Cyberpower Zeus Mini Evo I-970

Review: Cyberpower Zeus Mini Evo I-970

Conclusion

...with a storage upgrade and tweaked fan profiles the Zeus Mini Evo could have the makings of a great small-form-factor gaming PC...

Cyberpower's willingness to try something different makes it one of the more attractive system integrators. The company's range of 'Exclusive Series' PCs include the weird-but-wonderful Trinity, the living-room-friendly Syber, the pack-up-and-go Battlebox and the ultra-thin Zeus Mini Evo.

The latter's goal is to deliver "a sleek minimalistic clean design and a ferocious set of gaming hardware," and for the most part Cyberpower delivers. The system's 112mm profile is absurdly svelte for a gaming rig, yet on the inside there's an overclocked Core i5 processor, 16GB of DDR4 memory and a full-size GeForce GTX 970 graphics card.

This is a combination you rarely see in such a form factor, yet while it's encouraging to see Cyberpower trying new things, the Zeus Mini Evo does come with a few caveats. User upgrades are never going to be easy, noise levels can be bothersome and the default 120GB SSD is too cramped for a rig of this ilk.

A couple of compromises are to be expected, yet with a storage upgrade and tweaked fan profiles the Zeus Mini Evo could have the makings of a great small-form-factor gaming PC that delivers plenty of punch at the £999 price point.

The Good		The Bad
Smaller than your typical tower Overclocked Core i5 'Skylake' CPU Powerful GeForce GTX 970 graphics 16GB of high-speed DDR4 memory Three year warranty		Noise output is bothersome Component upgrades won't be easy Stingy 120GB SSD

Cyberpower Zeus Mini Evo I-970

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The Zeus Mini Evo I-970 gaming PC is available to purchase from Cyberpower.

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OK that's pretty nifty.

User upgrades are never going to be easy, noise levels can be bothersome and the default 120GB SSD is too cramped for a rig of this ilk.

A couple of compromises are to be expected, yet with a storage upgrade and tweaked fan profiles the Zeus Mini Evo could have the makings of a great small-form-factor gaming PC that delivers plenty of punch at the £999 price point.

I'm not sure how you can say “upgrades are never going to be easy” as every part inside that case is a standard off the shelf part, I can only assume you mean that it'll be tricky because of the lack of space and it's one of those cases you need to take apart to get to bits.
It might be a bit fiddly to upgrade but it'll be a whole lot easier than many pre-built systems that use non/uncommon standard components inside.

You also say it runs too hot and the fans are too noisy but that tweaking the fan profiles could make it a better system??

Some days I think that the main review and conclusion are written by two different people.

p.s. I think a good part of the graphics card throttling is probably because the cpu rad and it's exhaust air is right over the back of the graphics card, so all the heat from the cpu is being dumped onto the back of the graphics card, nothing to do with the fan profiles.

i quite like the case

Pob255
User upgrades are never going to be easy, noise levels can be bothersome and the default 120GB SSD is too cramped for a rig of this ilk.

A couple of compromises are to be expected, yet with a storage upgrade and tweaked fan profiles the Zeus Mini Evo could have the makings of a great small-form-factor gaming PC that delivers plenty of punch at the £999 price point.
I'm not sure how you can say “upgrades are never going to be easy” as every part inside that case is a standard off the shelf part, I can only assume you mean that it'll be tricky because of the lack of space and it's one of those cases you need to take apart to get to bits.
It might be a bit fiddly to upgrade but it'll be a whole lot easier than many pre-built systems that use non/uncommon standard components inside.

You also say it runs too hot and the fans are too noisy but that tweaking the fan profiles could make it a better system??

Some days I think that the main review and conclusion are written by two different people.

p.s. I think a good part of the graphics card throttling is probably because the cpu rad and it's exhaust air is right over the back of the graphics card, so all the heat from the cpu is being dumped onto the back of the graphics card, nothing to do with the fan profiles.

Did you happen to miss a few pieces when reading & being selective on quotes to bring about your point?

Have another read. You may spot things like:
“ The MSI graphics card, for example, is one of few GTX 970s whose fans spin at all times, and the system fans are set to full speed in BIOS”

…and what does that mean when the system is at idle?

Overall, I thought the review was quite positive! Thank you for reviewing another SFF, Hex!

Good article for my planned SFF graphic workstation build.

Review: Cyberpower Zeus Mini Evo I-970

Conclusion

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