Computex 2016 - Day 1

Computex 2016 - Zotac

First up this year was Zotac, who were focussing on the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, virtual reality and mini-PCs.

Zotac showed off two custom version of the GTX 1080 – the AMP version and the AMP Extreme above it. Both cards feature Spectra, a lighting system that allows users to customise the colour of it via the Firestorm utility, which has also seen a redesign. They also come with the Power Boost and Freeze features, the former apparently reducing noise in power delivery and the latter referring to the card's fan control, which switches off the fans when the GPU is idle.


The AMP card uses a dual fan IceStorm cooler, conforming to dual slot size. Zotac uses ultra-wide 100mm fans here and a backpate it calls ExoArmor. Meanwhile, the AMP Extreme has a beastly triple slot, triple fan cooler, again with ExoArmor. Clock speeds aren't confirmed yet but you can expect them to be very high – they always are on AMP Extreme cards.


The Zotac Zbox series of mini-PCs is well established. Centre stage this year was the Magnus EN980, the company's most powerful mini-PC thus far. Pairing a Skylake CPU with a GTX 980 GPU, the EN980 is VR capable. Demonstrating this, and making use of the PC's portability, was a portable VR solution. A backpack fitted with batteries lets you carry your VR system and headset wherever you go, and according to Zotac offers you between 90 and 120 minutes of VR gaming. Currently, this is just a proof of concept, not a confirmed official product.


To go with the introduction of Skylake CPUs, the M Series and fully passive C Series have been given a visual refresh. Redesigned thermal systems, says Zotac, allow it to use more powerful processors than before, though the added efficiency of Skylake is also going to be a contributing factor.

Getting even smaller, Zotac introduced the PI330 mini-PC as well, which it claims is the smallest PC in the world with dual HD display support – it's the size of a smartphone.