There’s a new nettop from Zotac, and if you’re in the know, you’ll realize that’s a good thing.   Previously, Zotac have used the familiar Intel Atom processor paired with Nvidia’s Ion chip as a standard formula.  This time, however, they’ve mixed up the recipe a bit.  The new Zotac ZBOX HD-AD01 breaks the mold by using an AMD Athlon Neo X2 L325 1.5GHz dual core processor and ATI Radeon 3200 graphics.  There’s also 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Ethernet, DVI, and HDMI as well as an eSATA port, SPDIF, mic and headphone jacks, and a flash card reader.

No new yet on availability or price yet for the UK, but it is already available for purchase in Japan.

via Nettop Reviews

Zotac Mini £229.99

Zotac Mag Mini Nettop – 1 x Atom 330 1.60 GHz 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM – 160 GB HDD – Gigabit Ethernet – £229.99 & Free Shipping at Amazon UK

Following on from the IdeaCentre Q100 and Q110 nettops, Lenovo has launched a new iteration called the IdeaCentre Q150.  This latest nettop from Lenovo updates to the latest next generation ION platform (Ion 2) and uses a dual core Atom D510 processor.  There are a few changes to the outside casing, but on the whole, the same look & feel is kept.

The Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150 will go on sale at the end of next month (June) with pricing starting at $249 in the US.  No word on a UK release date yet.

Skip past the break to see the full specs.

Via Nettop Reviews

Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150 Specs

• Intel Atom D510 processor (dual core, 1.66GHz) OR D410 processor (single core, 1.66GHz)
• Nvidia ION + Intel GMA 3150 graphics
• Up to 2GB DDR2 RAM
• 160 / 250 / 320 / 500GB HDD
• 5.1 channel audio via S/PDIF out
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 100MB LAN
• 4x USB 2.0, LAN, audio jacks, S/PDIF, HDMI, VGA
• VESA wall mount
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Keyboard and mouse (optional)
• Remote with trackball mouse (optional)
• 1.67 pounds / 0.76 kg weight
• 20 x 172 x 153 mm in size

Officially announced back in  March, the Asus Eee PC ET2010 is now said to start shipping here in the UK imminently – at least that’s what we read from the Asus press release.  You’ll remember, the ET2010 nettop is complete with an AMD Athlon II CPU, 1GB or 2GB of RAM, a DVD drive and a total depth of just one inch. The multitouch version gets going at £619.99.

NettopReview.com reports that Asus has officially launched a new Pinetrail powered nettop.  The Asus EB1007 nettop looks much like other Asus nettops but packs a Pinetrail punch under the hood.

The EB1007 has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom D410 single core processor, 1GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM, a 160GB 2.5″ hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 6 USB ports, a SDHC card reader, S/PDIF and D-sub ports, and an eSATA port.  It measures 8.8″ x 7″ x 1.1″ and weighs 2.6 pounds. Options include a keyboard and mouse, stand, and VESA Mount kit for attaching the nettop to the back of your monitor or a TV.

There’s no word on pricing or availability yet.

Intel’s Atom D510 has barely been released and already there’s word of a new nettop processor called the D525.  That’s good, because many have expressed disappointment that the D510 offers no better performance than its predecessor, but the new D525 should do better thanks to both a slight bump in speed (up to 1.8GHz) and compatibility with DDR3 memory.

Despite that the new chip is said to have the same 13W TDP rating and, according to Fudzilla, will be shipping sometime in the second quarter — so not too far off. Netbook Choice is also reporting the existence of the chip in a chart from Intel, but that chart pegs it at the same ‘ol 1.6GHz. We’re still inclined to think the 1.8GHz rating is correct, but we won’t be placing any bets until Intel makes things official. We’re just not the betting kind, really.

Asus Eee Media EM0501

The ASUS EeeMedia EM0501 is supposedly a “High Definition Media Center”, based around an 800MHz  Samsung S5PV210 ARM chipset with 512MB of RAM onboard and a standard2.5-inch HDD bay.  It can hook up to your network for streaming content, and output 1080p Full HD via wired ethernet and WiFi b/g/n, though we’re not entirely sure what video/audio outputs there will be.  If we had to guess, we’d say HDMI will be among them.  Supported media formats include H.264, WMV, MPEG1-4, HDV, VC-1,DivX, XviD, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, RMVB video and JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG and TIFF / TIF stills.

It’s also possible to surf the internet directly from the EM0501, though there’s no indication of whether ASUS will be supplying a remote keyboard to make that a little more straightforward.  Instead there’s talk – but no photos – of an IR-based “multimedia remote control” which will presumably handle basic navigation.  No word on pricing or availability.

Zotac Zbox Nettop

Zotac has lived up to the rumours and has announced that they’re  updating its nettop lineup to add support for Intel’s latest Atom processor and NVIDIA’s next-generation ION graphics.  The new Zotac Zbox HD-ID11 is the same size and shape as the earlier Zotac MAG nettop. But the new model features a 1.66GHz Atom D510 dual core processor and faster NVIDIA ION graphics.

As the outgoing Zotac nettop, they system will be available as a barebones system.  That means there is no memory, hard drive, or operating system included.  What do you get is a  2.5″ hard drive bay and  a single 200-pin DDR2-800 SODIMM slot. The computer also has 802.11b/g/n WiFi and 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet.  The ION graphics processor has 512MB of dedicated memory and supports DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.2.

The computer has 6 USB ports, HDMI and VGA output, and mic and headphone jacks. There’s also an eSATA port and flash card reader. The system comes with a VESA mount and a DVI to VGA adapter.

A great design feature is that you can open the case without any tools. You simply need to remove two “thumb screws” to open the Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11 and insert RAM or a hard drive.

No word yet on when the new ZBoX HD-ID11 comes out, but you can get the current Zotac Mag Mini-PC nettop from Amazon for £249.99.

Shuttle was one of the first to make the small form factor desktop computer popular long before the current nettop craze got started. So the introduction of their new Xs35 nettop is just natural progression for them.

The XS35 will have a 1.6GHz Intel Atom D510 dual core processor. It’s a barebones system, meaning you’ll have to install your own a hard drive, RAM, and operating system. There’s room for a 2.5″ hard drive and a slimline optical disc drive. It also has VGA and HDMI output, Ethernet, and 5 USB ports.

Perhaps the most exciting part is that the XS35 will also use NVIDIA GT218 graphics, which a Shuttle press release pretty explicitly says is synonymous with “NVIDIA ION 2.”

There’s no word on the price or availability yet, but it will be on display next week at CeBit.

via SlashGear

Blogeee has discovered a disassembly manual for the Aspire Revo R3600 which walks you through the complete disassembly process. There’s also screens of the BIOS and perhaps other stuff that might be useful for a modder.

Download the Acer Aspire Revo R3600 disassembly manual (713 KB)

The Acer Aspire Revo R3600 is currently selling at Amazon UK for £199.