Zotac ZBox IQ01 Plus review

The IQ01 is slightly larger than many mini PCs we’ve seen, but this means there’s room for a desktop version of one of Intel’s Haswell processors in a standard LGA1150 socket. Most mini PCs have mobile chips, and the IQ01’s Core i7-4770T gives it a big performance advantage. Even with a relatively meagre 4GB of RAM, the IQ01 scored 83 overall in our multimedia benchmarks, putting it on par with many £900 gaming laptops and budget desktop PCs. This is fantastic for a system of this size and price, and you can be sure it will be able to handle almost any type of program you throw at it. It could also play our 4K test footage without a problem.

The processor’s integrated HD Graphics 4600 chip showed a lot of promise when it came to playing games. It’s not quite as capable as the Scan 3XS NUC N16’s HD Graphics 5000 chip, but we still saw a respectable 21.5fps in our Dirt Showdown test when we ran it at 1,280×720 with High detail and 4x anti-aliasing, showing you’ll get a playable frame rate with some detail tweaks.

We also tried out the super-pretty platform game Trine 2. Once again, we only saw 23.8fps on Low graphics with no anti-aliasing at 1,920×1,080, but the game was still playable at this frame rate. Once we dropped the resolution to 1,280×720, as we found the IQ01 could produce a smooth 46.3fps at High graphics detail and no anti-aliasing.

It may not be well suited to playing games at Full HD resolutions, but the IQ01 is still a good choice if you’re looking for a media centre PC. You can download the open-source XBMC media centre application straight from Zotac (http://tinyurl.com/xbmczotac ) and the PC comes with a VESA mount so you can attach it to the back of your TV or monitor. However, you’ll need to reach round the back of your TV to turn the PC on, as there aren’t any options to wake the PC from Sleep mode via LAN in the BIOS, so you can’t turn it on with a smartphone or tablet app.

The Zotac ZBox IQ01 Plus is a superb mini PC. It may be bigger than the competition, but there’s no denying its power or sheer value. If you don’t mind installing an operating system yourself, it’s a great buy.