Gadgetory

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 elses this is the Magnus en 980 though tax most powerful mini PC yet boasting a core i5 quad-core processor a full-fat gtx 980 graphics core with four gigs of vram and liquid cooling all in the size of a shoebox mass drop is featuring the whitefox keyboard it's available in 4 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 en 9 ad reminds me more of ZOTAC speak OPI 320 micro 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 and SDXC reader 2 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 two gigabit ethernet connections to 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 damnit it happened again two DC inputs whoa yes my friends the Magnus en 980 includes not one but two 180 watt power bricks to provide enough juice for the shockingly 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 gigahertz skylake quad core that turbos up to three point three gigahertz and a desktop grade MXM form factor nvidia geforce gtx 980 with four gigs of VRAM there installed on a completely custom motherboard with support for a single m2 SSD a single two-and-a-half inch SSD or hard drive and up to to sodium 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 magnesium 980 size at a mere five point eight five liters it is smaller than the den case a for SFX by about 20 percent 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 realize I didn't have a screwdriver ran downstairs for my trusty iFixit kit then ran back upstairs only to realize that the rubber feet on the bottom of the case are fun screws and everything is right there brilliant this does raise some questions about airflow 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/o on the rear is solid metal let's dig deeper the front and rear panels come off with a handful of Phillips 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 millimeter radiator and 25 mil thick fan along with a vibration dampened low-profile pump a reservoir that's an odd one most pre sealed units forego 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 en 980 was a bad idea first up is thermals surprisingly likely due to their inexperience dealing with those little wannabe toasters we call enthusiast graphics cards even large multinational companies can screw up cooling even in a mid tower that several times the size of this guy but whether it's thanks to zou tax experience building video cards or building mini pcs the en 980 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 is 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 GTX 980 is no slouch and when it's not being firmly 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 980 s viability as a VR card given that that's what I run in the living room vive set-up 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 en 980 a bad idea a super tiny VR capable gaming PC with liquid cooling and 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 bare-bones can duration this is a 1600 US dollar 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 dollar Club 3d adapter to convert DisplayPort to HDMI to but I shouldn't have to number two on the other hand is pretty significant the Magnus en 980 is not user upgradeable outside of the drives in RAM ZOTAC tells me that is very difficult to take apart and that the users warranty will be voided 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 msi 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 Vitesse gaming mice some of the features of this mouse include it's a vago 3310 optical sensor it's ergonomic design I can imagine a mouse with no economic design that'd be terrible it's 90 gram weight if you don't include the cable it's on runs which is on the fly dpi adjustments a maximum dpi are 5000 dpi unit which is dpi and LED indicators to display what dpi setting you're at also for one lucky winner will be giving away an entire gaming suite of Phoenix products which is pretty sweet if you think about it that will include one Vitesse Mouse I guess that's where the other one comes in oops one demora mousepad one Aria headset and one auteur 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 for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit the like button or check out the link to where to buy stuff that we featured at Amazon in the video description also linked in the description is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally totally join now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little button in the top right corner to check out our latest video over on channel super fun