Zotac ZBOX EI750 Plus: A Feature-Rich Iris Pro mini-PC
by Ganesh T S on August 25, 2014 7:00 AM ESTZBOX EI750 as a HTPC
The ZBOX EI750 has a much better acoustic profile compared to the BRIX Pro (thanks to the larger chassis, which, in turn, allows for a fan with a larger diameter). But, it is still noisy for HTPC use. However, it does have the credentials for a gaming HTPC, where noise is not that much of a concern. The Core i7-4770R should be capable enough for madVR when the algorithms and video stream resolutions are restricted. There are two HTPC aspects that we will explore in this section, one related to network streaming (OTT services), and the other related to local file playback. Prior to that, we have a small sub-section dealing with refresh rate accuracy.
Custom Refresh Rates
We found last year that Haswell provided excellent display refresh rate accuracy, and reconfirmed that in multiple Haswell mini-PC reviews. Our experience with the ZBOX EI750 was also flawless.
The gallery below presents some of the other refresh rates that we tested out. The first statistic in madVR's OSD indicates the display refresh rate.
Network Streaming Efficiency
Evaluation of OTT playback efficiency was done by playing back our standard YouTube test stream and five minutes from our standard Netflix test title. Using HTML5, the YouTube stream plays back a 720p encoding, while Adobe Flash delivers a 1080p stream. The power consumption at the wall as well as the GPU usage while playing them on Mozilla Firefox are provided in the graphs below.
Netflix streaming evaluation was done using the Windows 8.1 Netflix app. Manual stream selection is available (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S) and debug information / statistics can also be viewed (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-D). Statistics collected for the YouTube streaming experiment were also collected here.
Decoding and Rendering Benchmarks
In order to evaluate local file playback, we concentrate on EVR-CP and madVR. We already know that EVR works quite well with the Intel IGP for our test streams. Under madVR, we used the default settings initially. madVR also has an option to utilize the hardware scaler that is specific to Intel HD Graphics (instead of the specific algorithms that can be configured via its interface). Other than these, we also put together a 'madVR stress configuration' with the upscaling algorithms set to Jinc 3-tap with anti-ringing activated and the downscaling algorithm set to Lanczos 3-tap, again with anti-ringing activated. The decoder used is from the LAV filters integrated in MPC-HC v1.7.3.
| Zotac ZBOX EI750 Plus - Decoding & Rendering Performance | ||||||||
| Stream | EVR-CP | madVR - Default | madVR - DXVA Scaling | madVR - Stress | ||||
| GPU Load (%) | Power (W) | GPU Load (%) | Power (W) | GPU Load (%) | Power (W) | GPU Load (%) | Power (W) | |
| 480i60 MPEG2 | 20.68 | 23.61 | 52.89 | 29.40 | 37.42 | 27.39 | 79.84 | 60.30 |
| 576i50 H264 | 18.17 | 23.15 | 58.01 | 30.21 | 39.03 | 27.90 | 92.92 | 60.59 |
| 720p60 H264 | 24.81 | 24.83 | 70.24 | 34.98 | 45.30 | 29.74 | 98.56 | 61.16 |
| 1080i60 MPEG2 | 27.56 | 25.58 | 33.14 | 34.82 | 32.55 | 34.83 | 82.02 | 61.47 |
| 1080i60 H264 | 27.84 | 26.36 | 38.31 | 33.52 | 36.08 | 34.85 | 85.56 | 61.82 |
| 1080i60 VC1 | 28.99 | 26.09 | 39.17 | 33.83 | 39.74 | 32.76 | 86.70 | 61.45 |
| 1080p60 H264 | 29.74 | 26.18 | 55.29 | 37.43 | 53.14 | 31.62 | 98.12 | 62.14 |
| 1080p24 H264 | 11.88 | 22.41 | 22.04 | 25.46 | 22.12 | 25.31 | 64.05 | 33.07 |
| 4Kp30 H264 | 26.40 | 26.93 | 68.99 | 63.42 | 40.51 | 31.68 | 96.01 | 62.83 |
These results present data points additional to whatever we had for the BRIX Pro. The PC has no trouble, as expected, with EVR-CP for any of our test streams. Even madVR works in the default and DXVA scaling configurations. Problems start to appear only for 60 fps progressive streams as well as 4K streams when advanced madVR scaling algorithms are chosen.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
34 Comments
View All Comments
xdrol - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
"EPIC GAMING" is also on the box..fokka - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
any idea why the brix pro manages to get considerably higher fps, albeit using the same iGPU?NARC4457 - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
just a quick comment from a BI standpoint - I think it would be a better presentation to flip your ranking for charts where "lower numbers are better". Having the "1st Place" ranking at the bottom of the chart is opposite from the rest of the charts. Having it at the top presents a consistent message.Regarding the content, all measurments show the Brix to be a better performer (aside from wifi) with extra throttling. I don't see the point of having an i7 box that cannot run at full tilt.
