MSI Nightblade Barebones Computer Case
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,770 words · ~8 min read
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hey luke what do you know about the night blade uh it's a basic card in hearthstone it
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costs five mana i think it's a four four with a battle cry that deals three
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damage to an enemy hero it's a pretty decent card uh i actually i meant that
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case that's on the table there oh
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i guess i can review that
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cooler master v-series semi-modular power supplies feature 80 plus gold
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efficiency and their gold guarantee 5 year warranty click now to learn more
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packaging wise i know Linus would be proud the packaging material in this
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case is a fantastic soft foam but
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that's boring so let's move on most of the front of the case is a brushed metal
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with diamond cut edges finish which is only interrupted by a gaming series case
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badge a small MSI logo on the bottom and a slot loading optical drive on the left
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hand side just above that we see the front i o which includes two each of usb
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2.0 and 3.0 ports along with audio jacks an oc switch a power button a wireless
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signal led and a storage led down on the bottom of the front panel we see some
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ventilation holes accented by an abuse ready carrying handle seriously that
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thing is pretty beast it's thick metal construction makes me pretty confident
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that it won't give way no matter how much i resemble an ogre and if you're a
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hand model who's scared of picking up something that is possibly made of metal
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they also include a soft handle cover
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while the handle cover may be a nice addition i'm not sure i would use it
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personally as i think it looks much better without and the standard metal
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handle actually does come with a nice slip resistant rubber pad on the bottom
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by default the top bottom and side panels all feature ventilation holes
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with the bottom panel including an externally removable filter which due to
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the upwards angle provided by the carrying handle is able to be removed
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cleaned and replaced without picking up the case which in my opinion is pretty
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damn cool the left side panel also includes a silhouette of the MSI gaming
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series dragon just to the right of the ventilation holes which fits the
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aggressive styling of this case once we get to the back you'll notice there's a
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power plug at the top which has been extended there from the 600 watt 80 plus
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gold power supply which is mounted vertically in the front of the case for
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motherboard i o we have a standard setup of audio jacks for each usb 2.0 and 3.0
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ports two HDMI ports a DisplayPort a
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spdif digital audio out two a set of ports a ps2 port an Ethernet jack and
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dual wireless antennas then we get to the screws on the back which left me a
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little bit confused to be honest for the back backside panel they've opted to go
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with standard run-of-the-mill screws i would have liked to see at least thumb
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screws here and then for the top and bottom panels they went with thumb
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screws but they don't have anywhere to undo it with an actual screwdriver which
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is kind of odd luckily they don't come pre-installed too brutally and can be
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easily taken off by hand these screws also have a double function by acting as
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a stand for when you want to put the case down after carrying it if you want
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to put it down vertically because that's how it hangs off your hand but you have
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to make sure that nothing's plugged in especially not the included antennas as
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they aren't exactly designed to carry the weight of a computer and you can
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easily forget them back there last but not least you have the sliding locks on
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the left side panel which are extremely easy to use but unfortunately leave the
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panel with a fair amount of wiggle room i would have liked to see even an
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optional thumb screw hole on just the side panel just in case i didn't want my
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side panel to jiggle around despite the odd arrangement of screws and locking
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mechanisms on the back of the case it is pretty awesome that you can take off the
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top bottom front and both side panels very easily this makes the expectedly
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cramped building area actually feel larger than it is resulting in a much
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easier build in a more open space one last thing before we go inside the case
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is the aesthetically pleasing little fan that they have on the back to explain
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what i mean by aesthetically pleasing usually if you were to mount a fan in
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this orientation and look at it from the outside you would see the company logo
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structure supporting bars and power cabling for the fan in this case they
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have designed the fan specifically to be the other way around so that it can
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maintain its good looks from the outside very nice touch upon taking off the side
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panels you'll notice the side fan bracket which has a funny note and a
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pretty intense warning message on it first off and i quote note installing
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the side fan may increase the acoustic level so essentially installing a thing that
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creates a byproduct of noise may increase your noise level
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thanks secondly and i quote warning
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hazardous moving parts keep fingers and other body parts away
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i just really i don't know in all seriousness
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though this bracket is well implemented and will help you cool some of your more
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thermally demanding graphics cards and cpus
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but i would have liked to see MSI actually include a stock fan here i
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can't imagine that a second fan would have really increased the bom cost by
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all that much and while i realized they only actually suggest it for an r9
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series kind of graphics card i know more than a few people out there that would
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install one just to keep their system that much cooler in general on the right
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hand side you'll see a mounting bracket that holds the slimline optical drive
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bay and three and a half inch bay this mounting bracket will have to be
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unscrewed and removed in order to install something into that three and a
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half inch bay and another note is that on this side if you for some reason want
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to replace your psu you can take it out by removing all of the screws and
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lowering its whole mounting bracket and
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for some of you out there that want to be rather adventurous it is possible then to swap in a modular psu but you'll
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have a fair amount of metal cutting in your future and you'll be boarding your
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warranty up in the top we have our dual two and a half inch bay which comes
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pre-installed with a nifty little msata device
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now i don't honestly see a ton of people using this dual m-stated device but some
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people might use it and regardless it's a cool little additional feature anyways
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and once you're done with this case it is removable so you can take it out and
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take it with you a nice little additional value the drive rails are
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pretty secure and when you push them in they click in really nicely they're not
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just going to randomly slide out on you so pretty solid overall jumping behind
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the motherboard tray for a second we can see that there's a fan filter for the
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psu on the left hand side which is quite nice and an utter lack of any cable
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management options whatsoever so what exactly do you do for cable
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management not much but because you don't have to which is
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not that bad almost every cable you'll need is pre-ran for you with plastic
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clips holding them in place and the cables aren't exactly out of sight but
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they're also quite well taken care of and easy to access if you need to
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routing themselves tightly around various devices within the case so
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they're not in your way while you're working thanks to the very large size
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girl on the bottom of the case and the elevation from the handle the graphics
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card is able to breathe quite easily also if you're worried about your GPU
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when carrying the case around with the handle you can rest a wee bit easier
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because MSI has included a GPU supporter which is essentially an adjustable
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plastic bracket that will keep your GPU from sagging down too much
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back inside the case we can see the nh-l-12 knock to a cooler that i
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installed it fits perfectly in this case and i would highly suggest it if you do
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decide to go with the nightblade in the future this cooler is quite large and
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includes two fans and still allows you to access things like SATA ports just in
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case you want to make changes to the computer at some later date speaking of
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the nh-l-12 i have two questions for you guys would you like me to review the
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nh-l-12 comparing it versus a stock cooler in the night blade and against
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other performance coolers in my standard standard cooling bench and also are you
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interested in bare bone systems at all or are you kind of the person that wants
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to build everything from scratch let me know in the comments down below and on
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the forum i'll see you guys in either of those locations if you're on the forum
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subscribe all that kind of stuff and i'll see you guys next time
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you