WEBVTT

00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:06.879
with its six core 12 thread core i7

00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:10.559
processor the machine in my hands is not only

00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:14.480
more powerful than the impressively compact MSI trident that we reviewed

00:00:13.280 --> 00:00:18.960
before it is less than half

00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:26.720
of the size the MSI vortex g25 is a totally

00:00:23.119 --> 00:00:27.840
different kind of beast is it a desktop

00:00:26.720 --> 00:00:33.440
is it a gaming laptop with the screen ripped off

00:00:31.599 --> 00:00:38.480
and also no keyboard and hopefully no noise or heating issues

00:00:36.160 --> 00:00:42.239
i mean is anyone really expecting us to answer these questions before we tell

00:00:40.480 --> 00:00:45.760
you that today's video is brought to you by tunnelbear

00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:49.280
tunnelbear makes it easy to privately and securely browse a more open internet

00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:57.219
to try tunnelbear for free go to tunnelbear.com LTT

00:01:00.239 --> 00:01:07.200
at a total internal volume of two and a half liters and a weight of two and a

00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:10.400
half kilograms the vortex g25 is a

00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:12.799
strikingly slim machine it is so tiny

00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:17.520
that you could easily hide it on the back of your tv or monitor using the

00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:22.880
included vase amount if you didn't want to see it though honestly if you aren't

00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:27.840
totally turned off by the gamer aesthetic it actually looks pretty good

00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:33.040
both horizontally in a tv console or vertically on the included stand

00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:38.079
though i would recommend fine-tuning the RGB lighting a little bit for the latter

00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:44.159
to keep things classy io is curious

00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:51.119
it's got two HDMI 2.0 ports that'll handle 4k 60hz so it's vr ready but

00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:57.119
there's no freaking displayport port i mean okay yes there is a Thunderbolt 3

00:01:54.960 --> 00:02:01.759
on the back that can be used for that purpose

00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:04.640
but would even a mini dp or an included

00:02:01.759 --> 00:02:08.560
dongle have been too much to ask MSI out of the box there was no way for alex to

00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:14.720
hook the g25 up to the older HDMI 1.4 4k monitor on

00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:18.080
his desk while he was working on this review

00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:24.560
that said the rest of the i o is pretty solid a good mix of usb and networking

00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:30.080
and a couple of strong indications that MSI thinks that one of these would go

00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:37.360
great in your living room a digital audio out and a 12 volt dc out so that

00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:42.319
you can power a room scale vr headset like the htc vive without an additional

00:02:40.480 --> 00:02:49.760
wall adapter nice inside this thing is a

00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:53.120
monster it features Intel's core i7 8700

00:02:49.760 --> 00:02:58.959
with six cores of up to 4.6 gigahertz

00:02:53.120 --> 00:03:00.800
turbo madness and a gtx 1070 GPU so i'm

00:02:58.959 --> 00:03:07.760
expecting some phenomenal gaming performance in our benchmarks if that is

00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:12.239
MSI can stop that hardware from getting hotter than the seat of my pants after

00:03:09.440 --> 00:03:15.280
an evening of dining at taco bell gross and

00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:21.040
good news i wouldn't quite call the g25 silent but

00:03:18.720 --> 00:03:25.120
from an ARM's length away it's hardly noticeable with a sound quality that is

00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:32.000
easily forgotten and our CPU leveled out in the

00:03:28.640 --> 00:03:35.280
mid 70s while maintaining a respectable

00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:38.319
four gigahertz on all six cores and when

00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:42.640
it comes to gaming our gtx 1070 ended up

00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:45.440
at a comfortable 1900 megahertz at 70

00:03:42.640 --> 00:03:48.959
degrees celsius that is right up there with a desktop card

00:03:47.440 --> 00:03:54.400
though it should be noted that when the vortex is placed horizontally you can

00:03:51.440 --> 00:03:57.519
expect your temps to rise by about 10 degrees

00:03:55.440 --> 00:04:02.560
now we didn't see any performance drop due to that in our 24 degree office but

00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:07.040
this could be a problem if you don't have air conditioning now it should come

