I ordered the Zotac ND22 on Tuesday and received it on Thursday, earlier than I thought I would, so here are my thoughts in a nutshell.
The cover of the ND22 is easily removed via two thumb screws so removing the cover and installing the SSD and memory is as easy as it can get. Slide in the SSD (or HDD) and secure it down on the back end with the clip, and position in the memory at a 45 degree angle and push it down until it snaps into place (bottom module first).
Looks: Although it's a plastic case and I would have preferred aluminum/steel, it looks nice and doesn't feel too 'cheap'. I like the orange glowing "O", but those who don't can turn this off in the BIOS.
Linux Mint 10 Install: Piece of cake. I had an external DVD drive close by so I plugged it in the ND22, popped in the Linux Mint 10 x64 DVD I already had laying around, and the Zotac recognized everything right away.
XBMC Install: I first began by installing
Ubuntu-Tweak by opening a terminal and entering:
Code:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak
From there you can select any number of programs to install. Scroll through the list of items in the Application Center, select XBMC, and then Apply. I also updated XOrg and the nVidia drivers. You can skip Ubuntu-Tweak of course and install XBMC directly:
Code:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc
VESA Mounting: This was a no-go on my 40" Toshiba Regza. Seems like this is intended for regular computer monitors, not for HDTVs per se. Bummer. With my setup I was able to simply place it behind the TV anyway to keep it out of sight.
Fan Noise: When the ND22 first boots up it is whisper quiet and barely audible, but after the OS is up and running and you begin using the system for awhile the SmartFan Control ramps up the RPM and, consequently, the fan noise as well. The unit already came with the latest BIOS which gives you the ability to adjust the fan settings so I went ahead and disabled the SmartFan Control and set it to Quiet mode. (Options are Quiet Mode, 50%, Medium, 75%, and Full On). Medium, 75% and Full On are too noisy for an HTPC, but in Quiet mode and even at 50% this fan is barely audible at normal viewing distance and imperceptible while watching movies. The unit does get warm, but doesn't seem to be overly so. Some may even be perfectly ok with setting the fan at 50% (Edit: I now have it at 50% just for the bit of extra cooling, though I ran into no issues in Quiet mode). I wouldn't recommend the Quiet setting if you'll be playing CPU intensive games or re-encoding videos, however.
Pros: With the CULV CPU the ND22 system feels snappy and responsive, and installing an SSD is icing on the cake. It's small, comes with VESA mounting for monitors, has lots of USB ports, and accepts 2 x DDR3 SO-DIMM memory modules; has optical out.
Cons: I'll dock 1 point for non-aluminum casing, and 1 point for non-passive cooling. Bottom line, although it isn't 100% silent it makes a great HTPC. It would have been nice if Zotac had included a remote, but even if they did I'd still be using the Official XBMC Remote for Android.
My rating: 8/10