ZOTAC Atom Dual-Core Mini PC Barebone System ZBOX-ID80-PLUS-U

I bought this used from Amazon Warehouse Deals for a good price. I thought I would give it a try as the product was rated "Used - Like New". As soon as I started to try to install Windows 7 on it, I could tell why it had been returned. It was slow as molasses! It took hours to install Windows and hours more to install updates. The hard-drive light just stayed on constantly. So, since I got it for a good price, I decided to experiment. I have a spare 250GB hard drive and installed it in the ZBox. It has just finished installing Windows in a very short amount of time. So it would appear that the problems was the hard drive. Too bad to have to just throw away a 320G hard drive. But, now it seems to work fine.If you are thinking of buying this system, I would recommend buying the cheaper one without hard-drive and memory, and buy a quality drive and memory to install. It's easy to access. Before it will operate properly, you will need to install lots of drivers.I give it 2 stars because it came with a faulty drive, and that appears to be the biggest complaint with this machine. Either faulty or very low quality.

After spending some time researching different mini computers, I decided to take my chance on this one, though it had no reviews when I bought it. My main purpose for buying this Zotac was so that I could connect it to my TV screen and use the internet for multimedia.Since the system didn't come with an operating system, I installed Ubuntu Linux on it. Immediately I noticed how slow the computer was during the downloading process. I had downloaded Ubuntu on another computer before, and it was significantly quicker than on this Zotac. After the download, the sluggish performance continued. I could not even watch a low quality video in full screen without the picture lagging or freezing.The wireless connection was also very poor (1 mb/s) when connected to my FIOS router, even though I had connected the included antenna. The computer itself would heat up considerably, even with minor internet usage (Fan still remained quiet).Overall:Pro- Quiet Fan- Nice DesignCon- Very Slow (Weak Processor)- Poor Wireless Connection