Zotac ZBOX Mini-PC choice - advice requested

[pingadam]

Hi,

I am looking for a small "nettop"-style PC to act as both an occasional "spare" desktop PC and as a low-wattage home server, and am particularly interested in the following ZOTAC ZBOX models:

ZOTAC ZBOX ID41 - Product Information

ZOTAC ZBOX AD02 - Product Information

The ZBOX ID41 is a dual-core Atom D525 with ION2, and ZBOX AD02 is a dual-core AMD E-350 APU Fusion System (Zacate). With both of these, you have to add RAM, a Hard Drive and install your own OS. Both models are of interest to me as they include both eSATA and USB 3.0 ports.

On paper, the AD02 has a better specification (RAM up to 8Gb, CPU that supports AMD-V virtualisation [so better VirtualBox performance? Useful to me], also reviews say the performance of Zacate is better than Atom, etc), but as I understand it, the Atom + Ion2 is better supported by Linux (at least currently). Both systems here in the UK are about the same price (£180 to £190) from various suppliers.

My main question is: which of these 2 would be the better choice to run under Linux, in particular Ubuntu? I understand the AMD system is newer so has less support at the moment, but would Ubuntu 11.04 install without major issues? I normally stick to LTS releases, but would be happy to install 11.04, and 11.10 later, before moving on to 12.04 LTS next year.

Also, I believe that nVidia currently has better hardware acceleration under Linux, but is AMD is likely to catch up eventually? Will AMD/ATI graphics eventually support Adobe Flash hardware acceleration in future?

Many thanks for any advice and help.

[Sickdove]

Looking for the same some years later as I find this post. Did the ZBOX worked for you?

I am planing on replacing a mini Dell SX280 running ubuntu 12.04 LTS for a ZBOX soon. I use the machine for VPN'ing and file server.

[papibe]

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