Zotac Zbox pico PI430AJ review: The world's first mini PC with active AirJet technology cools the Intel Core i3-N300 in a 0.055 gal case

[Redaktion]

Zotac's compact pico series has undergone a significant upgrade. Alongside the introduction of the new Intel Core i3-N300 featuring 8 Alder Lake cores, Zotac stands out as the first producer to incorporate a novel cooling system. Two active AirJet modules are implemented to effectively manage the SoC even during heavy usage. We have evaluated the effectiveness of this system and assessed the overall performance of the Zotac Zbox pico PI430AJ in daily usage.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Zotac-Zbox-pico-PI430AJ-review-The-world-s-first-mini-PC-with-active-AirJet-technology-cools-the-Intel-Core-i3-N300-in-a-0-055-gal-case.794472.0.html

[heffeque]

Unnecessarily expensive.

PS: an audio of how it sounds would have been appreciated.
With Opus, the size of the audio would be extremely low, so the server should manage without issues.

[Anonymousgg]

Highly anticipated review with a disappointing result in stress tests. Looks like it comes down to 2x AirJet Mini only being able to cool about ~10.5 Watts effectively.

The price is obviously too high, but it's a tech demo... that demonstrated that AirJet isn't quite ready for the ~30 Watts that low-power x86 chips would like to use (despite the "7W TDP" of the i3-N300). Hopefully they can increase performance with subsequent generations.

I'd be interested to hear the high frequency noise it makes. Maybe my hearing is too damaged to perceive some of it.