The Zotac ZBox Magnus EK71080 has lots in common with traditional gaming mid-towers: top-notch performance, good connectivity, and easy upgradability.
What's more interesting, though, is what it doesn't share with them: a big, beefy case.
This cube-like mini-PC (starts at $1,499; $1,799 as tested) is about the size of a lunchbox, yet Zotac still squeezes a powerful GeForce GTX 1080 ( at Amazon) graphics card inside.
The card is one of Zotac's compact versions of the GPU, the same card you can buy on the open market, not a proprietary or MXM module.
Designed foremost for gaming, the EK71080 comes as a bare-bones unit you build it yourself (adding your own memory, storage, and OS), or preconfigured like this review model, ready to go out of the box.
Either way, this compact powerhouse will make you believe it's a lot larger than it really is.
It's a Small, Small World
Whether you buy this ZBox bare-bones or configured, a Core i7-7700HQ quad-core processor is included, built into the motherboard.
As you'd expect, then, a specialized PC like this commands a premium.
I configured an Omen mid-tower gaming desktop on HP's website for $1,339 with similar specifications, including a GTX 1080.
The extra cash you'll fork over for the ZBox Magnus EK71080, then, is for the privilege of doing things on a much smaller scale.
With the Magnus, what you'll miss out on are overclocking options (the Zotac offers none) and expandability.
On the latter front, the EK71080 maps out like a desktop-replacement notebook, topping out at 32GB of memory and two storage drives (one 2.5-inch bay and an M.2 Type-2280 slot).
But if you can work within those restrictions, it becomes a whole lot harder to justify the bigger-is-better mentality when you can fit a GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card into a PC this small.
Measuring 5.04 by 8.86 by 7.99 inches (HWD), the ZBox Magnus EK71080 is easy to hide, but I'd ask anyone who wanted to do that a simple question: Why? The modern look of the ZBox's all-black metal case will class up an office or a living space.
Demonstrating serious attention to detail, Zotac even put a blacked-out grate over the graphics card's exhaust outlet so no silver would show.
Except for the orange-rimmed power button, the outside lacks LED bling.
I wouldn't complain if it had a bit more, but the simple lines of this PC work just as well without it.
The less tech-savvy might not even realize the ZBox Magnus EK71080 is a computer.
The space-saving nature of this mini-PC is somewhat offset by its extraordinarily large external power adapter, though.
The 330-watt brick measures 1.75 by 3.8 by 7.8 inches (HWD), several times the footprint of most laptop power adapters.
The ZBox Magnus EK71080's connectivity is better than you'll find on most desktop-replacement notebooks.
The front plate houses a full-size SD-card reader, USB Type-A and -C ports (both version 3.1), and separate microphone-in and headphone-out jacks.
It's missing a front-mounted HDMI port, but this desktop is small enough that looping your virtual-reality headset's cord around the back shouldn't be anything more than a first-world chore.
(You could just as easily pick up the EK71080 and turn it around; excluding the power adapter, it weighs 7.2 pounds.)
The connectivity lineup continues along the back.
On the chassis proper, you get a quartet of USB Type-A 3.0 ports, dual Ethernet jacks, and the power-adapter connection, while the backplane of the GeForce GTX 1080 has an HDMI-out port, three DisplayPort connectors, and a legacy DVI-D port.
The two included wireless antennas need to be attached to the two coaxial-style connectors back here for the Intel 3165AC wireless and Bluetooth card to have meaningful range.
A Kensington-style security-cable notch is above the right antenna.
Given the relative ease of toting this valuable little item around, you'll want to keep this PC locked down in a college dorm or public area.
Desktop and Mobile Parts, Living Together…
The ZBox Magnus EK71080 is a part of Zotac's ZBox E-series, its highest-performing line of mini PCs.
The Core i7-7700HQ quad-core processor is the Hobson's choice in this model, as it's soldered to the motherboard and can't be upgraded or changed.
Typically found in desktop-replacement notebooks, the Core i7-7700HQ has the muscle to handle any game or demanding task, including video editing.
Intel has since replaced it with the hexa-core Core i7-8750H, seen in many of the very newest gaming laptops, but the extra two cores on the latter don't always translate into better gaming performance.
