The MSI Gaming Booth Tour with dGPUs in AIOs and Notebooks plus Motherboards
by Ian Cutress on June 29, 2015 3:00 PM ESTSLI Bridges
Aesthetics are becoming in important part of the PC Gaming space, and regardless of the revenues it seems that PC component manufacturers have to make an effort on styling especially when it comes to presentation. This includes tiny details such as cabling, temperature responsive LEDs, and effects that when combined actually have a positive impact on looks. With the case of SLI bridges, we’ve seen other companies such as EVGA implement their own design to counter against the generic brown/green/black PCB types we typically get inside a motherboard box. MSI is now entering this market with their own brand:
To go with the rest of the product line, these bridges will be outfitted with LEDs that are controlled through the software. MSI has been able to add this control element without needing a separate cable into a special header on the motherboard, and control will be through their gaming app. Pricing is unknown at this point (we might see one bundled with a high-end motherboard through) and release date was said to be ‘later this year’.
Transparent GT730 with White PCB
As an aside to the general coverage, I did see one GPU that caught my eye in a model that I least suspected. This is a GT730:
It’s a fairly innocuous card with standard specifications, but the PCB is white (like Galax cards) and the shroud design is semi-transparent, showing the cooler underneath. Part of me would love to see this design on the higher end models, perhaps with LEDs similar to that of the Fury X that light up as more power is applied to the card.
Case Mods
To finish up our look at MSI’s booth, I want to outlay some of the case mods that were there. Producing custom designs for cases is a niche market for sure, but other companies such as Cooler Master are designing some of their product lines around the concept of allowing users and makers to implement their own look to a chassis. As a result, many of the PC hardware manufacturers each year are now inviting professional modders (as in people who make designs as a full-time job) and commissioning designs to fit with the company ethos. That means with MSI, we get a dragon with a chassis strapped to the back:
There’s no point talking about specifications of the builds here because they can change, and perhaps I should be wondering where these designs end up after the event in question (used for future events, giveaways or back of a storeroom?).
MSI did not have much to show from their XPower overclocking line this year, either for motherboards or graphics cards under the Lightning moniker, but here’s a suitable yellow and black construction suit modification.
With the ECO line of motherboards, the low power market is one of the targets in the motherboard space. Last year we reported on the white and green motherboards MSI were showing, and then we reviewed the B85M ECO which eschewed the white colored PCB for a more conventional color. The white board used in last year’s display found its way into this Ecosphere case which has a map of the northern hemisphere on the transparent dome.
The most recent line from MSI is the black and white Krait variant of the mid-range motherboards, focusing on SLI and implementing a snake logo. Naturally the modification had to be a snake here.
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Samus - Monday, June 29, 2015 - link
The site has multiple "writers" but they specialize in certain areas of technology.TheJian - Monday, June 29, 2015 - link
I don't read twitter (and block everything from them...LOL, heck I'd be fired for having an account) and just 4K with some obviously not playable and 95% of us playing other resolutions. Sorry not enough.I get sick and I can't run some benchmarks and write an article for 5 days for a major product launch? Bah. Maybe if I had major surgery and was on morphine drip ;) I hope he has more benchmarks than that as 95% of us run 1440p or less. Since he gives the min for shadow (and avg) I'm assuming the others are avg so I would not want to play much on either card having to turn stuff down, though on 980ti maybe as it adds another 20% from OC that FuryX just can't touch. This is shown in other reviews anyway and I really don't even want to be near 30fps min let alone under it or having to turn stuff down the dev meant for me to see. Between all the other sites you see how many games are really NOT 4K-able.
Considering everyone else had the card for HOURS, pretty impressive Ryan manages to keep it for 5-6 days+ no? Nothing fishy there I guess...So either AMD loves this place or Ryan has magical power no other review site can muster (tomshardware buying their own card to get more time, extremetech, maximumpc, etc etc). Almost every review mentions short time etc. Ran all the benchmarks in one day but writing takes 5? Ok...Not sure I need to read it anyway after the other dozen I already read, but it still makes me LOL. What's the excuse for 300's reviews? Sick for 2 weeks? Open heart surgery? ;) I jest, I jest, honest... :)
D. Lister - Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - link
What is the point of all these "professional" reviews anyway?Almost every site that has reviewed the Fury X, seems content with the conclusion that beloved little AMD has equalled "big bad Nvidia", disregarding the Fury's need for a CLC to come close to an air-cooled gpu, the fact that HBM ended up being little more than a marketing gimmick, incredibly poor OC potential, absence of HDMI 2.0, limited DX12 features, and the 4GB limit on a $650 GPU circa 2015. All that, PLUS the added baggage of all the older issues that brought AMD's financial position to where it is today.
But hey forget all that - let's just celebrate occasional raw frame-rate parity like David equalling Goliath, sidelining the fact that the guy who built Nvidia from ground up is an ex AMD employee, and AMD is small only because it has never been good enough to be big.
chizow - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link
Great points, fully agree.chizow - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link
Eh, while its disappointing to see no review, still, from Anandtech, I wouldn't go as far as to question Ryan's integrity on matters of health. Hope he gets better, I do believe he was sick for a prolonged period before that caused him to miss a deadline in the past as well. At the end of the day, it is just video cards we are talking about here. :)squngy - Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - link
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1496?vs=1514fixed the link for you
eriri-el - Monday, June 29, 2015 - link
You guys did get a product with Nahimic in it, but I don't see any "going through the details" kind of thing in the said review. Was looking forward to see what they are bringing to the audio table instead of those useless Creative Software.waldoh - Monday, June 29, 2015 - link
Thanks for the late report on these msi boards. There isn't about 100 youtube videos of tech news reporters who actually give a shit.This site died when Anand left. The management really needs to be fired, its pathetic.
Thank god for the forums, ananadtechs one savior.
waldoh - Monday, June 29, 2015 - link
Also, these pictures look like screen grabs, so not even original content.Ian Cutress - Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - link
Certainly not screen grabs. If the exif data has been retained, it'll show my name and the Pentax I used to take the images.Ananadtech ? Steve, is that you?