Zotac Throws Itself A Birthday Party, Reveals New SSD, Mini PC, Graphics Card, VR Backpack

Zotac celebrated its 10-year anniversary in style here at the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong, hosting an international CS:Go tournament and announcing several new products to commemorate the occasion. Those products included a new PCIe SSD, a water-cooled mini PC, a special edition graphics card, and an upgraded VR Go backpack that gives you the freedom to roam cord-free in immersive VR environments.

Sonix 10 Year Anniversary Special Edition SSD

The Sonix 10 Year Anniversary Special Edition SSD is a PCIe NVMe add-in card capable of delivering up to 2,800 MB/s sequential read and 1,500 MBs/s sequential write speeds. The company has yet to release the read and write IOPS speeds.

The 480GB SSD features Toshiba MLC NAND and a 512MB DDR3 memory cache to improve access times. It averages 4.45W power consumption and its endurance is rated for 698TB TBW (Total Bytes Written).

Above is a glimpse of the performance, based on Chris Ramseyer's testing of a similarly configured drive with 2x the LPDDR3 DRAM found on the Zotac Sonix.

The new SSD sports the Zotac 10 Year Anniversary shroud, featuring LED lighting in the backplate, which reacts when the drive is in action.

Magnus EN1080 Mini PC

Zotac also showcased its 10 Year Anniversary Edition Magnus EN1080 Mini PC, a small form factor (SFF) system sporting a GeForce GTX 1080 MXM module. The GTX 1080 gives the Magnus unprecedented power in a tiny package, and the inclusion of liquid cooling redefines what a mini PC can be.

The EN1080 is the successor to the Magnus EN980, and it’s the first Zotac-branded mini PC to sport a GTX 1080. It also features an Intel Core i7-6700, but it could be considered a barebones system because it lacks storage and memory. There are two DDR4-SODIMM slots that give you the ability to pack up to 32GB of memory. For storage, you can use the 2.5-inch SATA tray or the M.2 interface (capable of accommodating PCIe or SATA SSDs).

The Magnus EN1080 is VR ready, and the chassis makes it easy to connect to your HMD via an HDMI port on the front panel. It also sports unique Spectra lighting, which illuminates the system with customizable LEDs that can be controlled using the Spectra utility, and you can modify each side's lighting individually. The liquid cooling system provides heat dissipation for the GPU and the CPU in the same loop.

Thermaltake Lends A Hand For A New GPU

Zotac partnered with Thermaltake for its new ArcticStorm 10 Year Anniversary Edition GTX 1080. The new graphics card is liquid cooled and is meant for systems with custom open-loop liquid cooling with two G1/4 pipe fittings. The custom PCB sports 16 power phases for increased overclocking potential, in addition to a dual BIOS and the Spectra lighting system.

The base and boost clocks for each BIOS varies by default, with BIOS 1 offering a base frequency of 1,657 MHz and BIOS 2 taking a more-conservative approach with a 1,632 MHz base clock. The boost clocks for each BIOS follow suit, with a 1,797 MHz and a 1,771 MHz boost rating for BIOS 1 and BIOS 2, respectively.

For those who want to create the ultimate liquid-cooled SLI system, Zotac also debuted a limited edition high-bandwidth SLI bridge with 0-slot, 1-slot, and 2-slot spacing available. It also features LED lighting in the logo.

A VR Backpack, Too

Zotac also revealed an upgraded VR Go Backpack that's lighter, more durable, and more accessible than the previous version. The VR Go features a GeForce GTX 1070 in addition to a hot-swappable two-battery system for continuous play without being tethered to a desktop PC. The wire logistics have also been simplified, with HDMI and USB ports on the top of the unit and a case that can be used to hide the cables when the system is not in use.

The new version is easier to wear with holsters to house controllers and a strap to let your HMD hang over your shoulder if you need your hands free. Additionally, the heat now exhausts from the sides of the device. However, full product details are not yet known.

Zotac did not reveal pricing and availability for the new 10 Year Anniversary Edition products, but the company said that we can expect to see them appear sometime before the end of the year.