CyberPower Zeus Mini Review

We've seen plenty of console-sized gamingdesktopsin the last few years, as companies try to convert console gamers raised onPlayStationandXboxto the ranks of PC gamers. These smaller gaming rigs, unfortunately, have usually left us wanting in terms of performance. Now, the CyberPower Zeus Mini ($1,825, as tested) is here to throw all that out the window. This pint-sized PC packs a punch, with a small form factor (SFF) chassis packed with components built for maximum performance and overclocking. There's not much room for upgrades and maintenance, but this is one gaming PC that won't be showing its age anytime soon. With its compact size, moderate price, and outsized performance, the Zeus Miniis our new Editors' Choice for midrange gaming desktops.

Design and Features
The chassis has an angular front panel and a black paint job, accented with bright-green, chevron-shaped cooling vents. Glowing green LEDs inside the chassis put a positively verdant spin on the otherwise all-black tower. The SFF design isn't just a compact housing for a gaming PC; it's also meant to take aim at consoles, with a chassis that can be used upright like a regular PC tower, or horizontal and incorporated into a home entertainment setup.

The front of the chassis features two USB ports (one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0), jacks for headphones and mic, and a slot-loading optical drive (DVD±R/RW with dual-layer support). A small power button on the top edge of the panel glows green when the system is powered on.

On the rear of the small tower are six additional USB ports
(two USB 2.0, four USB 3.0), two Gigabit Ethernet ports, audio connections for external speakers, and S/PDIF output for digital 7.1 channel surround sound. There are also ports for HDMI and DVI on the main panel, but these have been disabled; coming off of the graphics card, however, are two DVI-D connections and outputs for HDMI and DisplayPort.

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Open up the side of the Zeus Mini, and you'll be greeted with a very crowded tower. Given that it measures only 13 by 4.4 by 17.4 inches (HWD), the design is actually quite economical in the use of interior space, but it makes for cramped conditions. Even if there were any available PCIe slots or SATA ports, the small confines of the case don't leave much room for upgrades, and the radiator and cooling fan block most of the access to the motherboard.

Behind a cooling fan, you'll catch glimpses of a Gigabyte Z87N mini ITX motherboard equipped with an Intel Core i7-4770K and a Cooler Master Seidon 120mm liquid cooling system. A riser card connects to a discrete GPU, but the way it's positioned in the case, you'll need to remove it to access the front of the card. On one side of the motherboard are two slots filled with 16GB of 1600MHz dual-channel DDR3 RAM—G.SKILL Ripjaws X, made for performance in overclocking—and SATA ports are all filled, connecting to a 120GB solid-state drive (SSD) boot drive, and a 2TB, 7,200rpm hard drive for storage.

Our review unit came with Windows 8.1 preinstalled, along with Nvidia's GeForce experience, which handles all of the driver updates, and provides features like ShadowPlay (for recording in-game content) and GameCast for enjoying the games on your PC through anNvidia Shield. The only other bundled software is a 30-day trial of Microsoft Office 365.

CyberPower涵盖了宙斯迷你三年warranty (one year on parts, three years on labor), along with lifetime tech support. Also, for those interested in making the most of the Zeus Mini's overclocking capabilities, you can add Intel's Performance Tuning Protection Plan for $29, which covers the CPU in case of damage while tweaking performance beyond stock specifications.

Performance
With anIntel Core i7-4770Kquad-core CPU, made to be overclocked beyond the default 3.5GHz, and paired with 16GB of high-performance dual-channel DRAM, the Zeus Mini is built for performance, and it delivered. In PCMark 7, the Zeus Mini scored 6,710 points, several hundred points ahead of most competitors, and pulling ahead of the category-leadingVelocity Micro Edge Z30 SmallBlock($1,799.00 at Velocity Micro)(Opens in a new window)(6,657 points) by a narrow margin. It also landed toward the front of the pack in Cinebench, scoring 8.59 points, only coming behind the overclockedMaingear Potenza Super Stock(9.57 points). Performance is also superb in multimedia tests, where the Zeus Mini completed Handbrake in 28 seconds (tying theDigital Storm Bolt), and nearly offered the fastest time in Photoshop, completing the test in 2 minutes 48 seconds.

But where the Zeus Mini really trounced competitors was in graphics and gaming performance, thanks to an EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked GPU. It allowed the small gaming rig to nab top scores in 3DMark 11—15,614 points at Entry settings and 4,672 points at Extreme settings—and the best gaming performance in the midrange category. In Alien vs. Predator, the Zeus Mini produced 237 frames per second (fps) at 1,355-by-768 resolution and moderate detail settings, and 84fps at 1,920-by-1,080 resolution and high detail. Similar performance was seen in Heaven, where the Zeus Mini pumped out 181fps at 1,366-by-768 baseline, and 74fps at full resolution and detail. All of these results were well ahead of similarly priced competitors, making the Zeus Mini the best midrange SFF machine for gaming.

Conclusion
With awesome test scores and a collection of parts made to be pushed to the limit, the CyberPower Zeus Mini uses every inch of its tiny size to provide the best gaming experience possible. While the lack of room for upgrades will definitely bum out the PC tinkerers out there, the performance speaks for itself, launching it ahead of comparable midrange SFF gaming rigs. With all that power selling for such a reasonable price, the CyberPower Zeus Mini is the pint-sized PC to beat, replacing the Maingear Potenza Super Stock as our Editors' Choice for midrange gaming desktops.