Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080 SFF PC Review: A Premium Gaming Powerhouse

Concluding Remarks

The preceding pages have clearly shown that the Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080 packs a lot of punch despite its compact footprint. The CPU benchmarks are at the top of the charts. In fact, thanks to the presence of the Core i7-6700, it can perform as well as any custom-built desktop rig with a 65W TDP CPU. On the GPU side, short of a rig with SLI GPUs, it is difficult to imagine a system providing better gaming performance. On the whole, performance-wise, Zotac has given us no cause for complaint with the EN1080.

One of the talking points in the comments section of our review of the EN980 was the $1600 barebones price. With the Pascal-based GTX 1080 being a newer variant, and the CPU being upgrade from a Core i5 to a Core i7 Skylake-S SKU, it is not a surprise that the EN1080 has a much higher MSRP of $2000. At this price, Zotac is competing with boutique PC vendors, and, to tell the truth, we believe Zotac's edge lies in the compactness of the unit. This alone might deserve a premium, but, we find that the pricing is actually par for the course - We tried to configure the Clevo DTR discussed in the gaming notebooks section with specifications similar to our review configuration. The price turned out to be upwards of $3500 compared to our configuration price of around $2500. Since the Clevo DTR comes with a display panel, it can account for the difference in price. All said, Zotac's ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080 can be a worthy competitor to desktop gaming PC models from boutique PC vendors.

The OCZ RD400 and two Corsair Vengeance DDR4 SODIMMs in our build. Note that we left the 2.5" drive slot unused

In the first section, we briefly talked about how the second-generation unit addressed the shortcomings of the first-gen MAGNUS EN980. It is worth repeating them here - the EN1080 now supports M.2 PCIe SSDs and DDR4 SODIMMs. The internal GPU has been upgraded to a high-end member in the latest offerings from NVIDIA. The 16nm GPU ensures a very power-efficient platform. The alteration of the fan curves has led to a system with excellent sound characteristics. The second-generation EN1080 also includes a front-panel HDMI port - which is excellent for VR headsets like the HTC Vive.

Though many of the issues that we pointed out in the EN980 review have been addressed, there is still scope for Zotac to improve the product further. The M.2 SSD slot needs some sort of thermal protection in the form of a thermal pad attached to the underside of the chassis. This was not a big deal with the EN980 because that had a SATA-only M.2 slot. However, with the newer version supporting the power-hungry PCIe / NVMe protocol, it is important to address this aspect. Other nice-to-have features include a PCIe bridge for the SDXC slot instead of the USB 2.0 bridge (this can improve speeds with the latest UHS-II cards capable of operating at more than 150 MBps), and a 2x2 Wi-Fi radio (in fact, we are ready to sacrifice one of the two LAN ports for a 2x2 radio). It would also be nice to have a couple more USB 3.0 Type-A ports on the sides of the chassis, or, in the front panel. It would not be a bad idea to convert a couple of the USB 3.0 ports in the rear to USB 2.0 (as they probably get used for the keyboard and/or the mouse), while shifting the USB 3.0 ports to a better accessible place. The premium PC also needs to adopt the Alpine Ridge controller with Thunderbolt 3 / USB 3.1 Gen 2 support instead of the plain ASMedia ASM1142 solution.

The Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080 has turned out to be the perfect product to celebrate Zotac's 10-year anniversary. It is a unique and powerful product, and the pricing is competitive when compared against similar offerings from boutique PC vendors.