Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 Review - A Gaming mini-PC Done Right
by Ganesh T S on September 28, 2015 8:00 AM ESTNetworking and Storage Performance
We have recently started devoting a separate section to analyze the storage and networking credentials of the units under review. On the storage side, one option would be repetition of our strenuous SSD review tests on the drive(s) in the PC. Fortunately, to avoid that overkill, PCMark 8 has a storage bench where certain common workloads such as loading games and document processing are replayed on the target drive. Results are presented in two forms, one being a benchmark number and the other, a bandwidth figure. We ran the PCMark 8 storage bench on selected PCs and the results are presented below.
The OCZ Vector drive we used in our setup has been EOL-ed by OCZ, but there are plenty of similarly performing drives with similar costs in the market.
On the networking side, we restricted ourselves to the evaluation of the WLAN component. Our standard test router is the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk configured with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. The router is placed approximately 20 ft. away, separated by a drywall (as in a typical US building). A wired client (Zotac ID89-Plus) is connected to the R7000 and serves as one endpoint for iPerf evaluation. The PC under test is made to connect to either the 5 GHz (preferred) or 2.4 GHz SSID and iPerf tests are conducted for both TCP and UDP transfers. It is ensured that the PC under test is the only wireless client for the Netgear R7000. We evaluate total throughput for up to 32 simultaneous TCP connections using iPerf and present the highest number in the graph below.
In the UDP case, we try to transfer data at the highest rate possible for which we get less than 1% packet loss.
The numbers are similar to what we obtained for other systems with the Intel AC-3160 WiFi 802.11ac PCIe WLAN card. The external antenna helps in provideing better performance.
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Teknobug - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
How is the Alpha's i3 4130T slower than a mobile i5 5200U? i3 2.9Ghz vs i5 2.2-2.7GHz and i3 having a slighly faster IPC which matters for games.meacupla - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
I think he said that the GTX 860M was slower than the GTX970M.For gaming purposes, GPU > CPU
smorebuds - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
I guess it depends on what you value more from your living room gaming device... i3-4130T is a bit faster, but also uses more than twice the power, meaning it'll need bigger/noisier fans and a bigger enclosure.Teknobug - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
The CPU and GPU combination doesn't really make sense here.barleyguy - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
For the thermal constraints it makes perfect sense. Zotac had an i7 ZBox, but it had the fan noise of a jet engine. For 1080p gaming in a small quiet box, the lower power i5 and GeForce 970m is a good choice IMO.boe - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
I'd love to see something in this general design but optimized for home theater - no fans - big heat radiators if necessary, HDMI 2.0a well suited for 4K, DTS-X and Dobly Atmos. I'm not terribly concerned about gaming.angrypatm - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Audio is always overlooked by manufacturers and reviewers. Power consumption, short of a high end gaming rig that sucks power like a refrigerator, seems irrelevant to me. Example; does anyone really take power consumption int account when buying a tv? "This one has a better picture but that one uses less power, so we'll take the more energy efficient model." --?!boe - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Is there any way to get the writers to consider an article on HT PCs? I think building HT servers is pretty standard but building quiet HTPC to play the streamed media can be expensive as the cases I've found can run up to $1500. Technically the entire HTPC could probably be done for about $450 but I haven't found anything that really is SILENT, and has HDMI 2.0a, and supports high end audio. Doesn't mean they don't exist, I'm just not sure who makes them.DanNeely - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Anandtech does review a lot of HTPCs. If you're looking for a DIY build guide, they seem to be very infrequent even for general use systems (vs sites like Arstechnica doing them yearly). A general build your own guide might be interesting; but I wonder if this wouldn't be a better subject for a future Build-a-Rig competition.http://www.anandtech.com/tag/htpc
SpartyOn - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
I built a Steam streaming PC/HTPC with this embedded solution which seems to fit your requirements: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/N3700-ITX/Just put it in a fanless chassis or a really good box with a silent fan and you're good to go. Doesn't meet your high-end audio requirement per se, but there is an open x1 slot for adding whatever audio solution is needed.
I've been rocking this for the last month and a half and it's been a great game and video streamer (though I'm not doing 4K output - don't have a 4K TV).
I think I paid $200 for the parts (board & CPU, 8GB ram, 64GB SSD, case w/ incl. PSU).