Look like a great little HTPC...
After giving us an early look, Dell has revealed the full specs of their color-happy Mac Mini-esque Zino HD. And for $250ish, you aren't just getting an Atom net top. UPDATE x2
Instead, Dell has turned to AMD chips starting with a base Athlon processor (which can be bumped to an AMD Athlon™ X2, and AMD Athlon™ Neo X2). A single hard drive squeezes inside (up to 1TB) along with as many as 8GB of RAM. And you can choose between integrated graphics and an ATI Radeon HD 4330 512MB card.
That should be enough power to drive 1080P out of the HDMI port (using an optional Blu-ray drive and TV Tuner if you'd like). You also score 4 USB ports (2 front, 2 back) along with 2 eSATA ports for easy drive expansion.
The Zino HD goes on sale today. But I haven't spotted it on Dell's site just yet. I'm interested to see what you really get in that base $250ish rig, and how much a few of these key upgrades will cost. If Dell keeps the price down, the Zino HD could be a no-brainer when compared to the Atom and Ion-based systems floating around. [Dell]
UPDATE: Dell's press materials they sent out said the Zino HD would start at $250. As of right now, the cheapest configuration online is $360. We've contacted Dell for clarification.
UPDATE 2: This is fun, isn't it? Swap out Windows 7 Professional with Home and the price drops to $260. I have no clue why a sub-$300 computer defaults with a $100 OS upgrade.
I wonder if you could upgrade the CPU on your own to a quad core?
wish it has toslink. I really don't want to update my receiver. Oh well.
Cute, but a "reasonable" config came to $554 for me.
What a great little Media Extender for my main Windows 7 living room machine that has all the tuner cards... oh wait....
Exactly! Its so close you can taste it, can't you. 5 years of waiting. If only Microsoft didn't have their head up their ...
sdolen Cute, but a "reasonable" config came to $554 for me.
$679 for me, and yeah, no tuners.
Not as pretty as the Zino but I like the config better: http://myka.tv/myka-ion.html
Does anyone own one of this and want to give a review?
ShinyDiscoBall Not as pretty as the Zino but I like the config better: http://myka.tv/myka-ion.html Does anyone own one of this and want to give a review?
Surprisingly very little info on myka over at AVSForum.com. Reminds me of Popcornhour.
Tuners are not an issue if you go ClearQam, throw a couple of HDHOMERUN's on your network and your good to go.
I want a small form factor PC that will allow me to put in one of the Ceton Cable Card tuners when it comes out. I guess I am going to have to build my own.
So will the bottom of the line configuration (with Win 7 Premium upgrade), allow me to do the following:
Utilize WMC to watch live TV flawlessly (I have HD Homerun)
Record and watch recorded wtv files
Stream HD Netflix (Using Media Center)
Play DVDs without any problems
I have a 40" Sammy 120hz...I also have that anywhere remote control=)
Thanks.
I have reviewed the Myka (see here - http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009/10/28/review-myka-250/) but haven't seen the Myka Ion yet. Hopefully I can get my hands on one to review in the coming weeks.
Cheers, Damian
http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
http://www.mediasmartserver.net
Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP 2010
Found a "backdoor" through bountii.com so you can get a Zino HD without an optical drive for $199 (cost parity with the Acer Revo 1600).
http://bountii.com/deal-3657069-dell-inspiron-zino-hd-windows.html
The Dell Zino HD is now available in Canada... at 185% of the US price!! Are they joking?
http://www1.ca.dell.com/ca/en/home/desktops/inspiron-zino-hd/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-zino-hd&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&ref=dthp
If you configure it with the 3250e processor, 2GB or RAM, the 4330 graphics card, the 250GB hard drive, and Windows 7 (Home Premium) it costs $728, when the exact same system on the US site costs $394. What a rippoff!!
DBC