G-Technology Demonstrates G-SPEED Shuttle XL Thunderbolt 2 DAS at CES

As part of every CES trip, I make it a point to visit G-Technology and see what they are introducing into the DAS (direct attached storage) market. This year, there were no major announcements except for the introduction of a Type-C interface for some of their external hard drives. These are still USB 3.0 drives, as there is not much to gain by moving to a USB 3.1 interface for hard drives. However, it must be noted that these 2.5″ drives are 7200 RPM ones providing that extra bit of performance compared to the 5400 RPM drives used by most vendors. G-Technology expects the 1TB version to have a MSRP of $130 when it launches in February.

Coming back to the more impressive part of my visit to the suite, G-Technology showed the various features of the G-SPEED Shuttle XL. This 8-bay hardware RAID solution comes with two Thunderbolt 2 ports. The platform itself is very similar to the G-SPEED Studio XL introduced by G-Technology at IBC 2015 in September. This product also has two ev Series Bay Adapters which enable support for the G-DRIVE ev modules. These modules can easily be swapped across different interface modules for use in rugged environments, or just for portability, or even with high-capacity arrays like the G-SPEED Studio / Shuttle XL.

The Shuttle XL can be oriented either vertically or horizontally. In the horizontal configuration, it can even be used as a stand for the notebook (to which it may connect). G-Technology also has an adapter for a RED MINI-MAG so that it can be read into the computer directly through the Shuttle XL. A RED MINI-MAG and a G-DRIVE ev SSD are shown connected to the Shuttle XL using the two ev Series Bay Adapters in the above picture. The Shuttle XL also has a custom-designed transportation case for portability across different work locations.

Claimed transfer rates are around 1350 MBps. The disks can be configured in RAID 0,1,5,6,10 and 50. The unit is sold with enterprise-class hard drives with pricing ranging from $3500 for 24TB to $8000 for 64TB. G-Technology provides a 3-year warranty for the product.

We saw LaCie launch a 8-bay Thunderbolt 2 1U rackmount unit, the 8big Rack Thunderbolt 2 a couple of years back. It is interesting to see G-Technology have a ‘portable’ take on the8-bay hardware RAID Thunderbolt 2 enclosure market.  From an end-user perspective, it is great to have both choices and one can let the usage model dictate the suitable solution.

Zotac Updates ZBOX mini-PC Lineup at CES

Zotac had announcements in multiple segments at CES. Obviously, the SSD entry was the big talking point with the PCIe variant boasting good performance numbers. Zotac also had a home automation announcement, the Cozee Smart Home Kit. The lineup will have ZigBee sensors, an IP camera and a gateway.The hardware and software / apps are not final and still being worked on. Therefore, I will postpone detailed coverage of that announcement and concentrate on the updates made by Zotac in the mini-PC space in this article.

Zotac had all their mini-PC models neatly arranged out in their suite. These included models such as the Steam Machine NEN that was announced back in November and the MI551 Skylake mini-PC announced last month. The number of models made my head swim (in a good way). In order to help navigate the available models, Zotac provided the press with a table which lists various features and the models that support them. The list is reproduced in the picture below. More information about the models that launched at CES is available below the picture. Pricing for these units is not available yet.

C-Series with Skylake

We reviewed almost all of the Zotac C-series PCs that started appearing in the market towards the end of 2014. Using the Y-series processors in a fanless chassis, they provided very good performance for users looking for compact and silent solutions. With Skylake, Zotac is going for a slightly larger and heavier solution, but the platform will support higher TDP CPUs (Skylake-U). The currently planned specifications are as below:

• Intel Core i5-6300U
• Intel HD Graphics 520
• 2.5″ SATA slot
• 2x DDR3L-1600 SODIMM
• USB 3.1 Type-C
• Dual GbE LAN, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, BT 4.0
• DisplayPort and HDMI

The gallery below provides some pictures of the chassis.

Gallery: Zotac ZBOX C-Series with Skylake

The Skylake C-Series is at least a quarter away from launch. So, it is possible that specifications might change before it comes to the market.

PC Stick

We reviewed the Cherry Trail Compute Stick recently, and Zotac’s version has a slight variation. The USB 3.0 port in the Intel Cherry Trail Compute Stick is replaced by a 10/100 Mbps LAN port. Other than that, all the specifications are the same.

• Intel Atom x5-Z8300
• Intel HD Graphics
• 32GB eMMC, 2GB DDR3L RAM
• 1x USB 2.0, 1x microSD
• 10/100 Mbps RJ-45 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, BT 4.0
• HDMI output (male)

The gallery below provides some pictures of the exterior:

Gallery: Zotac PC Stick

ZBOX MA761 and ZBOX EA740

These two products have similar specifications, but target different market segments. The MA761 has 6 DisplayPort outputs and targets the digital signage market. The EA740 has 3 DisplayPort outputs and targets the gaming market (similar to the EN970 that we reviewed last year) All the other specifications (including the GPU model) are the same.

