Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 Review - A Gaming mini-PC Done Right
by Ganesh T S on September 28, 2015 8:00 AM ESTGaming Benchmarks
The gaming credentials of the GTX 960 are quite impressive. Even though the tag indicates a desktop GPU, the internal hardware is still a mobile GPU - the GTX 970M. It is based on Maxwell GM204. The performance, however, should be similar to that of the desktop GTX 960.
For the purpose of benchmarking, we chose four different games (Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and DiRT Showdown) at three different quality levels. In addition, starting with this review, we are also bringing three more benchmarks involving The Talos Principle and GRID Autosport. As someone focusing on HTPCs and multimedia aspects, I rarely get to process gaming benchmarks, even while evaluating GPUs. One of the aspects that I feared was spending lot of time in installing the same games again and again on different PCs under the review scanner. The solution was to go the Steam route. Unfortunately, Steam also likes to keep the game files updated. A quick online search revealed that Steam could make use of an external drive for storing the game executables and downloadable content. With the Steam drive on-the-go use-case being read-heavy, the Corsair Flash Voyager GS USB 3.0 128GB Flash Drive (with read speeds of up to 275 MBps) was ideal for use as a portable Steam drive.
Sleeping Dogs
Tomb Raider
Bioshock Infinite
DiRT Showdown
The Talos Principle
GRID Autosport
In the gaming benchmarks, the NVIDIA GTX 960 (GTX 970M) simply smokes the competition, particularly at the 1080p quality settings. The ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 more than makes up for the weak CPU with impressive gaming performance.
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BrokenCrayons - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Yeah, I'm kind of curious to see how the cooling is configured too and slightly worried about the 102 degree maximum CPU temp. Yes, I get that Intel says everything is awesome up to 105, but there's not much room to wiggle before the poor little processor has to back off which will probably happen as the computer ages and collects some dust in the HSF or if it operates in warmer ambient air. I'd be happy to see it get a good 5-10mm thicker for a cooler running processor with more tolerance for those naughty dust bunnies to build up a little.QinX - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Addendum:Also please add the dimension of the device, I can't find them anywhere and although I can go an pixel measure it, having either physical measurements of manufacturer measurements is nice for visualizing size.
donthatethesun - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
I was curious about the dimensions too. Found them on ZOTAC's website:L 8.27" (210mm) x W 7.99" (203mm) x H 2.07" (52.5mm)
meacupla - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
2.23L, which makes it smaller and better equipped than Asus GR8/GR6 (2.5L).Meaker10 - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
Look at the backplates for the heatsinks, it's soldered on like the CPU.A proper gaming mini PC would use an MXM slot.
milkod2001 - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
One could buy a laptop with the same specs and have extra portability or full desktop PC coming in small case ( mITX board, Full desktop Intel Quad Core and full 980 GTX all giving 3x better performance ) for $1000 easily. Why would anyone wanted to buy this crappy laptop with no screen or keyboard?I could understand the purpose of these machines as super cheap $200-350 office /streaming devices but at $1000 there is zero value in them.
firewall597 - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Seems like an amazing gaming solution for your living room to me...testbug00 - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
huh? You need a 970m laptop starting at around 1300-1350 currently....Calista - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
Having looked at machines both similar to this Zotac and gaming laptops I tend to agree. Mini PC:s when looking at a pure value perspective seem to have a hard time competing. Which is obviously why they are still a niche segment.The Magnus in my country is $1150, while the MSIGE72 is $1350. The extra $200 for the laptop will give me the same GPU but a much faster quad core i7, 16GB instead of 8GB or RAM and not only a 128GB SSD but also a 1000GB HDD. It will of course also be easily portable and can be used as a laptop. The only problem is the slightly larger size, but since it's flat it can fit in most places.
And if dropping down to a GTX 960M it's actually $100 cheaper to buy a laptop with otherwise similar components as the Zotac, but with a slightly faster CPU.
Calista - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
What we need is a new standard for mini components. At the moment it's a huge delta between a mITX-build and these mini machines. We have in a nutshell a situation in where one size is fit for a system in the 50-100 watt range, another standard (mITX) which could deal with 500 watt of components without overheating or unbearable noise. At the same time a proper gaming system with few compromises seem to demand something in the 200 watt range, i.e. a quad core CPU and a GTX 960 or similar.