DDR2 memory, 160GB HD.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
 Great for Everyday Use, Lot of Features, Great Value for ITX Computer! July 19, 2010
Karl Burrows (Charlotte, NC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am an IT consultant (I know, I repeat myself in my reviews, but just adding some validity!) and wanted something to replace an old Shuttle Mini I had build for my wife many years ago. It was getting to be too slow and it was time to replace it. I researched options through Dell (my main PC vendor) and found most mini systems were pushing $600 or more by the time you get them configured. In my research, I came across the HTPC (Home Theater PC) subset of computers. Of course, there are lots of opinions and lots of options to choose from. I chose this model for the following reasons:
* The NVidia Ion GPU seems to be tops in the market for video processing and takes a lot of load off the CPU, which allows the Atom processors to work more with the PC processes. This makes the Ion/Atom combination work well with general PC applications like Office, lightweight photo editing software, Internet, etc. Multi-tasking is quite acceptable running basic programs.
* I liked this particular Zotac model because all it needed was the O/S. I looked at the NS-01, which had a newer Atom processor, but required a hard drive, memory and the O/S. Pricing moderate components, I was over $500 with the total configuration. As with all the reviews, these aren't going to blow you away with speed, but they are going to be respectable machines for a specialized market. I didn't see that there was going to be that much difference in performance between between the two, so I chose the easy way out.
* Finally, the Shuttle Mini barebones I built many years ago was about the smallest footprint you could get in a mini PC at the time. I looked at some of the HTPC's that were no bigger than a set of playing cards with a fanless system. The Zotac is still very small. I think the pictures and the discussions make you think they are smaller than they really are. If you imagined a slightly oversized CD/DVD carrying case, you can get a better idea of the size. I mounted the monitor on the wall and set the Zotac right behind the monitor, wrapped and tied all the cables and it takes up no space at all. I also like that you can mount it in the VESA mounts behind the monitor, but I'm not convinced that works well if you need to get to a USB port or want to plug in your SD card. Luckily, some Dell monitors come with USB ports, so I had an SD card reader and just use that and the other USB ports on the monitor for connections.
I installed Windows 7 Pro 64-bit without a hitch. I didn't need any driver updates and all hardware installed properly. Windows Update picked up any hardware updates that weren't installed with the Windows install disk (you can install Windows 7 with a flash drive configuration or just get an external USB DVD drive, which I used). There was no need to even use the supplied drivers CD. 160GB hard drive is plenty for my wife's use and there is an eSATA port for additional space if you need it. I would imagine hardcore home theater enthusiasts will have network drives for media sharing and geeks like me have servers or network storage for media storage.
This system comes with 2GB of DDR2 800 RAM, which is adequate and upgradable to 4GB for about $40. DDR3 1333 is more likely to been seen in better PC configurations, so this memory is a few generations old (I had it in an old Precision 380 workstation that is about 4 years old), but again, these are built for streaming video, which requires more ability to buffer the video than playing games which requires instant GPU response. The Atom processor is a dual core with hyperthreading, so it does show as 4 processors in Task Manager. Again, you probably can't run many apps that will utilize all 4 cores, but it does make it easier to multi-task (email, multiple Internet tabs, viewing pics, Word doc).
My only knock on this unit is the wireless. I have a pretty good wireless bubble around the house and the Zotac just doesn't want to connect at more than 11mbps. I would think they could come up with some fix for this. I didn't have an issue since I had a CAT5 connection there already, but I can see where some users wouldn't have wired connections behind their TV's or in their kitchen. Zotac, do you have a fix for this??
Spending most of my day dealing with computer issues, the last thing I wanted was to deal with issues at home (what do they say, the cobblers kids have no shoes!). I have had this up and running for a few weeks now and my wife seems very pleased, which makes me very pleased. I think it is a great option for a second PC in the house. It's at a great price point, configuration is very easy and it offers lots of features for a home user. Don't expect it to blow you away with speed, but do expect it to blow you away with ease of use, small footprint and lots of features. I have already thought of several options for these for my customers.