00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:11.439
as no surprise that when you combine impressive hardware with impressive

00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:16.639
cooling you get impressive gaming performance and the g25 hung right in

00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:23.440
there with our standard desktop hardware test bench and while it did actually

00:04:19.840 --> 00:04:26.000
lose out to the asrock desk mini another

00:04:23.440 --> 00:04:31.759
impressively small gaming system it should be noted that that one costs a

00:04:28.320 --> 00:04:34.720
lot more due to its more expensive gtx

00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:37.680
1080 graphics card and it wasn't even able to take full

00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:41.840
advantage of that card due to its thermal throttling so let's rip this

00:04:39.520 --> 00:04:48.320
thing open and have a look at the secret sauce that MSI calls cooler boost titan

00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:53.840
it's a dumb name sure but i can't argue with the results i mean look at this

00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:56.160
eight heat pipes like

00:04:53.840 --> 00:05:01.040
MSI system team clearly took some inspiration from the trident 3's

00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:06.400
notebook-like cooling system and improved on it before cramming it in

00:05:02.960 --> 00:05:10.960
here it's just that instead of a regular

00:05:06.400 --> 00:05:14.000
full-size PCIe 16x GPU we get a notebook

00:05:10.960 --> 00:05:17.199
GPU on an mxm module

00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:18.560
so that is what allows the vortex to be

00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:24.240
so slim but it also brings along the

00:05:21.280 --> 00:05:29.759
disadvantage of making future upgrades more difficult or even impossible if

00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:34.720
NVIDIA decides to stop supporting this form factor while we were poking around

00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:40.160
inside we noticed that our 16 gig RAM model had an empty slot making an

00:05:37.039 --> 00:05:41.039
upgrade to 32 gigs easy

00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:46.639
nice then with the back screws out the top

00:05:44.080 --> 00:05:50.320
also comes off with a bit of love from a prying tool to give us access to the

00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:55.919
other side of the motherboard where you can upgrade the two and a half inch

00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:59.440
drive add another m.2 or even no way

00:05:55.919 --> 00:06:02.400
there's two more empty sodium slots for

00:05:59.440 --> 00:06:06.960
up to 64 gigs of RAM i mean

00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:09.919
badass book sized workstation anyone

00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:13.680
badass yes cheap no

00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:20.000
as we learned from the asrock desk mini video mxm cards cost significantly more

00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:24.560
than their standard counterparts and this hurts the vortex g25s value

00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:29.199
proposition the good news is that compared to

00:06:26.479 --> 00:06:34.720
similar small form factor solutions it's not that far off but the bad news is

00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:39.280
that for the 1070 model with an i7 you're looking at a cool two thousand

00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:43.199
dollars bringing us back to the original question is this a tiny high-performance

00:06:42.080 --> 00:06:46.800
desktop or is it a bulky laptop without a screen

00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:51.919
and a keyboard well with this kind of performance i'm

00:06:49.919 --> 00:06:56.160
inclined to go with the former and it gets a solid recommendation if you're

00:06:54.080 --> 00:07:01.120
willing to spend the extra to save a little space on your desk

00:06:58.960 --> 00:07:06.240
speaking of spending a little extra skillshare is an online learning

00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:11.280
community with more than 17 000 classes in design photo editing and more if

00:07:09.280 --> 00:07:16.240
you're looking for a way to pick up some new skills so you can

00:07:12.880 --> 00:07:18.400
afford a fancy vortex g25 premium

00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:22.880
membership gives you unlimited access to high quality classes from experts

00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:26.400
working in their fields and skillshare is also more affordable than most

00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:30.479
learning platforms out there with an annual subscription coming in at less

00:07:28.080 --> 00:07:34.560
than 10 dollars a month now since skillshare is sponsoring this

00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:38.720
video the first 200 people to use the promo link in the description will get

00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:42.080
their first two months for free to try it out totally risk-free so go check it

00:07:41.280 --> 00:07:47.919
out so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if

00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:51.039
it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to

00:07:49.280 --> 00:07:54.560
where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also linked in the

00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:58.400
description is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our

00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:01.280
community forum which you should totally join