rituraj - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Exactly my thoughtsjwcalla - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Before I clicked the article link I asked myself, "How much you want to bet this thing is ridiculously expensive?"Check!
yannigr2 - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
It's difficult to read the graphs without the information about the gpu(gaming benchmarks) or the cpu(performance metrics) near the name of each machine. You just can't remember each machine's specs. So you just scroll down fast and don't really read them which is really a pity considering the work that is done in this article.leopard_jumps - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
A rig with FX 6300 and GTX 660 wiil outperform that and the price will be lower .Shiitaki - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
The thing Intel won't accept is that their graphics is substandard, and inferior. And yet they insist on combining the best graphics capabilities on to the most expensive cpus. The very cpus, which are the most likely to NOT use the integrated graphics.The Iris graphics is great, on a dual core! Not a quad core, and certainly not on a hyper threaded quad core! Intel like Microsoft concentrates too much on forcing everyone to buy the product they want to sell, not selling the products people want to buy.
bsd228 - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
no one is buying discrete graphics for a mini system like this. You do want the best graphics (focused on video playback) that you can get, but you're not going to change the size profile, nor do you want a hot AMD chip with lower cpu performance either. The gamers...they are getting something different.Laststop311 - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
This thing would make a ROCKIN htpc. I would have to add a ram stick to make it dual channel and I would want at least a 256GB samsung evo msata for the OS and games and applications, maybe even 512GB considering how large games can be and the fact the standard hdd won't be used. The spinning hard drive can go, much better to have a nas store the massive movie catalog you acquire for watching on the tv. Get an xbox one controller with the windows drivers up and running on it and install emulators for all the older games have full catalogs for mame, atari, nes, snes, genesis, neo geo, gameboy, game gear, nintendo ds, ps1, nintendo 64, psp.Sure you will end up spending like 1200 dollars when all is said and done on just an HTPC. But this isn't your average HTPC. It's incredibly small and quiet and power efficient and it's the ultimate freakin entertainment hub. And the 1200 pays for itself when you get infinite movies and music albums for free that alone pays itself off. Instead of paying 15-20 per movie and 10 per album all those savings adds up to getting the htpc for free essentially. That's not even counting having a huge full catalog of every retro gaming system at your fingertips to play on your tv as well and with xbox one controllers you don't have to be stuck with bad controls for the old games. Hook up a wireless keyboard and mouse as well and you got great couch surfing abilities as well like that old school webtv device that let you browse the web from the couch.
I could see myself replacing my extremely ghetto full tower htpc that is just an old regular pc repurposed as a htpc. It's a core 2 duo x6800 running at 3.61ghz which when I originally got it 8 years ago was pretty speedy and the gpu it currently has is a little more recent a radeon 4870. I wonder if the iris pro 5200 can beat the dedicated radeon 4870.
I probably won't though. The main issue with this is the broadwell version of these mini pc's is supposed to be hitting stores q1 2015. Secondary issue is replacing my x58 core i7-980x to x99 core i7-5960x is my main priority. I will likely wait and see how the i7-5770r stacks up. Intel always makes a rly nice push on the graphics side when they shrink during a tock. All the extra transistors available allows them to really pump up the integrated gpu. Crystal well's successor should basically make dedicated gpu's totally extinct in htpc's.