Games typically prefer higher clock speeds over core count, and the Core i7-7700HQ has plenty of the former, capable of boosting up to 3.8GHz on a single core.
Its base clock is 2.8GHz.
The heat output from the Core i7-7700HQ is the likely limit of what air cooling can handle in a chassis of this volume with this CPU.
Zotac also offers a ticked-up ZBox Magnus model, the Magnus EN1080K, that upgrades the cooling system to liquid cooling to handle Intel's 65-watt chips (in the case of that model, the desktop-grade Core i7-7700).
The top of the EK71080 is perforated in a honeycomb pattern to maximize airflow, but most exhaust air comes out of the rear of the chassis, and some flows out of the left side.
The fans seemed to be always on in my testing, although at a low noise level.
The ZBox Magnus EK71080 is audible in a medium-size room under full load, but it doesn't emit a high-pitched whine or other characteristics that would make it a distraction.
Our ready-configured ZBox Magnus EK71080 included a single 8GB stick of DDR4-2400 memory (a second slot was vacant), a 120GB M.2 Type-2240 SSD, a 1TB 2.5-inch hard drive, and a copy of Windows 10 Home.
All were installed in the unit, making it ready to go out of the box.
Collectively, they add $300 to the price of the bare-bones configuration, a reasonable price for those components.
That said, it's an underwhelming loadout for a GTX 1080-equipped PC.
The included 8GB of RAM doesn't quite do modern games justice; 16GB would make for a smoother experience, especially if you intend to multitask.
Upgrading the EK71080 is easy, though.
Flip it over, undo the four thumb screws, and you have full access to the storage and memory under the bottom cover.
The fact that just one of the SO-DIMM slots is full means I could put a second 8GB SO-DIMM into this config with relative ease.
The graphics card is upgradable, too, but you'll have to disassemble the rest of the unit to get to it.
On top of that, I'm not clear on how you could improve on what's in there already, given the space available.
Magnus Does Some Heavy Lifts
The ZBox Magnus EK71080 was in for something of a wake-up call in the productivity and media portions of the PC Labs benchmarking round.
That's not all that surprising, though, considering the mobile nature of its CPU and the fact that the competing systems here use a mix of desktop-grade processors.
Although this ZBox is exceptionally fast next to the average PC, so is its competition.
A 3,580-point showing in our PCMark 8 Work Conventional benchmark is excellent, but in this tough competitive set it's ahead of only the Corsair One Pro ( at Amazon) , a gaming mini-tower we reviewed some time ago.
The CPU-dependent Handbrake and Cinebench R15 tests show the relative limitations of the Zotac's 45-watt processor.
Although the Core i7-7700HQ is a quad-core/eight-thread chip, it doesn't have the clocks to compete with the 65-watt, quad-core Core i7 chip in the HP Z2 Mini G3 ($986.68 at HP) , let alone the 65-watt Core i7 hexa-core/12-thread CPU in the MSI Vortex G25VR.
All that said, the GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card in the ZBox Magnus EK71080 made it a force to be reckoned with in our 3D tests...
On the 3DMark synthetic tests, it placed third amongst its GTX 1080-powered peers here, the HP Omen X Compact Desktop ($2,499.99 at HP) and the leading Corsair One Pro.
Both competitors scored higher because of their faster Core i7 chips.
Like differences followed in our Heaven and Valley simulations.
The deltas in these 3D tests, however, aren't one-to-one with the relative disparity in CPU power between the units, meaning the EK71080's CPU isn't significantly limiting its 3D performance.
Graphics-card oomph is king when it comes to gaming, and the EK71080 has plenty of it.
Some games should prove that out.
A Touch of Real-World Gaming
After that slate of graphics tests, I gave the ZBox Magnus EK71080 a chance to show its teeth in two real-world games, the demanding AAA titles Rise of the Tomb Raider and Far Cry 5.
Using the built-in benchmark in Rise of the Tomb Raider at the Medium detail preset, the ZBox Magnus EK71080 pushed 128 frames per second (fps) at a 1080p resolution, and a very playable 62fps at 4K.
Those numbers, respectively, fell to 112fps and 47fps with the details cranked to Very High—which is to say, not by a whole lot.
