MSI’s No Compromise Gaming Desktop
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,498 words · ~7 min read
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for the past few years MSI has really been pushing the limits of how much
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power can be crammed into a small case and cooled properly with their Trident
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lineup now after making some truly small
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systems MSI has given us the Trident x a
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much larger version but also a darn
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powerful one rocking a core I9 9900 K
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and an RTX 2080 so let's crack it open
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and see if the machine itself holds up to its impressive spec
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sheet from a distance the Trident X is a good-look machine I appreciate the
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smaller size although it is unfortunate that it can't be placed on its side like
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previous Trident models for integration into a home theater setup after getting
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closer to the tried next though things get a little less convincing like the
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front USB ports and their lettering is in red but then moving around to the GPU
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it has green accents come on you guys
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how did you not just swap these stickers for red ones and moving over to the
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other side things get even Grimmer now I appreciate that there is a tempered
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glass panel here but how did this Gap
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pass inspection and behind it isn't even
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painted also the CPU airflow cutout is is kind of wobbly and then back over to
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the front these two RGB lights don't match why is this light in the middle so
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much brighter than the ones around it and why is the base such a different
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color why does this power button feel so mediocre and why do I have to point all
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of these things out now the tempered glass panel can be swapped out for a
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metal one and this is actually how the triex comes out of the box so it solves
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the Tesla esque panel Gap issue and also means that you won't have to worry about
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your side panel getting shattered when you're going to to a land so the bottom
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line is really this honestly the trid X is not a badl looking machine at all
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everything that I complained about was a little icky picky detail it's just the
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kind of thing that the Corsair 1 would have done right and I hope that MSI can
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fix these problems in the future since none of them are particularly big ones
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and there's a lot of good stuff here so back to the good stuff specs rocking an
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NVIDIA RTX 2080 core I 99900 K 32 gigs
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of RAM this thing is no slouch and
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normally this is where I would say but can they keep it cool in a case this
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small the thing is though honestly I'm not concerned because the design is
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really solid first let's take a look at the graphics card well okay it's just
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that it's a full-sized desktop graphics
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card with a nice beefy cooler and lots
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of access to Fresh Air this also means that upgrading the GPU you in the future
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is relatively simple just take the side panel and top panel off undo a few more
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screws which might be the hardest part since one of ours came Factory chowed
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and you're good for the next gen as for CPU cooling once again before even
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testing it there are no concerns here this heat sink is massive and breathes
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in nice fresh air and the motherboard that's included is standard actually
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before we even get to the performance I should talk about the insides a little
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bit more I do wish that MSI had given the outside the same kind of attention
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to detail that they did here despite cramming so much Hardware in MSI has
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still somehow allowed all of it to be easily accessed upgraded repaired and
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with great cable managing to boot need to upgrade the storage well there's two
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2 and 1/2 in Bays right here and the second one even already has the power
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cabling done for you making an upgrade pretty much trivial need to change out
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the m.2 drive well just open the other side panel to reveal this easily
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accessible and extremely high performance Samsung Drive the power
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supply is also a standard modular Affair either in 650 watts in this version or
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450 for the 2070 equipped model and
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replacing it is entirely possible with the only real bummer for upgradeability
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being the RAM which is underneath the CPU heat sync now this does have the
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benefit of providing the RAM with a little bit of cooling but the real
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reason they did this is probably just that the standard 120 mm fan fit best
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this way and removing the cooler is actually still a pretty simple operation
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it's just the only blemish that we could find on an otherwise really well fought
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out internal layout so then performance
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as expected under a full synthetic load our i99900k K8 core processor has no
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trouble staying cool with temperatures peaking at just around
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80° fantastic and it stays well above
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base clock settling in around 4.3 GHz sustained that's even better than the
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Corsair 1 and that one was liquid cooled the GPU also doesn't disappoint topping
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out at 67° and boosting to a sustained
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1875 MHz and that's after half an hour
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of the 3D Mark Port Royal Benchmark these are really strong numbers and even
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more impressively it does this while remaining very quiet like okay it isn't
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quite Corsair one quiet that thing is really quiet even Under full load though
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I was hard pressed to hear the tried NEX over the HVAC in our office and I doubt
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it's going to be annoying to anyone even if it's sitting next to you on your desk
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like this one's running a benchmark right now my mic is right
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here so all this adds up to then the trick giving us well the expected
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desktop levels of performance you want a game expect heaps of frames you want to
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render a video well don't expect it to take very long basically you're getting
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bombass Hardware in a smaller case and you don't have to worry about building
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it yourself which I guess brings us to the make or break of any pre-built
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computer the price since at the end of the day Hardware is hardware and there's
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nothing particularly special about what's going on in here now our
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recommended config comes in at $2500 which is a pretty good price
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especially when you compare it to the Corsair 1 but it's still actually about
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$500 is more expensive than building it
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yourself which also gives you a little more flexibility and could result in you
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ending up with a system that looks more to your liking so the answer is as usual
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if you want to build a computer yourself yeah you should you should do that but
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if you don't want to build a computer yourself maybe try anyway it's pretty
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fun it's not actually that hard oh no no no this way ha ha and then if you're
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still not convinced well we actually really like the MSI
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Trident X this is a really good option speaking of great options our
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at start. ting.com so go check it out if
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you want to lower your phone bill over at lin. ting.com and by the way if you
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go to that second link which we'll have down below you will get $25 in t credit
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