ZOTAC MAGNUS EN1070K
The Zotac Magnus EN1070K is the smallest PC of the lot. In fact, it doesn’t look very much like a PC at all, but the power that this little beast packs belies its size. Still, cramming that much computing heft into that sliver of a chassis isn’t easy, and the price reects that.
At $2,437, this is the most expensive of the lot, but it’s a solid choice if your top priority is to have the smallest footprint possible. More impressively, it’s managed to cram an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 in there, although that takes the form of an MXM graphics module more commonly found on laptops.
However, because it’s not soldered on like the ASUS ROG GR8 II, you’re technically able to upgrade it if you have the right components. It also uses a socketed CPU, but you’re limited to a 35W Intel T-series CPU.
The lid is held in place by two thumbscrews, but once you remove these, it pops right o to give you access to the storage and the memory.
For such a small PC, there’s still a decent array of I/O ports. On the back, you’ll nd two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, in addition to four DisplayPort and HDMI connectors. On top of that, there’s even dual Gigabit Ethernet ports that support teaming, a feature that none of the other SFF PCs reviewed here offer.
Finally, there’s USB 3.1 (Gen 2) Type-A and Type-C ports on the front, so you’ll be able to hook up an external HDD or USB-C phone quite easily. When it comes to I/O options at least, the Magnus EN1070K gives you little reason to wish for a full-sized desktop.
Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 1070 is very capable, and can comfortably handle up to QHD resolutions. However, the weaker quad-core Intel Core i5-7500T holds the system back in certain CPU-bound games such as Ashes of the Singularity. That said, most games today have the GPU as the limiting factor, so this isn’t that big of a problem.
Powerful and upgradeable despite its size.
Lower power T-series Intel CPU limits performance in some games.