Far Cry 5's built-in benchmark test proved more demanding.
At the Normal detail preset, the ZBox Magnus EK71080 cranked out 85fps at 1080p and 46fps at 4K, falling respectively to 76fps and 41fps when we pushed the details to the top graphical preset.
This level of performance is standard fare for the GTX 1080, a card that's about to be replaced, or at least challenged, by the GeForce GTX 2080 in late September 2018.
The GTX 1080 is still great for high-frame-rate 1080p or 1440p gaming, and it should remain so for some time.
But it can prove a bit underpowered at 4K unless you lower the detail settings in the more demanding titles.
A GTX 1080 in a Lunchbox: Any Questions?
The Zotac ZBox Magnus EK71080 stands out as one of the few truly scaled-down gaming PCs that uses a true desktop graphics card.
Its significant disadvantages next to a traditional mid-tower desktop are its limited expandability (the 32GB RAM ceiling and the ability to host just two storage drives) and its use of a 45-watt mobile processor as opposed to a socketed desktop chip.
The latter resulted in slightly lower benchmark scores than full-size, desktop-CPU-equipped systems with the same GTX 1080 graphics card, but the difference was under 10 percent in our game-specific benchmarks.
You'd be hard-pressed to notice that in the real world.
The privilege of gaming on a small scale doesn't come cheap, though.
The ZBox Magnus EK71080 commands several hundred dollars over a comparably equipped mid-tower.
Sometimes, though, the space savings and the novelty of owning a desktop with this level of portability, stash-ability, and cleverly integrated design is worth the extra bucks.
If that's what you need—a packable power rig for all-out gaming or VR—Magnus will bring the muscle.
Zotac ZBox Magnus EK71080
Pros
Classy, compact design.
Uses a desktop GTX 1080, not an MXM-style mobile card.
Quiet fans.
Available as a bare-bones PC or ready-configured.
View More
The Bottom Line
Stuffing a real GeForce GTX 1080 into a lunchbox-size mini PC isn't something you see every day, but the power-packed, costly Zotac ZBox Magnus EK71080 does it, and in style.
The Zotac ZBox Magnus EK71080 has lots in common with traditional gaming mid-towers: top-notch performance, good connectivity, and easy upgradability.
What's more interesting, though, is what it doesn't share with them: a big, beefy case.
This cube-like mini-PC (starts at $1,499; $1,799 as tested) is about the size of a lunchbox, yet Zotac still squeezes a powerful GeForce GTX 1080 ( at Amazon) graphics card inside.
The card is one of Zotac's compact versions of the GPU, the same card you can buy on the open market, not a proprietary or MXM module.
Designed foremost for gaming, the EK71080 comes as a bare-bones unit you build it yourself (adding your own memory, storage, and OS), or preconfigured like this review model, ready to go out of the box.
Either way, this compact powerhouse will make you believe it's a lot larger than it really is.
It's a Small, Small World
Whether you buy this ZBox bare-bones or configured, a Core i7-7700HQ quad-core processor is included, built into the motherboard.
As you'd expect, then, a specialized PC like this commands a premium.
I configured an Omen mid-tower gaming desktop on HP's website for $1,339 with similar specifications, including a GTX 1080.
The extra cash you'll fork over for the ZBox Magnus EK71080, then, is for the privilege of doing things on a much smaller scale.
With the Magnus, what you'll miss out on are overclocking options (the Zotac offers none) and expandability.
On the latter front, the EK71080 maps out like a desktop-replacement notebook, topping out at 32GB of memory and two storage drives (one 2.5-inch bay and an M.2 Type-2280 slot).
But if you can work within those restrictions, it becomes a whole lot harder to justify the bigger-is-better mentality when you can fit a GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card into a PC this small.
Measuring 5.04 by 8.86 by 7.99 inches (HWD), the ZBox Magnus EK71080 is easy to hide, but I'd ask anyone who wanted to do that a simple question: Why? The modern look of the ZBox's all-black metal case will class up an office or a living space.
Demonstrating serious attention to detail, Zotac even put a blacked-out grate over the graphics card's exhaust outlet so no silver would show.
Except for the orange-rimmed power button, the outside lacks LED bling.
