Barebones & SystemsReviews

Zotac ZBOX Magnus EN1070 Gaming Mini PC Review

Verdict and Conclusion

“Push the limit” is one of Zotac’s moto, and it certainly has with the the ZBOX Magnus EN1070. It’s currently the most powerful mini PC on the market today that supports VR! Not only does it feature an onboard GeForce GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5 ram, but it’s also powered by an Intel Core i5-6400T processor running at 2.2GHz. What Zotac has literally done, is to cram a gaming desktop into a mini PC measuring just 210mm x 203mm x 62.2mm.

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This bare bones unit is packed with some great features. These include … the support for M.2 PCIEx4 SSD/NVMe and SO-DIMMs. You also get dual Gigabit LAN, SD Card reader, 802.11ac WiFi, HD audio, Bluetooth 4.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0 and 2 x USB 3.1 (one Type-A and the other Type-C). For display output, there 2 x HDMI 2.0 and 2 x Displayport 1.3.

As far as performance is concerned … it’s a scorcher! It produced excellent scores in all our benchmarks, and everything ran smoothly without a glitch. All settings were set to Ultra at 1920×1080 – I expected nothing less from the onboard GeForce GTX 1070.

 

 

The only thing which we thought Zotac could have improved on is the CPU. It seems that the Core i5-6400T @ 2.2GHz, is just about coping OK. I would have preferred something a little faster … maybe a 2.8 or 3.0GHz processor.

Another thing you’ll need to note, is that this little unit runs darn HOT! Hence what I said about being a “scorcher”. Load temps can hit over 70 degrees Celsius. This is not surprising, as the ZBOX Magnus is small and compact, and therefore cooling is limited. However, having said that, the large pure copper heatsink and low profile fans does a decent job of dissipating the heat … good enough not to have the CPU throttling.

The ZBOX Magnus EN1070 can be quite expensive for a mini PC, and prices range from USD $999-1,200 depending on your configuration. The bare bones unit will set you back around USD $900. As I said before … it’s a gaming desktop crammed in to a mini PC.

 

Pros

  • Great graphics and gaming performance
  • Intel 6th Gen (Skylake) processor
  • USB 3.1 (Type-A/Type-C)
  • Dual Gigabit LAN

Cons

  • Can run extremely hot
  • A bit pricey

 

Final Thoughts

If price is no issue, then what you’re getting with the Zotac ZBOX Magnus EN1070, is the world’s most powerful gaming mini PC to date (Nov 2016). And I don’t think this record will be broken any time soon. 

It’s compact and small, and comes with a lots of great features. It has an Intel 6th Gen processor and an onboard GeForce GTX 1070, which offers good performance that can easily beat most desktop gaming rigs. 

 

fk-recommended

 

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7 comments

Colin 30 November 2016 at 20:59

Thanks for the review. What is the fan noise like when the system is under load?

Reply
Winston 30 November 2016 at 22:37

Surprisingly, the fan noise is quite low under full load.

Reply
Ricardo 21 December 2016 at 14:40

Great Review!

A quick question!

I want to buy one, but just to change his MXM Graphics Card, I have an Alienware 17 R5 eDP, and Im wondering if this card is going to work with it.

Before I buy the Zotac 1070, any change you can give us a hand and try it on a MXM Laptop with eDP?

Thanks!!!

Reply
Winston 21 December 2016 at 16:32

You need to double check with the manufacturers to make sure these mxm cards work

Reply
kalvdans 4 May 2017 at 11:16

6434 GFlops from the AIDA64 benchmark sounds a bit too much. I get only half of that with GPUburn on Linux. Can someone try GPUburn on windows and see what they get?

Reply
sakafm 9 June 2017 at 04:26

does that mxm gtx 1070 need a power cable{like clevo and Aetina mxm gtx 1070…….they need a power cable } ????????????
i have a plan to use it in a dell precision 7710 laptop
but if it needs a power cable then i think i have to forget my plan
if there is anyone also have same plan as me please contact me in
facebook 01521431468
whatsapp 8801521431468
if there is anyone have dell 7710 u can help me with your valuable suggestion

Reply
Winston 9 June 2017 at 05:09

No power cable needed… well, I didn’t see one for the MXM card

Reply

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