• Intel Core i3-6100T
• AMD Radeon R9 M365X with 2GB GDDR5
• 2x DDR3L-1600 SODIMM
• 2.5″ SATA and a M.2 SSD slot
• USB 3.0 Type-C
• SDXC UHS-II card reader
• Dual GbE LAN, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, BT 4.0

The gallery below provides some pictures of the chassis of both units:

Gallery: Zotac ZBOX MA761

Gallery: Zotac ZBOX EA740

ZBOX EI751

The EI751 is the follow-up product to the ZBOX EI750, one of the Haswell Crystal Well-based mini-PCs equipped with Iris Pro graphics. The EI751 makes the move from Haswell to Broadwell while retaining an Iris Pro-equipped SKU. The full specifications are provided below:

• Intel Core i7-5775R
• Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200
• 2x DDR3L-1866 SODIMM
• 2.5″ SATA and a mSATA slot
• SDXC card reader
• Dual GbE LAN, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, BT 4.0
• 2x Display Port, DVI-D (Single Link)

The gallery below provides some pictures of the exterior:

Gallery: Zotac ZBOX EI751

ZBOX PICO with Cherry Trail T3 & T4

The platforrm is similar to that of the PC Stick mentioned before (i.e, a Cherry Trail tablet board, but, in a pocket-sized form factor). The only difference is the chassis design and the availability of some extra display and I/O ports. The full specifications are provided below:

• Intel Atom x5-Z8300 (T3) / Intel Atom x7-Z8700 (T4)
• Intel HD Graphics
• 32GB eMMC, 2GB LPDDR3
• 3x USB 2.0 (T3), 3x USB 3.0 – (2x Type-A + 1x Type-C) (T4)
• 10/100 Mbps RJ-45 (T3) / 1 GbE RJ45 (T4)
• 802.11ac, BT 4.0
• HDMI, DisplayPort
• microSD Slot
• Windows 10 Home Preinstalled

The gallery below shows the chassis of the Pico x7 (T4)

Gallery: Zotac ZBOX PICO – Cherry Trail

At CES, Zotac announced mini-PC models targeting every segment in the market space – from gaming enthusiasts to users looking for silent and compact HTPCs. They have, without doubt, the widest mini-PC lineup in the whole industry. It is hardly surprising, given that their ZBOX nano xs mini-PCs had come to the market even before the first Intel NUC. We are looking forward to having some of the announced units in for review over the next few months.

TRENDnet Announces AC2600 Router and AC1900 USB 3.0 WLAN Adapter at CES

TRENDnet’s CES suite had plenty of networking equipment ranging from outdoor long-range access points to industrial switches. It made clear that TRENDnet is focusing more on SMB, particularly in the emerging markets. However, the two announcements at CES were both related to their consumer efforts – one was the TEW-827DRU, a AC2600 MU-MIMO 4×4 802.11ac MU-MIMO router and the other was the TEW-809UB, a AC1900 USB 3.0 WLAN adapter.

The TEW-827DRU is a 4×4 802.11ac Wave2 router with MU-MIMO capabilities using the Qualcomm Atheros IPQ8064 (1.4 GHz dual-core Krait 300 CPUs) + QCA9980 platform. It supports 256-QAM on the 2.4GHz band to deliver 800 Mbps of throughput, while the 5GHz band delivers 1733 Mbps. TRENDnet has licensed Qualcomm’s StreamBoost QoS engine for this product in order to bring down latencies for gaming applications. The unit features four Gigabit LAN ports and two USB 3.0 ports. Even though the press release went out at CES, the unit has been available on Amazon for a couple of months now. The press release suggests a retail price of $275, but Amazon already has it on sale at $238.

Gallery: TRENDnet TEW-827DRU AC2600 Router

Note that this is not the latest QCA platform. The IPQ8065 + QCA9984 with 160 MHz channel support is the leading edge offering from QCA now, but routers based on that platform (example) will launch at a higher price point.

The other interesting announcement was the TEW-809UB, a AC1900 USB 3.0 WLAN adapter. It is a 3×3 solution (1300 Mbps in the 5GHz band and 600 Mbps in the 2.4GHz band). The specifications looked suspiciously similar to the D-Link DWA-192 which uses the Realtek RTL8814AU 802.11ac wireless chipset with a USB 3.0 interface. I confirmed with TRENDnet that the TEW-809UB also uses the same chipset.

The DWA-192 goes for compactness and internal antennae. The TEW-809UB could potentially provide a better user experience due to the presence of external antennae. The unit comes with a 3.3ft USB 3.0 cable that should make it easy to optimally orient the device for both desktops and notebooks. Despite the marketing pamphlet indicating magnetic mounting options in the above picture, TRENDnet indicated that wall-mounting and desktop placement are the only available options. The MSRP will be $110 when it launches in early Q2.