Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 Review - A Gaming mini-PC Done Right
by Ganesh T S on September 28, 2015 8:00 AM ESTPower Consumption and Thermal Performance
The power consumption at the wall was measured with a 1080p display being driven through the HDMI port. In the graphs below, we compare the idle and load power of the Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 with other low power PCs evaluated before. For load power consumption, we ran Furmark 1.12.0 and Prime95 v27.9 together. Despite consuming close to 19W at idle, the ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 actually happens to be the PC with the lowest idle power amongst all the discrete GPU-equipped machines that we have evaluated so far.
The load power is also amongst the highest in the set of numbers that we have seen till now. However, the big separation between the idle and load powers indicate that the sytem can operate efficiently over a wide range of loading conditions.
Our thermal stress routine starts with the system at idle, followed by 30 minutes of pure CPU loading. This is followed by another 30 minutes of both CPU and GPU being loaded simultaneously. After this, the CPU load gets removed, allowing the GPU to be loaded alone for another 30 minutes. The various clocks in the system as well as the temperatures within the unit are presented below.
According to Intel's official specifications, the junction temperature of the Core i5-5200U is 105C. We find that pure CPU loading keeps the clock frequency half-way between the base frequency (2.2 GHz) and the maximum burst frequency (2.7 GHz). However, the temperature remains well below the junction temperature (around 82C). Getting the GPU into the equation ramps up the motherboard temperature as well as that of the GPU and GPU. However, the CPU remains below the junction temperature despite going up to as high as 102C. The GPU stabilizes around 81C.
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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).