An early implementation of very cool tech

At first glance, the Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ may not look like it’s hiding anything special, but this incredibly tiny PC uses a cooling solution called AirJet, from a company called Frore Systems. This is a solid-state active cooling solution. It could revolutionize certain PC form factors because it enables active cooling without any moving parts and is much smaller than a typical cooling system.

For the Zbox Pico PI430AJ, that means this is the first mini PC in this series with a Core i3 processor and a proper SSD. This is a tiny desktop computer — almost the size of a deck of playing cards — but it’s still mostly usable for day-to-day tasks. And if you’re coming from the previous passively-cooled models, it’s a big leap forward.

About this review: Zotac sent us the Zbox Pico PI430AJ for the purposes of this review. The company had no input into its contents.

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Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ

Tiny, but surprisingly capable

Solid-state active cooling allows for a lot more power

The Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ is a tiny desktop computer featuring Frore Systems’ AirJet cooling technology. This allows the company to fit an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a proper SSD in an incredibly small package. It’s not a high-performance PC, but it can be used for all kinds of day-to-day tasks without issue.

CPU

Intel Core i3-N300

Graphics

Intel UHD Graphics (integrated)

Memory

8GB LPDDR5 RAM

Storage

512GB M.2 NVMe SSD

Ports

2x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Type-C, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1Gbps RJ45 Ethernet, microSD card reader

Operating System

Windows 11

Dimension

4.52×2.99×0.94 inches (114.8x76x23.8mm)

Networking

Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, 1Gbps Ethernet

Speakers

None

Camera

None

Price

Upon inquiry

Pros

• Much faster CPU and storage than previous models
• Solid-state active cooling allows it to stay very compact
• Plenty of ports for something so small

Cons

• Not made for demanding tasks like Photoshop or video editing
• Ports may not be enough for more complex setups
• It’s only available upon inquiry

Pricing and availability

Zotac introduced the Zbox Pico PI430AJ on October 18th, 2023, and it became available to buy right away. However, pricing is only available upon inquiry, and Zotac couldn’t provide us with an estimate of how much you’ll be spending. Some of the company’s other mini PCs hover in the $300 to $400 range, but it’s hard to say a specific price.

We can only find the product on Zotac’s website, too, so you may have difficulty finding it elsewhere. That could change over time, as some other mini PCs are available on Amazon and other retailers.

Design

A ridiculously small PC

One thing that’s immediately striking to me about the Zbox Pico PI430AJ is just how small it is. The Pico line is where Zotac launches its smallest computers, and you can tell. Even compared to my Khadas Mind, which I already considered very small, it is absolutely tiny. Zotac compares it to the size of a playing card deck, and while it’s a little bit bigger than that, it’s not by much. It really is super portable, and it can fit anywhere.

Going around the PC, aside from the ports, you’ll see some vents on the sides and back. The rear vent is the exhaust for the AirJet cooling system, and you can sometimes feel air coming out of it, though it’s very subtle.

The computer also includes a plastic mounting bracket, so you can install it behind a counter at a retail store or where it’s powering digital signage, for example.

You still get a few ports

Despite the absolutely tiny size, the Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ still manages to fit a healthy supply of ports. This isn’t meant to power the most complex setups by itself, but it does give you a lot of flexibility out of the box. The front has two USB Type-A ports and one Type-C, which supports display output, and there’s also a microSD card reader.

The rear houses one HDMI port, a DisplayPort connection, headphone jack, RJ45 Ethernet, and the power input. Frankly, that’s about as much as you can possibly fit in such a small size. For my typical use case, I found myself having to choose between my USB webcam or headset, but otherwise, this was totally fine for my setup. I could use two monitors side-by-side and all my peripherals, which the computer handled just fine.

Performance

Innovative cooling makes a big difference

The main draw of the Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ is obviously the performance it can offer, thanks to the AirJet cooling system. If you haven’t heard of it, this is a new technology from a company called Frore Systems. It’s basically a small chip consisting of vibrating membranes that suck in air from the top and turn it into pulsating jets of hot air, which is expelled out the back of the device.

The entire cooling chip is just 2.8mm thick, which allows this PC to still be incredibly small. Usually, a cooling solution like a fan would be much thicker. On top of that, fans are usually much louder, while this cooling system is very quiet since the only thing that really moves is the air itself. When it’s pushed to its limit, you can sometimes hear a soft whine from the air movement, but you have to be in total silence to really notice it.

