News Zotac Mini PC First to Market With Frore AirJet Cooling

[Admin]

Zotac has released its Zbox Pico PI430AJ, which is the first commercial PC to ship with solid-state AirJet cooling tech.

Zotac Mini PC First to Market With Frore AirJet Cooling : Read more

 

[w_barath]

There doesn't appear to be no product page available for the Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ Mini PC

But come on down to the ranch y'all for some sweet tea.

 

[usertests]

We ain't find no pricing listed at the time of writing.

CNX Software reported in May:

ZOTAC expects to start selling the PI430AJ for $500 in Q4 2023. We don’t have the full specifications for the mini PC, but it looks like there may be a hundred dollars or so premium for integrating the Airjet chips into such a mini PC at this point in time, considering the actively-cooled Beelink EQ12 Pro sells for $349 with a similar Core i3-N305 processor, 16GB RAM, and a 500GB SSD.

$500 would likely get you one with 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD, which are the top options they will ship. Not great, but not totally out of the realm of already pricey N300/N305 boxes (compared to N100).

AirJet seems like it could have a colossal impact in the mini PC market. But they need to be able to dissipate more heat with future generations of the product. They say it will scale, but that remains to be seen.

 

[mac_angel]

But come on down to the ranch y'all for some sweet tea.

I saw that and was gonna comment, too.
LMAO.
I'm guess it's a translation fail.
I hope

 

[bit_user]

A single module measures just 27.5 x 41.5 x 2.8 mm, weighs 11 grams, and consumes 1 watt or less. It can dissipate 5.25W, so two should be ample for the 7W Intel i3-N300.

If Toms actually bothered to test any of these N300 mini PCs, you'd know that's not true.

Granted, this is a N305 and they tested system power @ the wall, but it's the best I can find right now:

"We saw idle power consumption ranging from 11-12W in high-performance mode to 9-10W in power-saving mode in Windows 11 Pro. Maximum power consumption was 34-36W."

source: https://www.servethehome.com/beelink-eq12-pro-review-intel-i3-n305-alder-lake-n-is-amazing/4/
​

The bulk of that power is obviously being used by the CPU. Now, I'll grant that the N305 is rated for 15 W, but if you scale that down, we should expect the N300 to use up to 16-17 W.

BTW, just because there's not a fan or blower doesn't mean this machine is silent. The air could still make a hissing sound, as it enters & exits the case. My desktop has all noctua fans and, although the fans are very quiet, you still hear a mostly whooshing sound. So, I'll be interested to hear how silent these are in practice.

If it's as silent as it's being suggested, then I wish someone would make a Frore Airjet-based cooler for the Raspberry Pi 5.

 

[cryoburner]

The bulk of that power is obviously being used by the CPU. Now, I'll grant that the N305 is rated for 15 W, but if you scale that down, we should expect the N300 to use up to 16-17 W.

Alternately, they could just slap a single one on and have the CPU thermal throttle down to 5 watts. : 3

CNX Software reported in May:

"ZOTAC expects to start selling the PI430AJ for $500 in Q4 2023. We don’t have the full specifications for the mini PC, but it looks like there may be a hundred dollars or so premium for integrating the Airjet chips into such a mini PC at this point in time, considering the actively-cooled Beelink EQ12 Pro sells for $349 with a similar Core i3-N305 processor, 16GB RAM, and a 500GB SSD."

$500 would likely get you one with 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD, which are the top options they will ship. Not great, but not totally out of the realm of already pricey N300/N305 boxes (compared to N100).

This product seems a bit overpriced. What exactly is it intended to be used for that a $150-$200 N100-based miniPC couldn't do? Per-core performance will likely be similar, with 4-cores easily handling the vast majority of common desktop tasks, and if one were actually doing something that could benefit from the additional cores, they would benefit even more from getting a system with a somewhat larger form-factor and a desktop CPU.

 

[bit_user]

Alternately, they could just slap a single one on and have the CPU thermal throttle down to 5 watts. : 3

Meanwhile, it overheats your SSD, causing that to throttle, also!

This product seems a bit overpriced. What exactly is it intended to be used for that a $150-$200 N100-based miniPC couldn't do? Per-core performance will likely be similar, with 4-cores easily handling the vast majority of common desktop tasks, and if one were actually doing something that could benefit from the additional cores, they would benefit even more from getting a system with a somewhat larger form-factor and a desktop CPU.

Agreed that the N300 is somewhat overpriced and this is an overpriced example of that! However, I went to check out the Beelink store on Amazon and most of their non-AMD models seem to be unavailable! The only one I found was a N95 for $200. On AliExpress, the N305 version of the EQ12 Pro is going for $304.

At a $500 price point (according to @usertests ), the only reason not to go with a higher-end mini-PC (i.e. with a P+E configuration) would probably be noise. You don't need to go all the way to a desktop CPU, however. There are plenty of NUC-like mini-PCs that use a BGA laptop CPU, which is probably a win for noise & power.

 

[usertests]

This product seems a bit overpriced. What exactly is it intended to be used for that a $150-$200 N100-based miniPC couldn't do? Per-core performance will likely be similar, with 4-cores easily handling the vast majority of common desktop tasks, and if one were actually doing something that could benefit from the additional cores, they would benefit even more from getting a system with a somewhat larger form-factor and a desktop CPU.

If you compare it to the N100, it won't look good. 8-core N300/N305 already commands a steep premium over N100 that was signaled in advance by giving it the "Core i3" branding. Then you are paying another premium to be an early adopter of AirJet.

Keep in mind, that $500 price is theoretical and they are only launching with 8 GB of RAM so far. It was originally reported that there would be a 16 GB option.

Alder Lake-N is best kept dirt cheap, because when you think about it, ultra mobile silicon with 1-2 P-cores should be fulfilling some of its roles with much better single-threaded performance and a larger iGPU. And an AI coprocessor when Meteor Lake 2+8(+2) is out.

Obviously, Alder Lake-U and Raptor Lake-U can be much more expensive, but some of the disabled SKUs could be great if they were priced right. For example, the half-disabled Pentium 8500/8505 with 1 P-core, 4 E-cores, 48 EUs. Compared to the N300/N305, it has superior graphics, almost 50% faster single-threaded, a slight loss in multi-threaded, and more L3 cache.