The Zotac ZBOX CI321 nano is a small, fanless desktop computer that you could use as a media center, home server, or general-purpose PC.

It features an Intel Celeron 2961Y Haswell low-power processor, dual-band 802.11ac WiFi Bluetooth, 4.0, and support for up to 16GB of RAM and as much storage as you can fit on a 2.5 inch drive.

ci321_001

I recently reviewed this 5″ x 5″ x 1.8″ computer, and found that it performs pretty well for a small, low-cost device. You’d probably want a different PC if your primary focus was gaming, but it’s certainly got the right stuff to make a decent media center or a cheap, quiet desktop for office work.

Zotac offers a $240 model that comes with 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and Windows 8.1 with Bing software. But the company sent me a barebones unit that will eventually sell for $140. You can’t actually buy the barebones model yet, but now that I’m finished reviewing the computer, Zotac has agreed to let me give away this slightly used ZBOX CI321 nano to a reader.

This contest is for a barebones system that has no memory, hard drive, or operating system. You’ll need to supply your own, and performance can vary pretty widely depending on the configuration you decide to use.

I’m trying something a little different than usual with this contest. There are a few different ways to enter (and you can enter more than once if you take multiple actions). But there’s no need to leave a comment on this post. Comments don’t count as entries.

Just check out the contest widget below for ways to enter… and make sure to enter a valid email address when asked so I’ll have a way to contact you if you win the contest.

Zotac ZBOX CI321 barebones mini PC giveaway

Update: This contest has ended. Congratulations to our winner, Edward R!

Thanks again to Zotac for providing us with this demo unit.

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38 replies on “Zotac ZBOX CI321 nano barebones mini PC giveaway”

  1. I’ve been looking forward to this being released since it was announced at CES. I think it will make a fantastic pfSense machine and the fact that it’s absolutely silent is a huge bonus. Just wish someone would do a review for this use case instead of HTPC all the time.

  4. Though i tried to enter into competition via provided link, but not sure i made it or not.

    I tried to play the youtube video, it didnt played.

    Tried to click the g+ logo, it faild and returnd to error ” i do not know about this error , except that i did encounterd the error” msg.

    I tried to login with my email id4excel at gmail dot com

    Dear Brad, you may want to look into these issues hence reporting here.

    Have a nice day.

  11. thanks for the contest, been very interested in these little boxes as my htpc is an xbox 360 and an old laptop in another room…the form factor these little boxes take on are getting very cool though

  14. To be honest, I can see why you’re using gleam, but the old system worked much easier. I ended up rewatching the review and refollowing you guys on twitter, but nonetheless thanks for the giveaway!

  19. I can see why you use those things for contests. Kinda silly though. I had to unfollow you on twitter so I could follow you again to get the credit. I had to watch the whole video again, even though I’ve already watched it when you originally did it. I had to subscribe to your rss feed, even though I’m already subscribed to it. Etc…
    Just techno life I suppose.
    I could use a new router. Would love to have a gratis zbox with double ethernet like this please.

        1. This is my first time using this contest widget. I didn’t realize when I set it up that it wanted you to get to the end of the video before it would let you vote. I would have picked a shorter video if I’d known/wanted people to actually sit through it!

          1. I just can’t believe I didn’t think of skipping to the end of the video manually. LOL.

  24. I think this could be a good little NetBSD box but does anyone know what wireless chipset it is using? I didn’t see anything on the Zotac website.

  26. Since this mini PC doesn’t come with a copy of Windows, what Linux distro would people suggest if you were just using this as an HTPC? I’ve only tried Ubuntu, but it isn’t really the best for sitting back on the couch.

    I know throwing Kodi on is another option, but I like to watch lots of free shows from a web browser (HGTV, PBS, FYI).

    1. If you’re watching from the browser, then which linux distro will not matter

  27. I would use this as a media center in my living room! Put on XMBC/Kodi, grab a remote, and I’d be off! 🙂

  28. This would make a lovely, quiet Linux HTPC system. I love all the ports. Zotac makes sold systems.

  29. i know that posting won’t count as an entry, but I’d still like to mention that I do hope I win it. The current HTPC is a mini tower computer, which does not fit in well, so this would work well as a replacement for that. That or I can give it to my parents to use since their current computer is a pre-Core architecture laptop with a broken screen that’s hooked up to a monitor and usb keyboard/mouse

    1. Yeah, I used to have a tower setup too. These days I’m using an old Dell Zino HD system, which is a bit bigger than the Zotac, but slower and noisier. The Dell does have a disc drive though, which comes in handy from time to time.

      It’s fun being able to participate in the comments without throwing off the number of entries. 🙂

      1. It is better this way too imo. Previous drawings had so many comments that it was pointless to try to read it.

        I seriously can’t remember the last time I personally needed a disc drive for anything. Well..I think I used it to install windows 7, but that was years ago.

        1. Yeah, and after you’ve read one “pick me!” comment, you’ve read them all. 🙂

          I mostly use the disc drive for ripping CDs or DVDs since it tends to be easier to play the media from internal storage than a removable drive… even if I do still buy physical media from time to time.

Comments are closed.