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Nettops are by definition tiny desktop computers with low power processors. But that doesn’t mean they can’t play with the big boys when it comes to things like HD video playback. A number of nettops launched over the past year or two have shipped with ATI or NVIDIA graphics capable of handling 1080p HD video and even Blu-ray decoding — although most have required an external Blu-ray drive if you wanted to go that route.

Enter Zotac’s new ZBOX Blu-ray mini-PCs. These machines ship with Intel Atom D525 dual core processors and second generation NVIDIA ION graphics, as well as a slot-loading Blu-ray drive that can handle Blu-ray, DVD, and CD playback. It can also write to CD and DVD media.

The nettops also have HDMI and DVI video output, a flash card reader, a combo eSAA/USB 2.0 port as well as 2 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.0 ports/ You also get 7.1 channel audio, integrated 802.11n WiFi, two DDR2 memory slots, room for a 2.5 inch hard drive, and a mini PCI Express expansion slot.

There are two versions of the new Zotac ZBOX Blu-ray series. The ZBOX Blu-ray HD-ID33 is a barebones unit that ships without memory or a hard drive, while the ZBOX Blu-ray HD-ID34 comes with 2GB of memory and a 250GB hard drive. Both models come with a copy of Cyberlink PowerDVD8 with Blu-ray support… although neither comes with an operating system installed.

via Hot Hardware