Skip to main content

Zotac's Magnus mini PCs pack a lot of power thanks to Nvidia's new graphics chips

zotac magnus pascal 10 series en10
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Zotac is riding the wave after Nvidia debuted mobile versions of its Pascal lineup of graphics chips, with an announcement that it’s including Nvidia’s new graphics processors (GPUs) in its upcoming refresh of the Magnus line of mini PCs. Considering that specifications between those chips and their desktop counterparts are almost identical, this could make the Magnus mini PCs some extremely powerful little systems.

Nvidia made a big splash when it announced the new (non-M) mobile graphics chips for the 10 series. While these variants have traditionally been much weaker than their add-in counterparts, this time around that’s not the case at all.

In our own internal testing, we found the GTX 1070 mobile chip was just as powerful in some scenarios as the GTX 980 Ti from the last generation, which is absolutely huge performance from a mobile chip. If that plays out in real-world game testing, gaming may be about to get a lot more mobile.

Zotac’s offerings for the new Magnus EN10 line will include the EN1060 and EN1070. Buters will determine how prebuilt they want their systems to be.

There will be bare-bones versions with just the CPU, motherboard, graphics and housing, which means you’ll need to provide your own storage and memory. Other options will include one that is hardware complete and simply requires an operating system to install, or complete systems that will run right off of the bat without any fiddling whatsoever.

We don’t have final hardware breakdowns for these new systems, but we do know they’ll come packing Skylake processors (thanks TechReport). Pricing has yet to be revealed.

What will be especially interesting moving forward is whether Zotac expands this line. Gaming on the go is much easier if you have a system this powerful to cart around with you. It also opens up all sorts of exciting potential for virtual reality.

In fact, you have to wonder if one of these will find themselves inside a backpack similar to the one we saw Zotac put together earlier this year, for wireless, room-scale tracking.

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
Power up your tech game this summer with Dell’s top deals: Upgrade for a bargain
Dell Techfest and best tech on sale featured.

One of the best times to upgrade your tech stack, be it your desktop, a new laptop, or some high-resolution monitors, is when great deals are to be had. Well, I'm here to share that thanks to Dell's top deals, you can power up your tech game and have most of the summer to make it happen. Maybe you're happy with your current system or setup. That's excellent, but you're likely considering upgrading somewhere, and that's precisely what these deals are all about. Dell has a smorgasbord of deals on laptops, desktops, gaming desktops, monitors, accessories, and so much more. We'll call out a few of our favorite deals below, but for now, know that you should be shopping this sale if you're interested in anything tech-related.

 
What summer tech should you buy in Dell's top deals?

Read more
I love the MacBook Pro, but this Windows laptop came surprisingly close
Apple MacBook Pro 16 downward view showing keyboard and speaker.

There are some great machines in the 15-inch laptop category, which has recently been stretched to include the more common 16-inch laptop. The best among them is the Apple MacBook Pro 16, which offers fast performance for tasks like video editing and the longest battery life.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 is aimed not only at other 16-inch Windows laptops but also at the MacBook Pro 16. It offers many of the same benefits but at a lower price. Can it take a place at the top?
Specs and configurations

Read more
How to set an ‘Out of Office’ message in Microsoft Teams
Person using Windows 11 laptop on their lap by the window.

Many people use Microsoft Teams regularly to communicate with colleagues both inside of the office and remotely. It is considered one of the most efficient ways to ensure you can stay in contact with the people on your team, but what if you need to let people know you’re not readily available? Microsoft Teams has a method for you to set up an "Out of Office" status for your profile to let staff members know when you’ll be gone for the afternoon, for several days on vacation, or for an extended period.
Where do I go to set up my ‘Out of Office’ status for Teams?
It is important to note that your Microsoft Teams and Outlook calendars are synced. This includes your out-of-office status and automatic replies. So, whatever you set up in Microsoft Teams will reflect in Outlook. Similarly, you can set up your out-of-office status in Outlook, and it will be reflected in Teams; however, the former has a more straightforward instruction.

First, you can click on your profile icon in Teams and go directly to Schedule an out of office, as a shortcut. This will take you to the settings area where you can proceed. You can also click the three-dot icon next to your profile icon, then go to Settings > General, then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, you'll find out-of-office settings and click Schedule.

Read more