Zotac ZBOX Magnus EN980 Mini PC Review

While previous Zbox iterations were mostly made of plastic, the EN980 utilizes a combination of both aluminum around its sides and plastic for the top and bottom. Quality is solid with no unintended gaps between materials or creaking when attempting to depress its surfaces. This is in contrast to the older EN760 where its glossy plastics would warp, creak, and accumulate both fingerprints and scratches much more easily. Our only complaint about the design of the EN980 is its honeycomb exhaust top. Its plastic makeup can bend when applying pressure and it also discourages users from stacking books or decorations on the unit since this area will become quite warm when under load.

As for size and weight, the EN980 is significantly larger than the SN970 and is closer to being a full-on cube if it were just a little taller. Some users may find the Zotac a little stale compared to sleeker and more colorful gaming mini PCs like those from the Asus ROG GR series. At about 3.9 kg, the system is quite heavy for the size and is about as heavy as 17.3-inch gaming notebooks like the recent Asus G701VO. The dense weight can be attributed to the sizable liquid cooling solution that’s also utilized on the Asus G752VY where it is also responsible for the notebook’s immense weight.

Placing the unit on its side to save space is a safe option according to Zotac, but having it sit on its base as advertised will allow for better heat flow.

WLAN is provided by an Intel 3165 module capable of theoretical transfer rates of up to 433 Mbps with integrated Bluetooth 4.0. Access to the module requires voiding the warranty and it's a shame that no other options are available with faster transfer rates such as the Intel 8260 or even the gaming-centric Killer 1525/1535. A transfer rate test with Jperf as shown below results in a stable real-world average transfer rate of about 243 mbps when connected to our Linksys EA8500 test router.

Access to the M.2 slot, 2.5-inch SATA III bay, and 2x SODIMM slots requires no tools. Like the EN760 and SN970 before it, the bottom four rubber feet are designed to be hand-twisted to remove the outer panel. Servicing the mini PC any further will break the warranty seal, but Zotac tells us that the CPU and GPU are on LGA 1151 and MXM sockets, respectively, and are not surface mounted. Replacing both is theoretically possible should the user decide to take the risk.

Beyond that, the system supports DDR3 only for up to 16 GB and its two storage bays are not RAID compatible. The M.2 slot accepts 2242, 2260, and 2280 sizes while the 2.5-inch bay includes a mount for securing the drive.

CPU performance from the i5-6400 is lower than expected due in part to its previously mentioned 3.1 GHz maximum even though the processor itself is rated for a maximum of 3.3 GHz. It doesn't matter if we're running single-threaded (Super Pi) or multi-threaded (wPrime) workloads; core clock rate refuses to run any faster than 3.1 GHz. The processor's lack of Hyper-Threading when compared to mobile Core i7 CPUs means it lags behind even the older Haswell i7-4700HQ in multi-threaded benchmarks according to CineBench. Performance in single-threaded benchmarks is similar to the ULV i7-6600U found on many higher-end Ultrabooks and about 10 percent slower than the common i7-6700HQ.

3DMark benchmark place the EN980 within just a few percentage points of the Asus G701VO with the same GTX 980 GPU. Thus, the GPU here is not being artificially throttled in any way and users can enjoy the full performance of the hardware. Its combined 3DMark 11 score, however, is much lower than its competitors due to the slower CPU. This fortunately has little impact on real-world gaming performance as most modern titles have become GPU bound.

Moving up to the pricier GTX 1070 for notebooks would net users a 30 percent graphics performance boost over the GTX 980.

The liquid cooling system utilized by the EN980 is what makes the system unique in the mini PC category. it's a denser and heavier cooling solution compared to traditional heat pipes used on notebooks, but our stress test above and the resulting fan noise measurements below show the benefits of having such a powerful cooler.

When gaming, fan noise essentially remains at its low state of about 36.5 dB(A). This is compared to most gaming notebooks that settle in the low to mid 40 dB(A) range under the same conditions, so the Zotac is noticeably quieter when stressed. We were able to record a fan noise of about 43 dB(A) with both Prime95 and FurMark active, which is very good considering that some Aorus and Gigabyte notebooks can be as loud as 50 dB(A) under the same conditions.

Unfortunately, the 36 dB(A) range is still audible and this appears to be the slowest fan state when the system is simply idling or performing low processing loads. Most notebooks run quieter in comparison in the low 30 dB(A) range when idling. Fan controls are available in BIOS as pre-set percentages, but we were unable to reduce fan speeds by any more than its default setting.

Another noteworthy advantage of the EN980 is its large 120 mm fan. Most gaming notebooks utilize thinner and smaller fans that operate at higher frequencies compared to the Zotac as shown by our microphone measurements below. As an example, the Zotac fan peaks at about 500 Hz compared to about 2000 Hz on the thin Aorus X5S v5. This difference is noticeable even subjectively as the system is lower-pitched and easier on the ears.

Surface temperatures are not a concern around the sides of the unit. The fan draws in cool air from both the rear and bottom ventilation grilles. The temperature maps below show the result of this design as the top exhaust grilles can be as warm as 57 C towards the center. This same area is about 32 C when idling against an ambient temperature of 20 C. We don't want to call it a personal radiator, but it's hard to deny based on its design and overt exhaust.