 Nothing but problems July 14, 2010
Ken staten (Lehigh,fl)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
The worst product I've ever bought in my 9 years of ordering from Amazon.No sound weak Wi-Fi.
Nice look but no DVD drive. July 9, 2010
Timur Fatykhov (Silver Spring MD United States)
With Adobe releasing their player that supports Hardware decoding this item is now can be used as a complete HTPC solution.
Only con that I can see - is lack of DVD or BlueRay drive onboard. Which is really required if you want to use it as Media PC. So unless you already have external you will have to get it. I already had 5.25 internal blueRay drive so I only purchased enclosure. So after that OS installation went really fast and smooth. Again with latest drivers this PC can play 1080p movies without any issues as well as blue Ray movies. Items become a little bit hot while it working but I never heard that it turns fan on. Again it depends where you place it. I have it in basement and room stays always cool.
Bottom line it is worth the money and give you much more options vs players such WD. Minus - you have to get OS but in case of Linux - it is free. Also you can use XBMC Live ([...]/) as an alternative but of course it has it`s own limitations.
HTPC for all?? July 4, 2010
Tech Junkie
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Okay, so many reviews said this was the one to get. nVidia graphics and dual core atom. This indeed does a number of things well. I first loaded Mythbuntu on it and had it paired with a Happague 950Q USB tuner. This worked well for digital stations but could not keep up with analog station recording as the USB tuner does software compression/decoding and the VDPAU libraries are not made for recording but for playback (unless I am doing something wrong). My working solution was Ubuntu 64-bit which eeks out the last drop of power from the atom processor. When in System Monitor, it reports 4 CPUs which is likely due to hyperthreading of the two processors.
Well, the atom itself will playback dvd video but not HD Video. Loading the VDPAU libraries and using MPlayer (not Totem which comes by default) and setting up the config file to force MPlayer to use the VDPAU libraries, the Atom CPU loading is less than 30% for 1080p video and it is flawless playback. You need to have the nVidia drivers loaded before you can use VDPAU. Having one but not the other does you no good.
Ubuntu 10.04 currently has a problem with HDMI sound out of the box. There are workarounds to get it working, but for me I had to go with VGA out and SPDIF (optical) to my receiver/amplifier. The bad thing is that HDMI is not the primary display, the VGA is. The first time booting, you have to boot to a VGA screen. The nVidia driver does allow you to later set the HDMI port as primary but only do this once you get the sound working. Also, when switching through my amplifier, the HDMI driver recognised the amplifier as the display device and not the projector at the other end of the receiver. This messed things up a little bit (also have cablebox and PS3 hooked into the amplifier).
On another note, I have a BenQ W1000 projector and it is just a wonderful combination. Surfing the web on 110" screen is pretty nice. Of course, you want to get a wireless keyboard with touchpad to run it all from your couch. You an even try a USB IR-Remote which I did have working with Mythbuntu.
As most people have noticed, the WiFi is pretty bad. It works when really close but could not cross from my basement router to my 2nd floor bedroom when my laptop did just fine. I would recommend that you hard-wire Cat-5e if you want to use this. Screaming fast web-surfing if you do it that way.
All in all a pretty good product. I would recommend an external HD for storage. That way you can play with different operating systems and not worry about losing your data.
No idea on how Windows works as I never tried that combination.
And as others have mentioned, you need an external device to load the OS. A USB CD-ROM would work, but if you are using Ubuntu, it is pretty easy to load the iso onto a USB stick (from another computer) and boot the Zotac from that.
The best thing about it is the form factor.
I am open sourced June 15, 2010
Harry B. Nelsen
I got the Mag because I wanted the ION a netbook that would allow me to become completely open sourced. It appears that some kind of deal was struck where all such netbooks came with the Windows 7 starter nonsense. Being new to Linux, I didn't want to risk loading it on to a machine that was configured to sell me an upgraded MS product. Hence I got the Mag that comes with no OS. So far, the Ubuntu experience on the Mag has been very good. It's smaller than a netbook so I can set up my environment anywhere with a keyboard and monitor. Although located less than 22' from it's router, I have had no problem wifi. I would say that it's going to do the job I intend it to do.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
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