Console-killer POWERHOUSE PC - MSI Trident 3
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,279 words · ~6 min read
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for far too long the console form factor
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has been solely occupied by well
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consoles but I say no more this right
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here is exactly what I have been asking for for literally years so you can watch
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me gushing about it at CES here but can
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it live up to my expectations well I hope so I hope we'll
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have a new living room King today the MSI rdent
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3 Synergy is the amazing software that
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lets you share your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers check it out
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now at the link in the video description the Trident 3 comes in
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slightly bigger than the PS4 at 4.71 L
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though inir Ness the PS4 also has an internal power supply and much smaller
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than the original xbone so it easily fits under an ARM and it comes with a
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cloth bag so you don't have to worry about scratches if you want to cart it
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around to a friend's house or to a land party it does have a mild case of the
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gamer aesthetic but the only really eyeg
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grabbing aspect of the industrial design IMO is the RGB light on the front and In
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fairness to MSI I think Trump signed an executive order or something saying that
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all gaming computers need RGB lighting so is it really their fault iio is
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strong on the front you'll find two USB type A's a USBC audio ports and if
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you're into that sort of thing a second HDMI out for VR then around the back
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you'll have another five USB ports gigabit Lan microphone line in and out
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DVI DisplayPort and a whopping four
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HDMI ports though it should be noted one of them is for the VR Link at the front
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one of them is for your monitor and the other two are the input for the VR Link
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at the front and off the motherboard itself which most people won't want to
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use the specs of the MSI Trident 3 prove
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that the days of mini PCS being only suitable for productivity are over with
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its core i7 and GTX 1070 this thing
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should be able to Crush games at 1080p
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or 1440 though as we've seen time and
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time again when powerful components get crammed into a small case thermals can
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quickly become an issue so we booted up Ida 64 and sent the CPU Off to the Races
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at normal room temperature the Trident 3 did get a little hot with the CPU peing
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at 92° C but to its credit it never
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thermal throttled or had to downclock so
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with the powerful core i7 that's in there the Trident 3 could survive video
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rendering sessions or crunching cosmology equations as long as you're
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not doing it 24/7 the GPU cooling is even more
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impressive during the firmar GPU stress test the powerful GTX 1070 version
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didn't even sweat reaching a Max temperature of 72° c and remarkably the
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Trident 3 was able to maintain these temperatures while remaining virtually
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silent so good on you MSI this doesn't
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tell us if it's actually performing up to Snuff though so to test if the
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smaller case is an issue we set up an identically speced test bench and ran it
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alongside it and from these tests we saw
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virtually no difference between the Trident 3 and our open air bench with
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all our results being within what I'd consider margin of error let's talk
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about expandability now typically not a strong point for these tiny PCS and the
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motherboard is as expected non-standard
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meaning that you're stuck with this basic platform for good there is also
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some good news though the CPU GPU and
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RAM can all be easily swapped with only
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the storage requiring a complete disassembly in order to get at it should
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be noted though if you're going to upgrade the GPU your options will be
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somewhat limited so for the 1060 version of the Trident 3 you will also have to
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upgrade the power supply to the more powerful 330 watt version if you want to
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put in a graphics card that sucks more juice though if you have the 1070
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version which comes with that power supply you might even be able to put in
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a hypothetical future graphics card and enjoy a nice FPS boost the included
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keyboard and mouse look a little over the top as do many gaming peripherals
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these days again I think there was an order but they are actually surprisingly
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functional the mouse is comfortable in the hand moves smoothly and accurately
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and even has adjustable weights and while the keyboard isn't mechanical it
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was actually good enough to fool JN into thinking it was using Cherry MX Browns
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not quite sure how that happened but I was also comfortable typing on it at the
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very least so good on MSI for bundling peripherals that we don't need to
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immediately throw in the Trap recycling
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if I had to nitpick a bit it does come with a lot of pre-installed bloatware
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most of it is at least gaming related or
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gaming version but it's still annoying
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for a freshly booted computer to prompt me to register for several things that I
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didn't ask for and I don't care about as for the inclusion of Norton well I'm
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sure you all know how I feel about that though maybe if they included like a
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gaming version of Norton it could just have one button
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uninstall bottom line though is it worth it for the MS Trident 3's compact size
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you'll be spending around $200 more than you would on an identically speced
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fullsize pre-built desktop that would be easier to upgrade in the future and
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unless you're very unlucky would have better cooling with that being said
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unless you're a single dude in college putting a full-size gaming desktop in
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your living room probably won't fly making the Trion 3 a great way to get
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non-cinematic frame rates on your big screen it definitely gets a
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recommendation from me do you like anime no really though do
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you really like anime then check out Crunchyroll they
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offer the most current episodes of new shows straight from Japan like Dragon
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all of the content on their site is professionally subtitled our link gives
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you a whole month of free anime
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completely without ad and then if you decide gee I sure enjoy the many
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shows straight from Japan within an hour of their Premiere and being able to
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stream to a variety of devices like your phone tablet or game console you can
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continue your premium membership to Crunchyroll for just $6.95 a month so
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head over to crunchyroll.com Linus and sign up
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today so thanks for watching guys if you dislike the video you know what to do
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but if you liked it hit the like button and get
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subscribed if you really liked it you can check out the link to where to buy
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the stuff we featured in the video description and while you're down there
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you can check out our merch store as well as our community Forum where you
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can talk Tech with other enthusiasts from all over the world we have
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literally hundreds of thousands of members it's pretty cool