I wouldn't complain if it had a bit more, but the simple lines of this PC work just as well without it.
The less tech-savvy might not even realize the ZBox Magnus EK71080 is a computer.
The space-saving nature of this mini-PC is somewhat offset by its extraordinarily large external power adapter, though.
The 330-watt brick measures 1.75 by 3.8 by 7.8 inches (HWD), several times the footprint of most laptop power adapters.
The ZBox Magnus EK71080's connectivity is better than you'll find on most desktop-replacement notebooks.
The front plate houses a full-size SD-card reader, USB Type-A and -C ports (both version 3.1), and separate microphone-in and headphone-out jacks.
It's missing a front-mounted HDMI port, but this desktop is small enough that looping your virtual-reality headset's cord around the back shouldn't be anything more than a first-world chore.
(You could just as easily pick up the EK71080 and turn it around; excluding the power adapter, it weighs 7.2 pounds.)
The connectivity lineup continues along the back.
On the chassis proper, you get a quartet of USB Type-A 3.0 ports, dual Ethernet jacks, and the power-adapter connection, while the backplane of the GeForce GTX 1080 has an HDMI-out port, three DisplayPort connectors, and a legacy DVI-D port.
The two included wireless antennas need to be attached to the two coaxial-style connectors back here for the Intel 3165AC wireless and Bluetooth card to have meaningful range.
A Kensington-style security-cable notch is above the right antenna.
Given the relative ease of toting this valuable little item around, you'll want to keep this PC locked down in a college dorm or public area.
Desktop and Mobile Parts, Living Together…
The ZBox Magnus EK71080 is a part of Zotac's ZBox E-series, its highest-performing line of mini PCs.
The Core i7-7700HQ quad-core processor is the Hobson's choice in this model, as it's soldered to the motherboard and can't be upgraded or changed.
Typically found in desktop-replacement notebooks, the Core i7-7700HQ has the muscle to handle any game or demanding task, including video editing.
Intel has since replaced it with the hexa-core Core i7-8750H, seen in many of the very newest gaming laptops, but the extra two cores on the latter don't always translate into better gaming performance.
Games typically prefer higher clock speeds over core count, and the Core i7-7700HQ has plenty of the former, capable of boosting up to 3.8GHz on a single core.
Its base clock is 2.8GHz.
The heat output from the Core i7-7700HQ is the likely limit of what air cooling can handle in a chassis of this volume with this CPU.
Zotac also offers a ticked-up ZBox Magnus model, the Magnus EN1080K, that upgrades the cooling system to liquid cooling to handle Intel's 65-watt chips (in the case of that model, the desktop-grade Core i7-7700).
The top of the EK71080 is perforated in a honeycomb pattern to maximize airflow, but most exhaust air comes out of the rear of the chassis, and some flows out of the left side.
The fans seemed to be always on in my testing, although at a low noise level.
The ZBox Magnus EK71080 is audible in a medium-size room under full load, but it doesn't emit a high-pitched whine or other characteristics that would make it a distraction.
Our ready-configured ZBox Magnus EK71080 included a single 8GB stick of DDR4-2400 memory (a second slot was vacant), a 120GB M.2 Type-2240 SSD, a 1TB 2.5-inch hard drive, and a copy of Windows 10 Home.
All were installed in the unit, making it ready to go out of the box.
Collectively, they add $300 to the price of the bare-bones configuration, a reasonable price for those components.
That said, it's an underwhelming loadout for a GTX 1080-equipped PC.
The included 8GB of RAM doesn't quite do modern games justice; 16GB would make for a smoother experience, especially if you intend to multitask.
Upgrading the EK71080 is easy, though.
Flip it over, undo the four thumb screws, and you have full access to the storage and memory under the bottom cover.
The fact that just one of the SO-DIMM slots is full means I could put a second 8GB SO-DIMM into this config with relative ease.
The graphics card is upgradable, too, but you'll have to disassemble the rest of the unit to get to it.
On top of that, I'm not clear on how you could improve on what's in there already, given the space available.
Magnus Does Some Heavy Lifts
The ZBox Magnus EK71080 was in for something of a wake-up call in the productivity and media portions of the PC Labs benchmarking round.
