Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

(Antfer) #1
VERDICT
Not the fastest or the best specification, but the Trident A
packs a decent amount of gaming power into a tiny, well-
designed and quiet chassis.

OVERALLSCORE


80 %%


PERFORMANCE
20 / 25
DESIGN
23 / 25
HARDWARE
18 / 25

VALUE
19 / 25

AQUAMAN
+Solid1080p
gamingspeeds
+Smartmini-ITX
design
+Extremelycool
andquiet

BLACKMANTA


  • Notasfastasrivals

  • Middling
    upgraderoom

  • Only a one-year
    warranty


BENCHMARKRESULTS Performance
The RTX 2060 ran our test games at 1080p minimums
between 47fps and 74fps, even with ray tracing enabled.
There’s enough power to play single-player titles at good
speeds and handle esports games at beyond 100fps. The
RTX 2060 also played our test games at 2,560 x 1,440 with
minimums of 44fps or better. It’s solid speed, but the RTX
2060 Super is quicker. The card inside the Wired2Fire
system was nearly 10fps faster in our test titles, and you
can also get even more gaming power from the AlphaBeta
i5 RTX (see p40) for just £999.
Meanwhile, the mid-range CPU is underwhelming in a
machine at this price. Intel’s Core i5-9400F is a little slower
than AMD equivalents in our single-threaded image editing
test, and miles behind in heavily multi-threaded
benchmarks. The CPU has enough power for gaming and
everyday computing, but you can get much more CPU power
for this money elsewhere. The SSD’s read and write speeds
of 3,552MB/sec 1,530MB/sec are good too, although again,
you really want at least a 500GB drive for a gaming machine
these days.
On the plus side, the MSI is an excellent thermal
performer. It’s virtually silent when idle and only produces
modest fan noise when gaming – the noise is barely
noticeable, and it’s quieter than any full-sized PC we’ve
tested at this price. The CPU and GPU delta Ts of 64°C and
50°C are modest as well.

Conclusion
You can definitely get more CPU and GPU power for your
money elsewhere, but the MSI Trident A is still a well-
designed mini-ITX gaming machine. It has enough power to
play single-player games at solid frame rates and esports
games on high refresh-rate panels, and the CPU is a fine
everyday chip. More importantly for a mini-ITX rig, it’s quiet
and easy to transport. Of course, more powerful
specifications with more versatile cases can be found for this
price, and those rigs will usually have better warranties too.
However, if your main priority is getting a gaming rig that’s
small, quiet and portable, the Trident A is a great example.
MIKE JENNINGS

GIMPIMAGE
EDITING

49,461


HEAVYMULTI-
TASKING

172,246


HANDBRAKEH.264
VIDEO ENCODING

332,440


SYSTEM
SCORE

140,919


LUXMARK
OPENCL

96,751


BATTLEFIELDV
1,920x1,080,Ultrasettings,DX12,HighDXR,DLSS

0

MSITridentA 47fps 66fps

2,560x1,440,Ultrasettings,DX12,HighDXR,DLSS

0

MSITridentA 44fps 50fps

50 100 150 200

50 100 150 200
Minimum Average

SHADOWOFTHETOMBRAIDER
1,920x1,080,HighestDetail,TAA

0 50 100 150 200

MSITridentA 74fps 97fps

2,560x1,440,HighestDetail,TAA

0 50 100 150 200

MSITridentA 50fps 63fps

TOTALWAR:WARHAMMERII
1,920x1,080,UltraDetail,DX11

0 50 100 150 200

50 100 150 200

MSI Trident A 68fps 83fps

2,560x1,440,UltraDetail,DX11

0

MSI Trident A 48fps 58fps

INTELPERFORMANCE
INDEX

123.12%

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