MAGNUS ONE Challenge

ZOTAC is a brand well known for their powerful graphics cards and daring gaming PC’s, and they have been present in our pages since 13 years ago, when we tested ZOTAC GTX 260 AMP. Well, 5 years ago we paid them a visit in their home, in Dongguan, to see how they build their videocards and mini PC’s, and also to celebrate their 10 years anniversary. Back then, this occasion was celebrated with a Counter Strike invitational tournament, Zotac 10 Year World Cup, but this year they turned their attention in a different direction, and decided to celebrate their 15 years anniversary in a different way.

Launched at CES 2021, MAGNUS ONE is a mini gaming PC that seeks to deliver the best size / performance ratio, with either RTX 3060 or RTX 3070, together with a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 or Core i7 being offered in a 8.3L case. Both versions come without memory and storage, so the user has the option to choose the desired memory kit and SSD. As you can imagine, ZOTAC is already working on the next MAGNUS ONE version, which will use the latest CPU’s available on the market. Taking that into consideration, they decided to celebrate this year’s anniversary with a different type of contest, namely a modding contest.

MAGNUS ONE Challenge celebrates 15 years of ZOTAC, by putting together 15 of the most famous modding teams in the EMEAI region, giving them each a MAGNUS ONE to modify and offering a total prize pool of 15,000 USD. The competition started on November 15, and the participants had 30 days to finish their projects. They also had to abide by a set of rules, for example the system had to be recognizable as a MAGNUS ONE PC, the size could not be increased with more than 20% and the temperatures of the components are not allowed to be higher after the system is modified.

Well, 30 days sure seems like a lot of time, but you all know that no adult can fully dedicate 30 days for only one activity, and this was the case with MAGNUS ONE Challenge, most of the participants going to their regular jobs during this period of time. Even so, 30 days later everybody finished his project, so now it is time for you, the enthusiasts from the EMEAI region (Europe, Middle East, Africa and India) to cast your vote, in order to decide who will win one of the prizes.

The prizes will be assigned to the Modders that will receive the highest votes for each category, adding the overall vote of the jury and the overall vote of the public. Each participant can only win one category, means each winner will be awarded just one prize.

The categories are:

a) Best overall design:
• 1st PLACE: 1 voucher worth 6000 USD
• 2nd PLACE: 1 voucher worth 4000 USD
• 3rd PLACE: 1 voucher worth 2000 USD

b) Best theme design:
• 1st PLACE: 1 voucher worth 1500 USD

c) Best RGB integration:
• 1st PLACE: 1 voucher worth 1500 USD

And as I said, it is up to you to decide who wins, by voting in each of the 3 categories. Your vote will have a 50% weight, and the rest 50% will be reserved by Zotac staff, the CEO Tony Wong, the Global Marketing Team and the Product Managers & Designers, including the team that originally designed the MAGNUS ONE PC.

But you know what the best part is? If you cast your vote and choose your favourite project in each category, you will also enter a giveaway, in which 5 lucky people will win a ZOTAC Merchandise Goodie Bag, worth 50 USD each, and the luckiest of them all will win a ZOTAC MAGNUS ONE identical to the ones modified by the participants, including the SSD and RAM, provided by Patriot Gaming!

That being said, 15 teams worked really hard for 30 days, to show you a new and never seen before version of ZOTAC MAGNUS ONE, and now it is time to see their work and learn a bit more about them. Let’s get to work!