Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

M

SI’sTridentA is a small,affordablegamingPCthat’s

designedfor1080pgamingandesports.It’sbased

aroundNvidia’sGeForceRTX 2060 – a mid-range

GPUthatservesup1,920streamprocessors, 30 RTcoresand

6GBofmemory.ThisMSI-madeVentusmodelalsoincreases

theboostspeedfrom1680MHzto1710MHz.

However,thisGPUisalreadybehindthe

curve.ThenewRTX 2060 Superadds 256

streamprocessorsand2GBofmemorytothat

specification.ThatGPUhasalreadyappearedin

severalPCs.Lastmonth,forinstance, the£1,299

Wired2FirePredatorusedanRTX 2060 Superwith

a 30MHzoverclock.Thatsaid,theoriginalRTX

2060 willstillenableyoutoturnonsomeray-

tracedeyecandyat1080p.

Meanwhile,theMSI’sIntelCorei5-9400FCPU

hassixcoreswithbaseandturbospeedsof2.9GHz

and4.1GHz,butit doesn’thaveHyper-Threading.In

theTrident,it’spairedwith16GBof2666MHz

memory,a 256GBSamsungPM981SSDanda 1TB

harddisk.It’sa finespecificationfor1080pgaming,

buttheWired2Fireisbetterheretoo– thatrighad

an8-coreAMDRyzen7 3700XCPUand

3000MHzmemory.

WheretheMSInotablydiffersfromthe

Wired2Fireisinitssize.TheTride

measures130mmwideandonly

weighs6.6kg,soit’ssmallerand

lighterthananyATXPC.That

makestheTridentsuitableforlivi

rooms,smalldesksandfrequent

transport.It looksgoodtoo;the

frontismadefromglossyplastic

withredlights,theroofhasslatte

airventsandthere’sanangular

base.Atthefront,you’llalsofind

twofull-sizedUSB3.1portsanda

Type-Cconnection.

Thedesignis cleverontheinsid

aswell,withtherigdividedintwo.

REVIEWS / PC SYSTEMS

SPEC

CPU

2.9GHzIntelCore

i5-9400F

Motherboard

MSIB360GamingTridentA

Memory

16GBSamsung

2666MHzDDR4

Graphics

MSIVentusGeForce

RTX 2060 6GB

Storage

256GBSamsung

PM981SSD,1TBHitachi

Travelstarharddisk

Case

MSITrident

Cooling

CPU:Intelstockcooler

with1 x 80mmfan;

GPU:2 x 90mmfans

Networking

GigabitEthernet,dual-

band802.11acWi-Fi

PSU

FSPSFXPro450W

Ports

Front:2 x USB3.1Gen1, 1

x USB3.1Gen1 Type-C, 2

x audio;rear:2 x USB3.1

Gen2,2 x USB3.1Gen1, 2 x

USB2,1 x PS/2,6 x audio

Operatingsystem

MicrosoftWindows

10 Home64-bit

Warranty

Oneyearpartsand

labourreturntobase

SMALL FORM FACTOR GAMING PC

MSITRIDENTA/£1,249 inc VAT

SUPPLIER very.co.uk

One side of the case houses the motherboard, CPU, memory,

storage and PSU. The processor is chilled by a standard Intel

stock cooler, and MSI has done a great job with cable tidying, so

components are easily accessible. Impressively, there are

even two free 2.5in drive bays. Behind the motherboard, you’ll

find cutaways for PSU airflow and rear motherboard access, as

well as a cavity for the graphics card. There’s room for larger

cards, but only a single power connector, which will limit your

future upgrade choices.

The MSI is powered by a small FSP SFX Pro 450W unit. It’s

fine for this machine, but it’s not modular and it only has an 80

Plus Bronze certification rating. As a point of comparison, the

Wired2Fire had an ATX motherboard with a newer chipset and

more connection options, as well as a more powerful and

more efficient PSU. That said, most larger machines at this

price will have better components than the MSI. Big-brand

machines are usually a little behind the curve,

smaller machines often have to make

mpromises too.

Meanwhile, the MSI B360 Gaming Trident A

rdhas been specifically designed for this

chine. It doesn’t have any spare PCI-E or DIMM

s, which is normal for this form factor, but it

eshave a spare M.2 connector. At the rear, it has

r more USB 3.1 ports and six audio jacks, but no

icalS/PDIF and no Type-C connector. It also

dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, but no Wi-Fi 6.

inally, the MSI is covered with a one year return

asewarranty. Again, that’s standard for a big-

ndmachine, but independent UK system

derstend to have three or five year packages

t offer far more protection.

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