Zotac’s latest mini-desktop computer may be a low power machine compared with most full-sized desktops, but it’s got the kind of hardware that will put most nettops to shame. The Zotac ZBOX AD03BR-PLUS is a slim desktop system with a 1.6 GHz AMD E-350 dual core processor and AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics. While that chip has shown up in…

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Small form factor desktop maker Zotac is launching a new nettop with an AMD E-350 (Zacate) chip and integrated Radeon HD graphics. While we’ve already seen a number of laptops announced featuring AMD’s new low power chip, the Zotac AD03 is the first nettop announcement I’ve seen. The AMD E-350 chip combines AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics and a 1.6GHz…

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Terabyte hard drives are getting to be old hat… but what about removable media that can store 1Tb of data? It looks like it’s on the way. TDK showed off a 1TB optical disc at Ceatec in Japan last week, The disc has 16 recording layers, each storing 32GB  per side for a total of 1024GB of storage capacity. Blu-ray…

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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 –…

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Remember when portable Blu-Ray drives were ridiculously expensive? Well the Plextor PX-B120U certainly isn’t going to come quite as cheap as a DVD drive, but this little Blu-Ray drive runs just $99.99. So now I guess they’re just kind of expensive. The drive also happens to be USB powered, which means you don’t need to carry around a power brick…

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Japanese PC maker DosPara is no stranger to pushing the limits of netbooks and ultraportable laptops. The company was one of the first to put out a notebook with a dual core Atom 330 CPU and NVIDIA ION graphics, for example. But DosPara’s latest notebook ups the game with the addition of a Blu-Ray drive. The Dospara limited edition “Yu-pon”…

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The Asus Eee Box EB1501 was already one of the most powerful nettops in the Asus family thanks to a dual core Atom 330 processor, NVIDIA ION graphics, and a built-in DVD drive. But now it looks like there’s a Blu-Ray option as well, at least for European customers. Swiss retailer web site Toppreise.ch has listings for a Blu-Ray version…

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With a growing number of mini-laptops packing NVIDIA ION graphics, it’s becoming more and more common to find notebooks that have no optical disc drives, but which are capable of handling Blu-Ray playback. The solution? You could rip your movies using another machine, but that takes ages. Or you could find a portable Blu-Ray drive that you can throw in…

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At about 70,000 yen, or $751 US dollars, the DosPara Prime Note Cresion is kind of expensive to be considered a netbook. Throw in a 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display and I know there will be some purists out there crying that this device isn’t even small enough to be a netbook. But it is relatively small and…

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Intel’s upcoming GN40 chipset is designed to provide improved HD video playback. But what exactly does that mean? You can already watch plenty of 720p content on a netbook with an Intel Atom N270 CPU and 945GSE chipset. According to Fuzilla, an Intel product manager says the new Intel Atom N280/GN40 chipset will be able to handle 1080p playback. But…

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