ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

By Mithun Mohandas | Updated Aug 07 2014
ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

The package for the O Sphere is twice the size of the earlier ZBOX machines. The box does give away the surprise but you can't just not take a peek inside.

ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

The contents are the same as all previous ZBOX machines. We find that the box contains:
- ZBOX O Sphere OI520 Plus
- Power adaptor + power cable
- Driver CD
- Driver flash stick
- Instruction manual
- Quick Start guide
- Warranty certificate

ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

Let's take a look the the OI520 to see how the device is designed. There is a cube base with a much bigger sphere thrust into it. There are ventilation holes on the rear and well as the bottom.

ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

From the top, the OI520 looks completely spherical and can be quite the attention grabber.

ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

ZOTAC has moved all ports to the rear, traditionally ZBOX mini-pcs would have a few USB ports, the power button and the card reader on the front along with audio in/out. All of this has been shifted to the back. There are 4 USB 3.0 ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports in all, then we have a Gigabit ethernet port and two display options – an HDMI port and a DisplayPort.

ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

On the right, we have yet another USB port.

ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

The bottom of the device has vents for air intake which is done with the help of a little fan which seems to be 60mm across.

ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

The other side of the OI520 Plus has a Kensington security slot.

ZOTAC ZBOX O-Sphere OI520 Plus Mini PC

We popped the OI520 Plus open to take a look at the hardware and were quite surprised with the arrangement inside. That's a 500 GB Samsung Spinpoint drive and 4GB of memory. We inserted another module to show how the device would look with all memory slots populated. The 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth module is on the underside of the device and the antennae are wired internally as is found in most laptops.