OMG I have been asking for something like this since CES 2014 I mean not
quite like this more on that later but Zotac still a lot closer to my vision
for the ultimate compact PC than anyone
else's this is the Magnus en980 Zak's
most powerful Mini PC yet boasting a core i5 quad core processor a full fat
gtx980 Graphics core with 4 gigs of vram
and liquid cooling all in the size of a
shoe
box Mass drop is featuring The White Fox
keyboard it's available in four plate layouts and comes complete with cherry
compatible key caps check it and other drops out at the link in the video
description so let's start with a look at this puppy physically the design of
the en980 reminds me more of Zotac Pico
Pi 320 micr PC then of the similarly
named en 970 the bottom is white maybe
this was borrowed from the SN 970 steam machine with small vents around the
outside edges and a couple of product information stickers adorning it the top
is a white plastic honeycomb with a tighter powder blue mesh behind it that
gives it a distinctive if not particularly high performance look and
all of the sides are constructed from thick blasted anodized aluminum at the
front you'll be greeted by a power button an SDXC reader two USB 3.1 ports
one type A and another type c and two audio jacks for headphones and
microphone which regrettably aren't replicated on the back a frustrating
thing for people who use Standalone speakers not headphones and want their
desk to look clean also on the back you'll be greeted by two Wi-Fi antennas
2 GB Ethernet connections two each of HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2 video
outputs four USB 3.0 ports thank goodness I thought we were going to have
two of everything and damn it it happened again two DC
inputs what yes my friends the Magnus
en980 includes not one but two 180 wat
power brakes to provide enough juice for
the shocking powerful Hardware that it carries within its gut let's go through
that then shall we at its heart is a desktop Core i5 6400 2.7 GHz Skylake
quad core that turbos up to 3.3 GHz and
a desktop grade mxm form factor NVIDIA
GeForce GTX 980 with 4 gigs of vram
they're installed on a completely custom motherboard with support for a single
m.2 SSD a single 2 and 1/2 in SSD or
hard drive and up to to two sodum slots for ddr3l memory that offer official
support for up to 16 gigs of RAM total but that I tested with our intelligent
memory modules and found will actually work just fine with up to 32 gigs if you
can get your hands on 16 gig sticks so
why then external power supplies well
there are two things I've ignored so far number one is the magnan 980 size at a
mere 5.85 L it is smaller than the Dan Case
A4 sfx by about 20% and it's even
smaller than the MSI Vortex and while it
doesn't have two graphics cards like the vortex number two is that it has a
freaking water cooler inside OMG right
now some configurations of the Magnus will come with RAM and drives and an
operating system pre-installed While others like mine will just have empty
Bays there's great news though they are astonishingly easy to get at I was about
to get started realized I didn't have a screwdriver ran downstairs for my trusty
iix it kit then ran back upstairs only to realize that the rubber feet on the
bottom of the case are thumb screws and everything is right there brilliant this
does raise some questions about air flow and dust accumulation however because I
actually don't see how those bottom vents are really going everywhere and
every panel other than the top and above the I on the rear is solid metal let's
dig deeper the front and rear panels come off with a handful of philli screws
to reveal really no further insight about where Zotac expects cooling for
components like the SSD and the motherboard chipset to come from but we
do get a much better look at the liquid cooler they actually managed to cram a
full-sized 120 mm radiator and 25 mil
thick fan along with a vibration dampened lowprofile pump a reservoir
that's an odd one most pre-sealed units forgo this and custom cooling blocks for
both the CPU and GPU this was an
expensive product to develop I will tell you that much but so was this
monstrosity in all likelihood so cost
clearly won't save a bad idea let's find out if the en980 was a bad idea first up
is thermals surprisingly like due to
their inexperience dealing with those little wannabe toaster we call
Enthusiast graphics cards even large multinational companies can screw up
cooling even in a midtower that's several times the size of this guy but
whether it's thanks to Zotac experience building video cards or building mini
PCS the en980 not only avoids thermal
throttling even after a prolonged synthetic stress test it manages to keep
both the CPU and GPU under 70 degrees
not to mention the SSD as well within reason and stay as quiet as a full-size
Tower with good coolers installed definitely suitable for use in any space
provided you've got ample breathing room above the top exhaust so given that then
these benchmarks shouldn't come as any surprise I mean yes the GTX 1080 is out
but the gtx980 is no slouch and when it's not being thermally limited is
going to be able to fully stretch its legs now of course our performance
testing doesn't include any real VR titles I'm sorry about that Luke is
actually working on a video about some of the challenges associated with VR
benching but in the meantime I can personally vouch for the GTX 980s
viability as a VR card given that that's what I run in the living room Vive setup
that I was showing off on Instagram a couple of weeks ago which leads us to
the answer to the question I posed a couple of minutes ago was the en980 a
bad idea a super tiny VR capable gaming
PC with liquid cooling and this the thing I've been asking for external
power supply perfect for the living room where I suspect a lot of people's VR
setups are going to end up where quiet operation and Sleek looks are huge
factors seems pretty awesome to me but
there are a couple of oversights that I'd like to see corrected next time as
well because let's face it in a barebones configuration this is a 1600
100 US product I mean holy actual math
Batman number one is minor HDMI 1.4 guys
really I mean okay yes I can use this $25 Club 3D adapter to convert display
port to HDMI 2 but I shouldn't have to
number two on the other hand is pretty significant the Magnus en980 is not user
upgradable outside of the drives in RAM Zotac tells me that it's very difficult
to take apart and that the user's warranty will be void
I mean honestly I don't mind locking in the CPU but quick connect fittings and a
commitment to make upgraded graphics card kits available would take this
thing from very difficult to recommend
like the MSI Vortex to a much more
reasonable long-term solution for Ballers like the msig gt80 Titan with
that said value calculations aside this
is one of the coolest PCS that I've ever laid my hands on and I'm in awe of what
Zotac has achieved here great job you guys and great job to Phoenix who we've
partnered with again to give away five
well this looks like six but apparently five of their newly launched vitess
gaming mice some of the features of this mouse include its avago 3310 Optical
sensor its ergonomic design I me imagine a mouse with no ergonomic design that'd
be terrible it's 90 G weight if you don't include the cable it's ARM run
switch is on the Fly DPI adjustments a maximum DPI of 5,000 DPI units which is
DPI and led indicators to display what
DPI setting you're at also for one lucky
winner we'll be giving away an entire gaming Suite of Phoenix products which
is pretty sweet if you think about it that'll include one vitess Mouse I guess
that's where the other one comes in oops one Deora mouse pad one Arya headset and
one oour keyboard you can enter by following Phoenix over on Twitter and
checking out the link to our community Forum in the video description so thanks
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