Two GTX 980s in a trashcan!? - MSI Vortex G65 Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,736 words · ~8 min read
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the 6 and a half liter SLI equipped Core
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i7 cylindershaped PC that MSI first
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showed off at CES 2016 refusing to allow
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me to see the insides apparently for fear that I would break it which is fair
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I suppose is shipping now. So, after all
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the waiting, then I have finally got my hands on a finished unit of the MSI
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Vortex G65 to validate their claims that
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it is fast, small, and quiet while
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looking, in my eyes, pretty freaking cool. Let's get down to it.
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Glasswire is the intuitive, easy-touse firewall software that reveals and
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visualizes your network traffic in real time. Get it free now and use offer code
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Linus to upgrade and save 10% for added features. Things got off to a good start
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when I first booted Windows and was greeted by a product registration and a
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prompt to download and install Google Chrome. A nice touch, by the way, to not
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even pre-install your bloatware, making it truly optional. Then took a turn down
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Poostick Avenue with a gigantic Norton
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registration popup. Let's see what else is on here. Some of this stuff is okay.
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After burner for overclocking the video card, their Nhemic DSP utility, and the
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one-year expl. But battery calibration doesn't
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have a battery. MSI social media collection. The help desk seemed like a
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good idea, but most of what's in here feels even less useful than in Windows's
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own help tools. Let's move on to hardware. Things get a lot more
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impressive here. Measuring a mere 10 1/2
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in tall and about 7 1/2 in in diameter.
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The entire computer is not that much
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bigger than a single GTX 980 reference
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card. And it's got two GTX 980s inside.
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Not to mention, it has something the 980 never had: RGB lighting. I guess that
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explains the $4,000 asking price. In terms of IO,
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there's nothing at the front but a power button, but I don't really mind that
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given how easy the system is to reach around to the back for a fairly easy
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access to most of the ample connectivity. Starting at the top is
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optical audio. 3 and a half millimeter audio jacks for speakers and a
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microphone. Four USB 3.0 5 GB typeA
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ports. Two HDMI 1.4 ports. Wouldn't have
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minded if those were HDMI 2.0. 2 GB LAN ports powered by killer networks. Two
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mini DisplayPort 1.2 ports. And finally, two reversible type-C USB ports
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that can handle USB 3, DisplayPort 1.2,
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or even Thunderbolt 3 duty. Let's move
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inside. There are actually two different configurations on the MSIUS site at the
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time of writing this, but the only way in which they differ is the installed
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system memory and graphics card setup. So, they both pack an Intel Core i76700
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Kylake quadcore hyperthreaded CPU with a maximum 4.4 4 GHz turbo boost speed and
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assumed upgradability to the upcoming codeame KBL Lake architecture thanks to
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a socketed CPU design. They both feature a Z170 chipset motherboard that's been
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fully customized to fit in this unusual form factor and provide all the
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necessary internal connectivity. Two MXM video card slots for the GPUs. A mini
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PCIe for the Killer N 1535 AC wireless.
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This is an MU MIMO capable Wave 2 device, by the way. Two M.2 PCIe X4 Gen
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3 slots for the 2x128 gig RAID zero boot
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drive configuration or whatever you want to put in there after the fact. A SATA 3
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port for the 1 TB 2 and 1/2 in hard drive and customized power connectors
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for the 450W 80 plus gold chicky power
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supply. So then as far as differences are concerned, the lower-end model
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features 16 gigs of DDR4. sodium memory
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and two 3 gig GTX 960s in SLI, while the
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other packs 32 gigs of RAM and two 8 gig
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GTX 980s in SLI. It's important to note
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that each of these are full desktop configuration GPUs, similar to the full
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fat MXM form factor GTX 980 video cards
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that started showing up in laptops around September
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2015. Neither of them comes cheap, by the way. The entry level one goes for
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$2,200 with the top-of-the-line ski running about
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$4,000 like I alluded to before. So, how
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then does MSI justify a price tag like
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this? Well, when you've got a unique
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product, I guess you pretty much dictate what it's worth, and they've got that.
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While there is one other high-performance trash can-shaped PC on
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the market, the 2013 Mac Pro, that one
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will appeal to a very different customer. Sure, they're both round and
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they both feature an assisted convection cooling configuration with a large fan
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that draws air in the bottom and exhausts it from the top of the unit,
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but other than that, I would argue they are really nothing alike. Thanks to
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Apple's use of an LGA 2011 CPU socket,
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they can cram up to 18 CPU cores into theirs. But while both computers boast
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dual video cards, the Workstation Fire Pro GPUs in the Mac Pro are more
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appealing to creative professionals than they are to gamers. The Vortex G35's LG1
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1151 socket can, by contrast, hold only
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a maximum of four CPU cores, but this
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feels like a sensible direction given that more than four CPU cores hasn't
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been demonstrated to help with straight gaming. I've got a video, by the way,
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showing what it takes to finally overwhelm an 8 core Extreme Edition.
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Check that out here. So, that extra power and thermal budget can be used to
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throw more video card horsepower at the problem. So, what does that translate to
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then? Well, really, really good
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performance. As advertised, the Vortex G65 is a very strong little gaming
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machine capable of handling anything you can throw at it, including gaming at
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resolutions above 1080p, gaming with textures maxed thanks to the 8 gigs of
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VRAM per GPU, and thanks to the top-of-the-line consumer grade Core i7
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processor. But of course, all this hardware means nothing if it creates an
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unpleasant user experience due to acoustics or doesn't run to its full
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potential due to thermal issues. And I'm
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pleased to report that the acoustics, much like the Mac Pro, are shocking with
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the tower emitting only an unobtrusive low hum even while gaming. And the
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thermals are pretty darn good. On the GPUs, you'll see about 75° in our Crisis
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3 Skybox and UniGen Heaven tests. And
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while under full CPU load in I to 64,
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that's without the GPUs doing anything. By the way, the CPU did sit in the low8s
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in a 19° ambient room. This result
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doesn't to me indicate a poorly designed computer. That kind of a sustained
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multi-core load would only be seen in short bursts, like while rendering a
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video, for example, on a gaming machine. So, all it means to me is that I
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probably wouldn't find myself overclocking this system in spite of its
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advertised overclockability. Which leads us then to
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the conclusion. Is the Vortex G65 worth
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your money? I guess it depends what you're after. While Thunderbolt 3 and
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external PCI Express expansion enclosures seem to be finally reaching
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maturity, making me feel better about giving up all of my PCI Express slots, I
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find the core component upgradability of this device a little bit worrisome. with
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future CPUs likely to arrive in only
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four core variants and no guarantee at this time that MSI will be offering
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Pascalbased GPU upgrade modules like they promised on their GT80 Titan. But
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with that said, if you're willing to pay NVIDIA's premium for those MXM GTX 980
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video cards for a super small gaming rig that packs a shocking punch, then
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there's simply nothing else on the market like it.
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And we're back with another offer from our friends
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at Massdrop. If you guys aren't familiar with Massdrop, head over to their site.
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is draw.lt
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/lT-553. Thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do.
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