Small form factor PC maker Zotac is updating its ZBOX Magnus E line of small gaming desktops with two new models sporting 9th-gen Intel Core H-series processors and support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics with ray tracing.
Basically take the kind of hardware that you’d expect from a pretty good gaming laptop, cram it into a small box that you can stick on a desk or hide away behind your display, and you’ve got a Zotac Zbox Magnus E.
The company will show off two new models at CES next week.
ZBOX Magnus EN92080V
The more powerful of the two packs a 45 watt Intel Core i9-9980H octa-core processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics and support for up to 32GB of DDR4-2400/2666 RAM. But it’s actually the slimmer of NVIDIA’s new gaming PCs, measuring just 2.45 inches high.
Open up the case and you’ll also find room for a 2.5 inch hard drive or SSD as well as an M.2 slot for NVMe storage and another for Intel Optane memory.
Other features include Killer AX1650 WiFi, Bluetooth 5, and two Ethernet ports: one with Gigabit speeds, and another that goes up to 2.5 Gbps. There are also a bunch ports including:
- 2 x HDMI 2.0
- 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
- 2 x USB 3.1 Type-C
- 4 x USB 3.0 Type-A
- SDXC card reader
It’s interesting that there are no Thunderbolt 3 ports on what seems like a high-end, high-performance PC (by small form-factor computer standards, anyway). But a key reason I suspect folks might want a Thunderbolt 3 port on this type of computer is to be able to connect an external graphics dock — something you might not really need to do right away since the computer already ships with one of NVIDIA’s most powerful graphics cards.
Thunderbolt 3 would certainly make the system a bit more future-proof though.
ZBOX Magnus EC72070S
This slightly less powerful model sports an Intel Core i7-9750H hexa-core processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics, and… interestingly enough, support for up to 64GB of memory (twice a much as the EN92080V supports).
It also features:
- 2.5 inch drive bay
- M.2 2242/2280 slot for NVMe storage
- Intel Optane memory slot (2240/2280)
- 3 x DisplayPort 1.4
- 1 x HDMI 2.0b
- 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C
- 5 x USB 3.1 Type-A
- SDXC card reader
- 1 x 2.5 Gbps Ethernet
- 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
- WiFi 6 (Killer AX1650)
- Bluetooth 5.0
Like the EN92080V, this model has no Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Zotac will also offer a lower-priced/less powerful EC52060S model with an Intel Core i5 processor and GeForce RTX 2060 graphics.