Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080 SFF PC Review: A Premium Gaming Powerhouse
by Ganesh T S on December 19, 2016 8:30 AM ESTGaming Benchmarks
The gaming credentials of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 are quite impressive. It is a bonafide high-end desktop GPU in the NVIDIA Pascal series (GP204). The version in the MAGNUS EN1080 is not crippled in any way despite the size of the unit. The GPU should easily be able to support 4K gaming and meet the requirements for VR headsets.
For the purpose of benchmarking, we chose four different games (Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and DiRT Showdown) at three different quality levels. Note that the main aim here is not to show that the GTX 1080 can play the latest and greatest games (which it can do). Rather, it is to compare the ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080 against other gaming-focused mini-PCs that we have evaluated before.
Sleeping Dogs
Tomb Raider
Bioshock Infinite
DiRT Showdown
The Talos Principle
GRID Autosport
Similar to the MAGNUS EN980, the ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080 is way beyond the league of the other gaming mini-PCs that we have evaluated. In fact, it is around 20 - 60% faster than even the MAGNUS EN980 in our tested gaming workloads.
It must be kept in mind that the performance doesn't come for cheap. At $2000 for a barebones configuration, consumers could also contemplate purchasing notebooks with similar GPUs (given that NVIDIA no longer makes a distinction between mobile and desktop GPUs). In the next section, we will take a look at some select benchmarks to get an idea of how the ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080 compares against gaming notebooks.
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TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, January 17, 2017 - link
I'm surprised zotac didnt contract with dell for the 330w brick.zenonu - Monday, December 19, 2016 - link
The bricks can sit on the floor and be ugly there. The desktop can sit on your desk, be functional, and take a minimal footprint. That said, two separate power bricks is clunky design and annoying for certain.Zak - Monday, December 19, 2016 - link
WTF with the retarted ads on Anandtech lately? Seriously? This is total garbage! Does not belong here.BrokenCrayons - Monday, December 19, 2016 - link
Advertisements are all targeted based on what the advertiser learns about you by mining your web activity and compiling relevant information. The ads I see, are intelligent and thoughtful. They attempt to market smart and helpful products because advertisers understand that I'm a discerning customer. If the advertisements you're seeing are conversely "retarted" that might say something about what you do on the Internet through your devices.Holliday75 - Monday, December 19, 2016 - link
LOLprisonerX - Monday, December 19, 2016 - link
There are ads on Anandtech?alphasquadron - Monday, December 19, 2016 - link
"The premium PC also needs to adopt the Alpine Ridge controller with Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3.1 Gen 2 support instead of the plain ASMedia ASM1142 solution."Can someone expand on this. Are they saying that this doesn't support thunderbolt at all or just has thunderbolt 2 and 3.1 Gen 1?
ganeshts - Monday, December 19, 2016 - link
ASM1142 only supports USB 3.1 Gen 2. There is one Type-A and one Type-C port in the front panel that is enabled by the ASM1142.For Thunderbolt 3 support, Zotac has to use the Alpine Ridge controller. That one enables Type-C ports that can operate in either Thunderbolt 3 mode or USB 3.1 Gen 2 mode depending on the peripheral connected to it.
My 'complaint' was that at $2K, I believe consumers deserve Thunderbolt 3 support.
alphasquadron - Monday, December 19, 2016 - link
I see, that makes sense.prisonerX - Monday, December 19, 2016 - link
What's up with a lack of pictures on this article? We get to see the manuals but not the front or back ports, or much of anything else. Odd.