In light of the recent flood of AI-ready mini PCs coming from the likes of Framework and GMKtec , Zotac has announced its own competitor, this time opting for a slightly different approach than the hyped AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU. Instead, the component company known for its mini PCs and discrete NVIDIA GPUs has equipped the Zbox Magnus (stylized as ZBOX MAGNUS) with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and up to a 20-core (8 performance, 12 efficiency cores) Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX CPU paired with dual memory slots for up to 96 GB of DDR5-6400 CSODIMM or DDR5-5600 SODIMM RAM—all in a mere 2.65-liter chassis. By default, however, the Magnus doesn't ship with RAM or storage, with a barebones variant currently listed on the company's Chinese site at a converted price of around $1,966 (13,9999 Yuan).

The product page lists the cooling solution as a heatsink and fan, but it's unclear whether there are separate heatsinks and fans for the CPU and GPU, raising questions about potential thermal throttling, given the tiny chassis. Zotac says that the Zbox Magnus is the first mini PC of its size to offer a desktop-class GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB GPU in a chassis that small, with the chassis measuring in at just 210 × 203 × 62.2 mm. That small chassis comes with the caveats that the Zbox Magnus needs a 330 W external AC-DC adapter, and that it features a soldered laptop-class CPU. Despite the small chassis, the Zbox Magnus has a decent selection of ports, with five USB Type-A ports, dual front USB Type-C ports, and dual Ethernet ports. It also comes with wall mount hardware and Wi-Fi antennae in the box.