ZOTAC Magnus One ERP74070W (Barebone) Mini PC
design
Even before it had come out of the box I was impressed by just how mini the ZOTAC Magnus One ERP74070W actually is, or was going to be at that point. The outer shipping box of this compact PC was already smaller than the size of my existing gaming PC case, that’s not bad going given what’s packed inside.
It’s not often you see gaming gear measured in litres, but officially the ZOTAC Magnus One chassis is just 8.3 of them. In a more traditional PC measurement that’s around 25cm x 13cm, which is really rather small. For scale, that’s not far off the size of an Xbox Series X laying on its side. It makes the Magnus One particularly living room compatible and I had no problems fitting it into my IKEA TV unit alongside that Xbox and a Meta Quest 3. Despite this tiny frame there’s no external power brick for the Magnus One, just a standard power cable is all you need for the slimline 500W PSU inside.
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Aesthetically the ZOTAC Magnus One ERP74070W is pretty pared back by modern gaming PC standards. There’s no tempered glass window and no jazzy RGB, just a plain plastic shell available in all-black or all-white. It’s the latter I’ve been testing and it’s rather dominated by beehive ventilation panels taking up both sides. The front is particularly minimalist, just a lonely power button and a couple of I/O options break up the solid panel. It’s nice enough to look at overall though and feels more living room or office appropriate than an outlandish, illuminated design may have.
Things get a little busier on the back panel thanks to a generous array of ports. Six USB 3 ports are joined by a single Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port, dual ethernet ports and choice of four outputs from the GeForce RTX 4070. Two WiFi antennas complete a pretty comprehensive selection that I didn’t feel had held back on anything in the name of space. You’re even offered an SD card reader on the front, something often absent from even full size cases.
performance
The spec sheet makes for eye-catching reading on paper, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the ZOTAC Magnus One ERP74070W performs incredibly well. This is a small but mighty little PC that should easily keep up with the demands of most home users. While everyone will have a different reason for looking to a mini PC over a more traditional case, for me the benefit here is taking gaming away from my desk setup without compromising on performance. For this reason, all of my testing of the ZOTAC Magnus One was in my living room, bringing all that Steam has to offer to a 65” 4K TV.
Across each game I tried, and maxing out resolution and refresh rate for each, the Magnus One never stuttered and did a great job keeping up. The combo of that 13th Gen i7 and RTX 4070 meant each title performed just as well as the last, regardless of whether it was CPU or GPU bound. Hitting the track in EA F1 23 ran just as smoothly as exploring the sights of Mexico in Forza Horizon and still stayed strong returning to urban life in Cities Skylines 2, even with its somewhat troubled current optimisation. Bear in mind each of these titles is firing out high or better graphics settings at 3840px x 2160px, the ZOTAC Magnus One an impressive little unit.
There are compromises that come with the mini PC form factor however and they do take some of the shine off the experience of sitting down to game on the Magnus One for extended periods. This thing is loud, outrageously loud really and there were times it became a genuine distraction. It’s to be expected, wrestling control of temperatures in a form factor this small is always going to be a challenge and while the ZOTAC Magnus One does do a surprisingly good job of keeping the mercury down, you can hear how hard it’s having to work to do it.
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It may be a case of needing to take greater manual control of fan curves but I found the Magnus One was very quick to ramp the fans up to near full intensity, even while the PC itself wasn’t being asked to do very much. Sudden shifts in speed and pulsing were common at seemingly random times though once in game these tended to remain pretty steadily set to full beans and easier to mentally tune out.
Then there’s the question of price and value, which isn’t one I can answer for you, but know that a mini PC is always going to carry a small premium over compiling your own standard rig. The ZOTAC Magnus One ERP74070W isn’t outrageously expensive for what’s inside, but it also doesn’t come with RAM pre-installed as standard, so that’s an extra amount you’ll need to factor in on top. At the end of the day you’re paying for convenience and you’re paying for size – if you come into it knowing that, then the Magnus One isn’t unreasonable.
summed up
I’ve waited this long to pull out the cliche, but here it comes. Good things come in small packages and that rings true with the ZOTAC Magnus One Mini PC. As a living room friendly gaming machine it performed well across each title I tested, pushing the limits with graphics even in 4K. Plus, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth support as standard make wireless connectivity for couch-gaming simple.
It’s loud though, possibly too loud for some and you’ll pay slightly over the odds for what’s inside so it’s not for the budget conscious. These drawbacks aside it’s a wonderful little performer that’ll provide plenty of joy for the right person.
