Zotac’s new Zotac’s ZBox CI669 nano (barebone) might be one of the most powerful, and quietest, mini workstations you can lay your hands on thanks to a game-changing cooling system.
Packed into its compact 1.8L chassis is a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU alongside up to 64GB DDR5 RAM memory as well as both Intel Iris XE and Intel UHD graphics. It’s also ‘passively’ cooled; meaning it doesn’t utilize the noisy fans fitted into most machines to keep components as cool as possible.
There’s more than enough reason to believe the technology responsible for this – Frore System’s innovative AirJet system – could be the same that’s been fitted into the world’s fastest SSD – the Phison E26 Max14um ES 2TB.
This is because Zotac’s ZBox PI430AJ also features a variant of Frore’s technology, and in fact became the first mainstream device to feature the AirJet Mini heatsink replacement – featuring two AirJet Mini cooling chips.
This pocket-sized PC, fitted with an Intel Core i3-N300Mhz CPU doesn’t suffer from throttling thanks to the inclusion of the AirJet cooling system.
Frore developed the AirJet system because “heat has become the biggest bottleneck in computing”, according to its official documentation. We first caught wind of its potential in January, with the technology able to cool everything from the best ultrabooks to workstations.
It’s a fully self-contained active heat sink module that works by vibrating at incredibly high frequencies in one direction, which moves the air from one direction to another.
The Phison SSD, for example, has utilized a variant of the technology to cool the component down to the extent it reached a maximum of 54°C while being stress tested, all while hitting world-record speeds of 14,600MB/s.
The Zotac Zbox CI669 nano (barbone) also features Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, alongside a plethora of ports including three USB 3.1 and one USB 2.0 port, a gigabit Ethernet port, as well as a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port, and a power connector. This is alongside an HDMI 2.0b port, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 4
