5% Off on all Zonbu products for SPCR buyers

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:08 am

Zonbu is currently offering a 5% discount on all their products for SPCR buyers. Use coupon code SILENTPC or just click this link to receive your special discount.

Zonbu is a completely silent PC which has many other attractive features and benefits including:

* silent and reliable because there is no moving parts - no hard disk, no fan
* affordable at $99 plus a two-year service contract
* a hassle-free experience with transparent software update, unlimited
support and automatic backup for $14.95 a month
* eco-friendly - the first consumer PC to receive EPEAT Gold and consumes only 9W on average.

It's a viable alternative especially for people who don't want to become a computer expert but to use one for its benefits.

Many awards, including a Top 10 Most Brilliant Gadgets by Popular Mechanics Magazine, and a runner-up of the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award). For more info, please visit www.zonbu.com

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:29 pm

Nice-looking device.....need to see a review or two. This reminds me of a similar device I bought about eight years ago. It was called an "I-Opener" . It came with a propriatary operating system on an embedded 16mb chip, but you could modify it to run a laptop drive. Like this device you had to subscribe to keep it going. The I-Opener was pretty cheap......they made a profit on the subscription.

Well the whole deal fell through when the I-Opener was hacked by a BIOS modification. You didn't have to subscribe to keep it running.....and it would run Win98/ME/2000. Of course the company went belly-up. I stopped using mine when XP came out.

Oh....the I-Opener was completely fanless and was built into a 12" LCD.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:39 pm

A Zonbu sample is in the lab, and we're working on a review. Overall speed is not that different from the Asus EeePC -- which probably has a bit of an edge, but because you can hook the Zonbu up to any monitor and keyboard, the user interface is intrinsically far more comfortable.

Meanwhile, there are many articles about it, linked here:
http://www.zonbu.com/why_zonbu/reviews.htm

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 4:40 pm

It's an interesting concept, but I'm sure for most of the people here (i.e. tech-heads), online backup and technical support isn't worth the $15/month. Might be something to set a less PC-savvy relative up with, though.

If anybody is interested, you can get those mini systems here for $294 + ship.

lung · Post by **lung** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 4:54 pm

Wait, doesn't the eeepc also have usb and vga out the same as zonbu? So I'm unsure why you can't hook up any monitor or kb to it.

It doesn't say it explicity on the site at least that I could find, but the reviews say it's a 1.2ghz Via C7 and the device costs 300USD without the service plan.

The eeepc has a what, 900mhz celeron m which at even 600mhz is faster than the 1.2 c7 in benchmarks. Also the onboard video on the eeepc is I believe faster than any of the via onboard, although someone could correct me here if I am wrong on that.

Airshark · Post by **Airshark** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:28 am

The Zonbu is just plain silly. $15/month for "support" on a bunch of Linux apps? Awe-inspiring Via processor power?

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:36 am

Oh I'm sure it's worth it for some, I'm sure quite a few people spend more on Geeksquad service plans and stuff. But I agree that for a lot of the people who would visit a forum like this, it's rather pointless.

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:49 am

Airshark wrote:The Zonbu is just plain silly. $15/month for "support" on a bunch of Linux apps? Awe-inspiring Via processor power?

No it's not silly. The OS is custom configured, and being continuously developed. Think about the amazing amount of time the typical geek spends messing with Windows/software problems. Lots of people don't have the time, interest or desire to do this. The processor could be faster, but it's about as fast as it needs to be -- for a maintenance-free low cost device that opens the world of computers, web and email for the uninitiated masses. Who are those? Oh about half the world population including large numbers of older people in developed countries.

This is not an ideal primary PC for the typical SPCR forum reader, but could be very useful for some relatives and friends. It could also be a very nice auxiliary pc for geeks. For example, I'm interested in using one for web-access in the living room, running Silmserver or similar to access music on the network more comprehensively than is possible with the Squeezebox (or similar), and running a sildeshow of recent photos when it's idling. Combined with a smallish LCD monitor, and wireless k/m, this tiny silent box could work very nicely for me.

Airshark · Post by **Airshark** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:53 pm

Mike, the thing doesn't even have a hard disk. It has one and only one use that I can see: a minimal function internet terminal. I say "minimal function" because it won't be able to run any ActiveX plug-ins and since it doesn't have a disk, it will be able to keep around a strictly limited amount of content. You could add an external drive, but that would kill your silence. Local network storage is a possibility, but why does it have only 10/100 Ether instead of Gig-E? $15/month for online backup and technical support that you probably will never use? C'mon, what you're doing there is amortizing the cost of the device.

I suppose it's a reasonable replacement for one of those internet-enabled picture frames, depending on the monitor.

Of course, one has to ask about Zonbu's viability (the company, not the product). Is it likely to be around for the two-year contract period?

Maybe some people will have a use for it. It's obviously touted as being an easy-to-install machine for people like your mom - but my mom has a low-end PC I built her, and tell me, are you going to get one of these for your mother?

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 2:38 pm

Man, so much hate in this thread.

ActiveX... what's that? Oh wait, it's that big security vulnerability in Windows.

Honestly, though, I can't remember the last time I've used ActiveX. And it doesn't work under Linux anyways, so it's kind of a moot point bringing up the lack of a disk drive (which the Zonbu does have, OS/apps run off a 4GB CompactFlash I believe).

Fact of the matter is a minimal function PC is more than enough for a lot of people. As I've mentioned this monthly plan thing isn't my cup of tea, but I'm sure for some people it's perfect. If I thought it would be a good fit for a family member or friend I'd definitely tell them to check it out. I hate building systems for people because that makes you their tech support minion, every time something goes wrong you're the one who gets called up.

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 2:40 pm

Airshark --

It can certainly run activex plug-ins -- it's running them on the review sample. There is a 4gb CF for the OS. software and some local storage. They're going to offer an 8gb CF in future. The $15/mo includes 50GB online storage that is transparent for the user -- ie, data is moved automatically to the online storage to keep a certain minimum free on the local CF mem. If you felt the need for more local storage, there are 4 USB2 ports -- any number of external drives can be added.

And yes, if my mother, who lives far away, understood English, I'd get it for her. I'd get it for my bro who also lives far away, but I built and brought him one a couple years ago and he gets free tech support from a local organization.

colin2 · Post by **colin2** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:05 am

How long has this been out?

It would be nice to see reviews from actual users about the quality of the support and software.

If we're thinking about the clueless-relative category, you can get a complete desktop or even notebook PC for $500, including the dreaded Windows. Add $40 a year for anti-virus.

With this thing you're looking at another $250 or so for monitor, keyboard, mouse, and CD/DVD. So $350 total, and then $180 a year. Over a 3-year span, $890 as opposed to $620 for a cheap Windows PC plus antivirus sub.

Blacktales · Post by **Blacktales** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 9:44 pm

Hello,

Since the info has not spread to this thread yet, i would like to point out that it seems the zonbu has no OS lock down and you can install whatever distro you like on it without voiding the hardware warranty.

And you can order it without any support plan at all, thus getting a silent / cheap / low power / small minimal computer. I plan on buying one and install Ubuntu and use this system as an everyday internet / office applications machine (10W vs my current build which idles around 100W doing the exact same thing most of the time).

So all in all, it seems a better deal than the Ebox systems, for you get the somehow same system(very similar to the eBox 4854) but cheaper (and with slightly updated specs).

We've been discussing that, and a few other things in this thread
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