Zotac Launches the Intel N100 Powered ZBOX Pro PI339 pico Mini PC

[TheLostSwede]

When it comes to Intel powered mini PCs, Zotac is one of the main players in the market and its latest addition, the ZBOX Pro PI339 pico is an almost pocket friendly PC based on an Intel Processor N100. For those not familiar with Intel's N-range of CPUs, these are pretty much the E-cores from Intel's higher-end chips and Intel offers a range of options from two to eight cores. The N100 is a quad core part that peaks at a 3.4 GHz turbo frequency, has 6 MB of cache and a 6 W TDP. Zotac has paired the CPU with a somewhat meagre 4 GB of LPDDR5/LPDDR5X memory and there's no way to add more RAM to this system.

Storage is handled by a single M.2 slot that's compatible with PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe or SATA drives up to 2280 in size. In terms of connectivity the ZBOX Pro PI339 pico has a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports that are limited to 4K output at 60 Hz, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type A ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a barrel plug for power input. It's unfortunate that Zotac didn't go with USB-C for the power input, as it would've made the ZBOX far easier to power, since the supplied power adapter only outputs 20 Watts. There's also onboard WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 support, although the rather large antennas are a somewhat odd addition to the small PC. Zotac claims to support Windows 11 / Windows 10 IoT ENT LTSC 2021, Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS Linux, but most likely any flavour of Linux should work. The ZBOX Pro PI339 pico measures 115 x 76 x 27 mm (WxDxH) and has a volume of a mere 0.27 litres. No word on pricing as yet.



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[bug]

I wonder what they mean by "4GB LPDDR5/X" support. Are they not sure what they put in there? Are there several SKUs, equipped with different RAM?
Also going mini (pico, in this case), yet still using USB-A is a little self defeating, isn't it?

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

I'm still shocked, for example, when I see a $600 Laptop with only 8GB of RAM, but to see anything running Windows 11 with 4GB of RAM is ridiculous in this day and age, especiallywhen its not user upgradable. I remember back in 2014 I had a Surface Pro with 4GB of memory and even back then it was suffering from the lack of memory, so I can't imagine what it's like a decade later. Heck, I personally think 16GB is the absolute bare minimum to run windows and would even argue that 32GB is now recommended for a good user experience.

 

[AusWolf]

I love mini PCs, but 8 GB RAM is really the minimum these days. My netbook has only 4 GB and is struggling to even browse the web while Steam is running in the background.

 

[Nostras]

I love mini PCs, but 8 GB RAM is really the minimum these days. My netbook has only 4 GB and is struggling to even browse the web while Steam is running in the background.

4GB is fine for home-assistant replacement devices and devices that run/control certain things in the field. Not OK for direct consumer use as you mention yeah.

 

[bug]

4GB is fine for home-assistant replacement devices and devices that run/control certain things in the field. Not OK for direct consumer use as you mention yeah.

Idk how Windows works on low RAM these days, but Linux can certainly do a lot with 4GB. A router, a streaming server, a NAS... Not everyone will need one, but it has its uses.

 

[AusWolf]

Idk how Windows works on low RAM

It works, but with a crapton of reads/writes to/from the virtual memory.

 

[bug]

It works, but with a crapton of reads/writes to/from the virtual memory.

In other words, it doesn't

 

[lemonadesoda]

I think this is really good value at EUR 199, even with the limited RAM and CPU. Would have been nice to have 2x RJ45 ports.

More than EUR 199, then it's a big NO from me.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I wonder what they mean by "4GB LPDDR5/X" support. Are they not sure what they put in there? Are there several SKUs, equipped with different RAM?
Also going mini (pico, in this case), yet still using USB-A is a little self defeating, isn't it?

I presume it depends on what they can get hold of on the cheap when they make a batch of units and they reserve the right to put whichever in the units.

 

[bug]

I presume it depends on what they can get hold of on the cheap when they make a batch of units and they reserve the right to put whichever in the units.

Could be. The relatively anemic CPU probably doesn't need the LPDDR5X bandwidth anyway.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Idk how Windows works on low RAM these days, but Linux can certainly do a lot with 4GB. A router, a streaming server, a NAS... Not everyone will need one, but it has its uses.

Hehe... My NAS has 16 GB of RAM...

 

[Zareek]

I'm still shocked, for example, when I see a $600 Laptop with only 8GB of RAM, but to see anything running Windows 11 with 4GB of RAM is ridiculous in this day and age, especiallywhen its not user upgradable. I remember back in 2014 I had a Surface Pro with 4GB of memory and even back then it was suffering from the lack of memory, so I can't imagine what it's like a decade later. Heck, I personally think 16GB is the absolute bare minimum to run windows and would even argue that 32GB is now recommended for a good user experience.

I agree for the most part. 4GB is not enough for Windows anymore. 8GB will get it done, but it slows things down a bit. For the home user and general office tasks, 16GB is pretty much perfect. If you game or do anything beyond that, 32GB is the sweet spot. 4GB is fine for Linux, even with a GUI. Zorin 16 runs great on only 4GB.

 

[AusWolf]

In other words, it doesn't

You could say that (unless you have the patience of a rock, or don't browse on multiple tabs while running stuff in the background).

 

[bug]

You could say that (unless you have the patience of a rock, or don't browse on multiple tabs while running stuff in the background).

Eh, looking at how browsers these days eat RAM for breakfast, you don't need stuff in the background to run out of 4GB RAM