ZOTAC, one of the major players in the SFF PC market, has two different mini-PC families equipped with discrete GPUs. The larger (~5L) one is equipped with desktop-class GPUs, while the compact version (sub-3L) comes with laptop-class GPUs. At the 2022 CES, the company is updating the latter lineup with Tiger Lake and Ampere.

The new barebones system comes in ZOTAC’s regular 2.65-liter ZBOX MAGNUS EN chassis, which is just 62.2 mm (2.45 inches) tall. The ZBOX MAGNUS EN173080C barebones is based on Intel’s octa-core Core i7-11800H processor (8C/16T, 2.30 GHz – 4.60 GHz, 45 W) accompanied by NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3080 notebook GPU with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and a rated operating power of 150W. The system can be equipped with up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 memory, and comes with two M.2 slots (one of which supports both PCIe and SATA SSDs). A slot is also available for a 2.5" SATA drive. The CPU and GPU are not user-upgradeable.

On the connectivity front, the system includes a Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5 WLAN card complemented by a dual external antennae, two RJ-45 ports (2.5G + 1G), five USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (four in the rear, one in front), a Thunderbolt 4 port in the front, a SD card reader in the front, separate audio jacks for speakers and microphones in the front, and four display outputs in the rear (two HDMI and two DisplayPort).

ZOTAC ZBOX MAGNUS EN173080C
CPU Intel Core i7-11800H
8C/16T
2.3 GHz - 4.6 GHz
24 MB
45 W
GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (Notebook-class / 150W)
Memory 2 × DDR4 SO-DIMM slots
up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 memory
Storage M.2 M.2 2230/42/80 slot for PCIe x4/SATA SSD
M.2 2230/42/80 slot for PCIe x4 SSD
DFF 1 × 2.5" SSD/HDD
Card Reader SD
Wireless Killer 1650 802.11ax Wi-Fi + BT 5
Ethernet 1 × Gigabit Ethernet with RJ45
1 × 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet with RJ45
Display Outputs 2 × DisplayPort 1.4
2 × HDMI 2.0b
1 × USB-C (Thunderbolt 4)
Audio 3.5 mm audio-in
3.5 mm audio-out
USB 5 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
1 x USB4 Type-C
Thunderbolt 4 Yes (on USB4 Type-C port)
PSU External
OS Barebones Model (No OS)
Windows 11 Home pre-installed on W4B / W5B models
Additional Details Link

In addition to the barebones version, ZOTAC is also planning to release EN173080C-W4B with Windows 11 Home pre-installed. This model comes with a 512GB M.2 SSD, a 1TB 2.5" SATA HDD, and a single 16GB DDR4 SO-DIMM stick.

The system is already listed on ZOTAC's website, so it is reasonable to expect it to become available shortly. As for pricing, while Zotac has not announced anything at this time.

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  • James5mith - Wednesday, January 5, 2022 - link

    2 things.

    1. Zotac's stuff is NEVER "available shortly" after being listed on their website.

    2. Zotac's stuff always seems amazing, but there seems to be some kind of gotcha where they cut corners making it not worth the money.

    I say that as somebody who has tried and failed to buy several generations of their boxes, and always had enough time between announcement and availability to find a way to talk myself out of it.
  • Spunjji - Thursday, January 6, 2022 - link

    This one's arriving just in time for Alder Lake 😬
  • erinadreno - Thursday, January 6, 2022 - link

    I suspect if your code or program does not benefit from asynchronous cores then Tiger Lake might outperform Alder Lake. But Alder Lake big cores seems to be a bit stronger, although not 2 less core stronger. Guess Intel just want to let customers to do all the research.
  • PeachNCream - Thursday, January 6, 2022 - link

    Disgusting that they opted for a Killer branded wireless card in the GPU-equipped model. I hope the smaller system has a better choice for networking so a buyer doesn't have to waste time de-crufting their network driver or swapping out with another wifi card.
  • erinadreno - Thursday, January 6, 2022 - link

    I believe Broadcom and Realtek are actually inferior than Intel's WIFI 6 cards

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