Looks like MSI decided to put Nvidia's MXM full GTX 980s to good use.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/msi-vortex-sff-gaming-pc,30865.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3019...es-mac-pro-with-two-geforce-gtx-980-gpus.html
News MSI Vortex - 6.5L Dual-GPU
- Thread starter Vittra
- Start date
Looks like an internal PSU: https://smallformfactor.net/news/msi-introduces-vortex-the-worlds-most-powerful-trashcan
The cards they are using were only released within the past couple of months. They are fully fledged GTX 980 cards, in MXM format. They can be used in laptops that allow GPU swapping, rather than the usual mobile junk.
Think of it this way - AMD released the R9 Nano, and Nvidia released this. Between the two, you have some pretty great options for really small SFF machines or laptops. There are actually two particular laptops announced during CES that have me once again questioning if I will bother with desktop machines moving forward.
Think of it this way - AMD released the R9 Nano, and Nvidia released this. Between the two, you have some pretty great options for really small SFF machines or laptops. There are actually two particular laptops announced during CES that have me once again questioning if I will bother with desktop machines moving forward.
This is one of the few pre-builts I'd be interested in buying. However if it only has M.2 slots for hard drives but no support for 2.5" hard drives, that's going to be a deal-breaker for many. I'd really prefer that they add 2.5" support as it will give you more hard drive space for the buck to upgrade with.
With all the IO on the back, loads of USB ports, I'd get an external hdd or an enclosure for my current hdd if I'm dropping 2k to 3k on one of these.
At 0:31 in the video in Vittra's post, you can see two M.2 drives on the left and one 2.5" drive on the right in a small cage. Bear in mind that as NVMe PCI-e controllers become more widely available from many manufacturers, more M.2 drives will start to appear on the market. There may also be some U.2 drives as well, but contrary to how Asus will tell you that PCI-e controllers are thermally limited (true for current drives), the mobile industry is driving the shrinking of storage devices and will demand lower power NVMe PCI-e devices, especially M.2 drives. The 200-series chipset to be offered in tandem with Kaby Lake processors will also support an additional 4 PCI-e 3.0 lanes, which I suspect will have Intel RST support for a total of up to 4 NVMe devices supported. I'd like to see other devices, beyond storage and Wi-Fi, to be integrated onto M.2, as NGFF was originally intended to offer.
This is freakin cool. Do want. But I need a new car atm. Think of the family wagon I could get for US$3000.....
Could almost buy this:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1015135042
Not sure which is the more sensible purchase. Although one will hold its value better than the other.
Could almost buy this:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1015135042
Not sure which is the more sensible purchase. Although one will hold its value better than the other.
After thinking about it, I'm surprised they didn't wait for next-gen parts from nVidia to produce this. It makes sense that they went with nVidia to begin with - AMD's current-gen parts are simply too warm - but the timing of using nVidia GPUs is late in the current lifecycle, which many prospective buyers will be aware of. Furthermore, everything we know about Pascal suggests that it will be worlds better for compact form factors.
I'm not familiar with MXM cards, how does a high-end MXM GPU card typically draw all the necessary power? All through the gold plated connectors and drawn from the host board which in turn has bunch of mini fit jr connectors getting massive 12V power from the PSU?
If the GTX980 MXMs used in this system are indeed desktop GTX980 equivalent, this system as a whole should have total power consumption at full load slightly less than that of Aiboh's Cerberus rig with SLI'ed GTX980s and 5830K, and I'm having a hard time nodding to Linus's remark on the accoustics during gaming in his video where he says it only emits unobtrusive low hum considering the tiny fan in the 1U form factor like PSU and the convoluted air path into and out from the GPU and CPU heatsinks.
If the GTX980 MXMs used in this system are indeed desktop GTX980 equivalent, this system as a whole should have total power consumption at full load slightly less than that of Aiboh's Cerberus rig with SLI'ed GTX980s and 5830K, and I'm having a hard time nodding to Linus's remark on the accoustics during gaming in his video where he says it only emits unobtrusive low hum considering the tiny fan in the 1U form factor like PSU and the convoluted air path into and out from the GPU and CPU heatsinks.
Last edited:
It doesn't seem inconceivable though, since cool air is being sucked in from the bottom and only has to travel a very short path to exit with a sort of centrifugal fan. A cylinder is also an optimal shape for airflow, Apple's engineers probably started there. MSI's version suggests that the central heatsink is not necessary for the excellent performance. The CPU heatsink's performance under full load does worry, as it was 80-83°C with 19°C ambient, which would mean it could throttle with slightly warmer environments.
Regarding the "very short path" and "optimal shape for airflow"... I understand it partially if you mean the cylindrical shape of the case preventing the air path from dispersing multi-directionally and the lack of vent holes on the surrounding side wall reducing leaked noise, but the issue is the way heatsinks are mounted on the PCBs. They are basically downdraft coolers against the PCBs with space between the heatsink and the case wall as well as space between the heatsink and the PCB for air to enter and exit the fin stack but with no designated direction in which air "should" go between the fins (unless a fan is slapped right onto one side of the heatsink), so I imagine, due to the static pressure required for air to go between the fins, that quite a portion of air that reach up to the lowest tip of the heatsink would inevitably cut a shortcut path (unless, like I said, a fan is attached right onto the heatsink that forcibly sucks air into the fins) and get past the heatsinks without a chance to go between the fins. In this regard the cooling design of this case is pretty inefficient to me, at least in my head.
Another thing is, regardless of enclosure design and the internal cooling design, the fact doesn't change that the whole system consumes quite a lot of power at load, so the tiny axial fan on the PSU would have to work its butt off to cool what's inside the PSU. Maybe the case wall is pretty thick and that, together with the lack of vent holes on the side wall, really is working well for noise reduction.
Well, I'm not buying this product so I don't need to get worked up on this.
Similar threads
