Image Credit – MSI at CES. I like the 80s vibe of it. Matches my latest Trapper Keeper.
MSI has shown it’s new Meg Trident X2 system at CES, which is now available for pre-order. Coming in 22L, the uniquely asymmetrical shaped system has a cooling focus with a mesh intakes on the top and mesh exhaust on the side. Included inside is a 280mm AIO that exhausts out of the right side of the case. The GPU is an inverted mounting and draws air from the top of the case. The PSU, a 750 watt SFX unit, draws air from the bottom of the case. The current listed specs include an Intel i9-13900KF, RTX 4090, 64GB of DDR5-4800, 2TB PCIE 4.0 NVME SSD, 2X Lan ports, and a front mounted LCD display that allows users to control aspects of MSIs control center application. Expansion options include room for an two additional 2.5 inch drives, and one NVME drive.
The pre-order price comes in at $4,699 US as of writing.
Revenant’s Reaction: This is certainly a feature packed machine, and I’ve always been a fan of MSI’s SFF machines albeit not their software suite. I like the use of the 280mm AIO and the open airflow design. The screen on the front looks neat, though without the ability for users to put their own designs on there it falls into the “nice looking but not useful” category pretty fast. However, I do have a few concerns regarding the PSU being only 750 watts while trying to power a RTX 4090 and Intel i9-13900KF. The 13900K can draw 280 watts, and the RTX 4090 routinely hits 400 watts not counting transient spikes. MSI is using a standard SFX PSU from what I can see however, so upgrading it is possible if this proves to be an issue. I hope that they aren’t pulling power at full load. The price is a gut check though for reasons probably different than you’re thinking.
In 1999, a typical high end PC like this from Dell was about $2,500 US or $3,000 as a package with a CRT monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Most of the time, that 1999 PC included “value” version of components. Well, using the latest inflation levels this machine would have cost $2,629 back in 1999. It seems we’re moving back to the time that a high-end PC was out of the reach of most people. So while I’m not shocked at the price of the MSI Trident X2, I’m saddened that the industry as a whole is moving back to far more expensive machines.
