Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EK71080 Compact Gaming PC Review

Networking and Storage Performance

Networking and storage are two major aspects which influence our experience with any computing system. This section presents results from our evaluation of these aspects in the Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EK71080*. On the storage side, one option would be repetition of our strenuous SSD review tests on the drive(s) in the PC. Fortunately, to avoid that overkill, PCMark 8 has a storage bench where certain common workloads such as loading games and document processing are replayed on the target drive. Results are presented in two forms, one being a benchmark number and the other, a bandwidth figure. We ran the PCMark 8 storage bench on selected PCs and the results are presented below.

Despite using the same OCZ RD400 in the EN1080 and EN1080K, we find that the storage bandwidth in the EK71080 is around 12% lower - this can be explained by a combination of a CPU that doesn't clock as high as the 65W counterparts, and the impact of the Spectre and Meltdown patches.

On the networking side, we restricted ourselves to the evaluation of the WLAN component. Our standard test router is the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk configured with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. The router is placed approximately 20 ft. away, separated by a drywall (as in a typical US building). A wired client is connected to the R7000 and serves as one endpoint for iperf evaluation. The PC under test is made to connect to either the 5 GHz (preferred) or 2.4 GHz SSID and iperf tests are conducted for both TCP and UDP transfers. It is ensured that the PC under test is the only wireless client for the Netgear R7000. We evaluate total throughput for up to 32 simultaneous TCP connections using iperf and present the highest number in the graph below.

In the UDP case, we try to transfer data at the highest rate possible for which we get less than 1% packet loss.

We see that the numbers for the EN1080K and the EK71080 are in the same ballpark, which is understandable since the Intel AC3165 is used in both of them. The 1x1 802.11ac radio is not a great choice for a high-end system, but, it is somewhat made up for by the dual gigabit LAN ports.