That's not all that surprising, though, considering the mobile nature of its CPU and the fact that the competing systems here use a mix of desktop-grade processors.
Although this ZBox is exceptionally fast next to the average PC, so is its competition.
A 3,580-point showing in our PCMark 8 Work Conventional benchmark is excellent, but in this tough competitive set it's ahead of only the Corsair One Pro ( at Amazon) , a gaming mini-tower we reviewed some time ago.
The CPU-dependent Handbrake and Cinebench R15 tests show the relative limitations of the Zotac's 45-watt processor.
Although the Core i7-7700HQ is a quad-core/eight-thread chip, it doesn't have the clocks to compete with the 65-watt, quad-core Core i7 chip in the HP Z2 Mini G3 ($986.68 at HP) , let alone the 65-watt Core i7 hexa-core/12-thread CPU in the MSI Vortex G25VR.
All that said, the GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card in the ZBox Magnus EK71080 made it a force to be reckoned with in our 3D tests...
On the 3DMark synthetic tests, it placed third amongst its GTX 1080-powered peers here, the HP Omen X Compact Desktop ($2,499.99 at HP) and the leading Corsair One Pro.
Both competitors scored higher because of their faster Core i7 chips.
Like differences followed in our Heaven and Valley simulations.
The deltas in these 3D tests, however, aren't one-to-one with the relative disparity in CPU power between the units, meaning the EK71080's CPU isn't significantly limiting its 3D performance.
Graphics-card oomph is king when it comes to gaming, and the EK71080 has plenty of it.
Some games should prove that out.
A Touch of Real-World Gaming
After that slate of graphics tests, I gave the ZBox Magnus EK71080 a chance to show its teeth in two real-world games, the demanding AAA titles Rise of the Tomb Raider and Far Cry 5.
Using the built-in benchmark in Rise of the Tomb Raider at the Medium detail preset, the ZBox Magnus EK71080 pushed 128 frames per second (fps) at a 1080p resolution, and a very playable 62fps at 4K.
Those numbers, respectively, fell to 112fps and 47fps with the details cranked to Very High—which is to say, not by a whole lot.
Far Cry 5's built-in benchmark test proved more demanding.
At the Normal detail preset, the ZBox Magnus EK71080 cranked out 85fps at 1080p and 46fps at 4K, falling respectively to 76fps and 41fps when we pushed the details to the top graphical preset.
This level of performance is standard fare for the GTX 1080, a card that's about to be replaced, or at least challenged, by the GeForce GTX 2080 in late September 2018.
The GTX 1080 is still great for high-frame-rate 1080p or 1440p gaming, and it should remain so for some time.
But it can prove a bit underpowered at 4K unless you lower the detail settings in the more demanding titles.
A GTX 1080 in a Lunchbox: Any Questions?
The Zotac ZBox Magnus EK71080 stands out as one of the few truly scaled-down gaming PCs that uses a true desktop graphics card.
Its significant disadvantages next to a traditional mid-tower desktop are its limited expandability (the 32GB RAM ceiling and the ability to host just two storage drives) and its use of a 45-watt mobile processor as opposed to a socketed desktop chip.
The latter resulted in slightly lower benchmark scores than full-size, desktop-CPU-equipped systems with the same GTX 1080 graphics card, but the difference was under 10 percent in our game-specific benchmarks.
You'd be hard-pressed to notice that in the real world.
The privilege of gaming on a small scale doesn't come cheap, though.
The ZBox Magnus EK71080 commands several hundred dollars over a comparably equipped mid-tower.
Sometimes, though, the space savings and the novelty of owning a desktop with this level of portability, stash-ability, and cleverly integrated design is worth the extra bucks.
If that's what you need—a packable power rig for all-out gaming or VR—Magnus will bring the muscle.
Zotac ZBox Magnus EK71080
Pros
Classy, compact design.
Uses a desktop GTX 1080, not an MXM-style mobile card.
Quiet fans.
Available as a bare-bones PC or ready-configured.
View More
The Bottom Line
Stuffing a real GeForce GTX 1080 into a lunchbox-size mini PC isn't something you see every day, but the power-packed, costly Zotac ZBox Magnus EK71080 does it, and in style.
