Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 Review - A Gaming mini-PC Done Right
by Ganesh T S on September 28, 2015 8:00 AM ESTPerformance Metrics - II
In this section, we mainly look at benchmark modes in programs used on a day-to-day basis, i.e, application performance and not synthetic workloads.
x264 Benchmark
First off, we have some video encoding benchmarks courtesy of x264 HD Benchmark v5.0. This is simply a test of CPU performance. As expected, the U-series based system comes in at the bottom of the pile compared to the CPUs with much higher TDPs.
7-Zip
7-Zip is a very effective and efficient compression program, often beating out OpenCL accelerated commercial programs in benchmarks even while using just the CPU power. 7-Zip has a benchmarking program that provides tons of details regarding the underlying CPU's efficiency. In this subsection, we are interested in the compression and decompression MIPS ratings when utilizing all the available threads.
TrueCrypt
As businesses (and even home consumers) become more security conscious, the importance of encryption can't be overstated. CPUs supporting the AES-NI instruction for accelerating the encryption and decryption processes have, till now, been the higher end SKUs. However, with Bay Trail, even the lowly Atom series has gained support for AES-NI. The Core i5-5200U in the ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 does have AES-NI support. TrueCrypt, a popular open-source disk encryption program can take advantage of the AES-NI capabilities. The TrueCrypt internal benchmark provides some interesting cryptography-related numbers to ponder. In the graph below, we can get an idea of how fast a TrueCrypt volume would behave in the Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 and how it would compare with other select PCs. This is a purely CPU feature / clock speed based test.
Agisoft Photoscan
Agisoft PhotoScan is a commercial program that converts 2D images into 3D point maps, meshes and textures. The program designers sent us a command line version in order to evaluate the efficiency of various systems that go under our review scanner. The command line version has two benchmark modes, one using the CPU and the other using both the CPU and GPU (via OpenCL). The benchmark takes around 50 photographs and does four stages of computation:
- Stage 1: Align Photographs
- Stage 2: Build Point Cloud (capable of OpenCL acceleration)
- Stage 3: Build Mesh
- Stage 4: Build Textures
We record the time taken for each stage. Since various elements of the software are single threaded, others multithreaded, and some use GPUs, it is interesting to record the effects of CPU generations, speeds, number of cores, DRAM parameters and the GPU using this software.
Dolphin Emulator
Wrapping up our application benchmark numbers is the Dolphin Emulator benchmark mode results. This is again a test of the CPU capabilities.
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Winterblade - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
I have to agree with milkod2001, specially if you compare it with the base alienware alpha that cames with storage, OS and even a Xbox controller for half the price of the Magnus barebones.In order to make the Magnus compeling I would like a Quad-core CPU (even if it is a mobile part) and about $150 discount of the barebones price, then I would be all over it.
smorebuds - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
The Alpha that you're referring to that's half the cost has a 2 year old i3 cpu, 860M gpu, spinning hard drive, and 4 gb of ram. So yes, the Magnus is a more powerful, smaller device, and it costs more money. What's your point?Winterblade - Sunday, October 4, 2015 - link
That 2 year old CPU is a desktop part, should be about the same performance compared to the 5200U, and the GPU is a 860M OCed, so it will handle 1080 gaming just fine, also it has Windows already installed and even an xbox controller, it is ready to use out of the box and it is half the price, that's my point, 400-500 USD is the price these gaming mini PC's have to hit to truly compete with gaming laptops and DIY gaming PC.Jauffins - Saturday, October 17, 2015 - link
The Alienware Alpha can be equipped with any size 2.5" SSD, up to 16GB RAM, and a 2.9 Ghz desktop Core i5 (or i7), all for less than the price of this barebones kit. And my 4590T runs at 65-70c full load, not 100+. The only downfall is the 860m, and I must say I've been very impressed with what it can do, and have yet to run into an issue. As long as you don't expect either of these systems to run The Witcher 3 on Ultra, you're good.meacupla - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
FYI, mITX PC can get quite heavy, easily tipping past 7kg, and they are, at least, 4x as large.My RVZ01 build is 14L and around 8kg.
Compared to a SFF that's 2.23L and probably not even 2kg fully equipped.
schizoide - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
FINALLY, a very small form factor gaming box with a GPU fast enough to handle all 1080p console ports for the current generation!Unfortunately, the price remains dramatically just way too high. If this came in around $500 like the Alienware Alpha, I would buy it instantly. Of course that would be an 80% discount so obviously Zotac isn't at all interested in fighting on price.
That's what I really want-- an Alienware Alpha with a 970M GPU, as the 860M it comes with just isn't fast enough for solid 1080p gaming. Keep hoping the next-generation Alpha hits that performance level.
smorebuds - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Ok but the Magnus has much better parts than the Alpha so why would it be the same price? The Alpha with the "comparable" specs is about the same price as the Magnus. And by "comparable" I mean the Alpha has a shitty spinning hard drive and a 2 year old Haswell cpu and 860M gpu...schizoide - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Nope. The CPU doesn't matter for gaming and the Alpha GPU is much slower.smorebuds - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
What're you saying nope to? So what if zotac made an sku with an i3, 960M, 500gb HDD, and 4gb ram and sold it for $499 would you be happy? That's your alpha in 2015 except in a smaller package which is the whole damn point of this.Jauffins - Saturday, October 17, 2015 - link
I want to see the adoption of MXM. My Alpha is the perfect SFF system (2.9Ghz desktop i5, 16GB RAM, SSD) but in a few years, the 860m will start to show its age. Why nVidia isn't pushing this form factor, where I can spend maybe $200-250 to get an MXM form factor desktop 760 or 960, I don't understand.