The last time we ran past
Dell's Zino HD all we had to go on specs-wise was that it housed "desktop parts" and had some nice plugs around back. Now the folks at the appropriately named
DellZinoHD blog have found a spec breakdown of the unit, which is apparently also going by the names of Inspiron 300 and Inspiron 400 -- the latter of which seems to be slated for the Zino HD branding, or at least seems to mirror the original concept. The Inspiron 300 has more of a nettop slant, with an Atom processor and integrated graphics, and though it has a DVD burner and 3.5-inch HDD, there won't be HDMI or eSATA ports. Meanwhile, the Inspiron 400 can handle an Athlon or Athlon X2 processor, with an option for ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 discrete graphics (not quite a "desktop" part, if you ask us) and all the other goodies like a Blu-ray option, HDMI, gigabit Ethernet, dual eSATA and so forth. Interestingly, the manual also mentions XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Ubuntu as supported options -- though we're not sure they'll all be available as retail configurations.
posted Oct 3rd 2009 2:30PM
*discrete
The name Zino HD reminds me of the Zune HD....
I thought of the Flip Mino HD. Dell Zino HD could well be a combination of both. Coincidence or lack of creativity in the companies' marketing departments?
I thought of the Zeno, a device for acne. Bad name, at any rate...
why don't any of these ever come with a TV Tuner?
Agreed. Add a CableCARD slot and this would be the perfect HTPC they are trying to market it as.
Toss the TV tuner and cable card under the bus already! By the time these things reach any level of adoption, anyone who cares will only be be watching stored or internet streamed content anyway. That's all I watch right now. No Cable. No TV.
I agree with lens
most tv content is available legally for free online, often in hd.
Tv's only good for news and sports.
I will pass on the 300.
Same here. The 400 looks like the best option!
The one crap thing is that since the discrete graphics are a mobile chip, you're at Dell's mercy for official driver updates. You can go through and hack newer drivers, but that doesn't always work well.
I'm slightly curious what "AMD UMA" means. Would that be an integrated Radeon 3000 or 4000 series card with shared memory?
Should of been called Zima HD
I though it read Zune HD for a second there...........
why is my comment over here ........
No HDMI means no sale for me.
No HDMI for the 300, but the 400 version has it...
Agreed...
Is there no Intel option?
So who makes the Atom again?
@Simbr
Reading comprehension FTW.
"Athlon" != "Atom"
seems like a good mini-itx HTPC option
I hate working saturdays...
So the 300 HD has no HDMI? Why bother calling it HD?
HDMI can display HD resolutions. So can D-SUB. So can DVI. So can display port. So can component connections.
No HDMI does not mean no HD.
what is yahoo 7???
http://au.yahoo.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!7
Anyway, out of topic.
I had to read the title like 10 times
"wait, what the Zune HD is connected to Dell??"
why don't companies try to be a little creative with naming their products
same thing goes to putting "i" in front of everything
AMD will have 45W quad-core processors soon. Then you'll be able to buy a tiny little quad-core PC.
Those are both... awful, AWFUL choices...
Atom? Athlon? You gotta be kidding me. *GAGS*
Atom will suck for a media box yeah, but Athlon is fine.
I presume these will use the 45nm Athlon II X2 chips, cool 'n' fast. Plus, ATI IGP's are far better than any Intel offering, so what would be better for a media box? Intel Core 2 + X4500 or Athlon II + ATI 3200/4200 IGP? i know what i would take :P
looks like it will be the lenovo Q110 for me, you know that the 400 will cost $599 and up then after 4 months they will give you a 10-15% off coupon
At least throw in an infrared receiver even if they don't plan to include a TV tuner.
Can a Xonar Slim be squeezed into one of these? If not, then forget it.
Bitstreamed HD audio FTW.
The 400 looks like decent HTPC option for those who don't want to build their own.
@lens42 @M C
I'm curious as to repeated comments from people claiming to find everything on TV online in HD.
So, if I told you to watch the 2 hour pilot of Stargate: Universe in 1080i, how long would it take you to start the episode on your home theater? Since I have cable, and a DVR, it takes me about 6 seconds to start from power off. You?
@lens42 @M C
I'm curious as to repeated comments from people claiming to find everything on TV online in HD.
So, if I told you to watch the 2 hour pilot of Stargate: Universe in 1080i, how long would it take you to start the episode on your home theater? Since I have cable, and a DVR, it takes me about 6 seconds to start from power off. You?