Despite the small size, each AirJet cooling chip can dissipate up to 5.25W of heat, which is a big benefit over the passive cooling solutions that are usually found in mini PCs that are this tiny. For the Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ, that means you now get an Intel Core i3-N300. That’s a 7W processor with eight cores, so it’s not exactly power-hungry, but previous models would only come with a dual-core Intel Celeron processor with 6W of power, so this is already a big leap.

On top of that, the previous Pico model, the PI336, featured just 128GB of eMMC storage, but this cooling solution now has a full-blown PCIe 3.0 SSD with 512GB of storage, which is both bigger and much faster. It also comes with 8GB of LPDDR5 memory. Zotac says this is all thanks to AirJet, and considering the small difference in size between this model and its predecessor, it definitely seems like the company unlocked some new capabilities here.

Good enough for office work and basic tasks

So, how does all of that translate to performance? Well, I’ve been using the Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ for most of my work for the past week or so, and it surprisingly holds up for almost every part of my workflow. The only thing I didn’t dare try was running Photoshop or Lightroom, as I knew that wouldn’t be pretty. But using my browser to write articles, send emails, browse Twitter, and even make basic photo and image edits, the Zbox Pico PI430AJ never let me down.

Of course, you can see things aren’t quite as snappy. Opening a new tab in Vivaldi seems to take an extra split second, and big apps like Slack and Discord take a little bit longer to start up, but it’s honestly not a big deal at all.

You’re not going to be using this PC for anything beyond this. It’s not meant for photo editing, video creation, or gaming, but you already know that. Compared to a dual-core Intel Celeron with eMMC storage, this is a huge leap forward.

Looking at benchmarks, the PC is obviously not on par with high-end laptops or PCs we’ve tested. It’s slow enough that Cinebench 2024 outright failed to run, but benchmark scores really don’t matter for the use case you’re using this PC for. These are workloads you’d never expect a PC like this to handle. The closest comparison we can get here is something like the Surface Go 3, which also comes with a low-wattage Core i3 processor.

While it does lose in single-core performance due to using only efficient cores, the Zbox Pico PI430AJ does have much better multi-core performance than the Surface Go 3, plus a noticeably better GPU. Of course, compared to a 15W processor with fan cooling, like the Core i3-1215U, it’s nowhere near as fast, but that’s to be expected. It does come close in multi-core performance, based on the Cinebench test.

It’s also worth noting the fast performance of the SSD compared to an eMMC chip. eMMC speeds max out at 250MB/s at best, but this PCIe 3.0 SSD is almost ten times faster.

That’s not to mention that the previous Pico PC with an eMMC model came with a 128GB chip, while this gets you up to 512GB. And since it’s an M.2 SSD, it can be upgraded. You could, in theory, get up to 4TB of storage after the fact.

Should you buy the Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ?

Without a price point provided by Zotac, it’s impossible to say whether you should really buy it. But I can say that if you have a previous Pico model, this is a big leap forward in terms of performance without compromising on size. It’s just a little thicker than the previous PI336 model, while offering so much more performance. You get an octa-core Core i3 processor instead of a dual-core Celeron, more and faster RAM, and SSD storage for the first time, which is ten times as fast and four times bigger.

You should buy the Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ if:

• You want a super compact PC that can still handle day-to-day tasks
• You want to see what AirJet technology can do
• The price is within your range

You should not buy the Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ if:

• You’re looking for a high-performance PC (or something for gaming)
• Size doesn’t matter to you
• You need a ton of ports
• Buying directly from Zotac isn’t an option

Perhaps even more importantly, this is a super cool showcase for a technology that could change the game for so many kinds of devices. It’d be super interesting to see this tech in gaming handhelds, for example, which could really benefit from being thinner, lighter, and quieter. I’m excited to see what other devices will take advantage of this solution.

Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ

The Zotac Zbox Pico PI430AJ is a tiny desktop computer featuring Frore Systems’ AirJet cooling technology. This allows the company to fit an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a proper SSD in an incredibly small package. It’s not a high-performance PC, but it can be used for all kinds of day-to-day tasks without issue.