amazon MSI TRIDENT X PLUS reviews
In recent years, pre-built PCs have become a popular option for gamers, who want to avoid the hassle of assembling and optimizing the placement of components. It goes straight to your own needs, just plug it in and turn it on and use. MSI’s Trident line – a well-known gaming brand from Taiwan – is one of the most popular pre-built PCs on the market today, dressed in a compact design like gaming consoles but still has powerful performance.
Trident X and Trident X Plus are the latest variants of this model. Both have a modern design, upgraded RGB backlighting system and more importantly, the “heart” with 9th-generation Intel Core chips and Nvidia’s RTX graphics card.
Compact, angular design
At first impression, the design of MSI Trident X Plus is not much different from its 2018 version: compact and angular. To make it easy to imagine, the size of the PS4 is 305 x 275 x 53 mm, while Trident X Plus is 382.73 x 396.39 x 127.74 mm, but the performance is much stronger. With this size, Trident X Plus will be in the category of ITX computer case.
With a compact size like this, the ability to cool the component is one of the very important factors. Both sides of the Trident X Plus case have large heat sinks so that the CPU, GPU and power can draw cool air from the outside environment. MSI calls this the Silent Storm Cool 3 cooling technology, separating the CPU, GPU and power in different chambers, optimizing airflow to achieve the best cooling effect.
The right side of the device is a toughened glass panel with a hinge mechanism that makes it easy to open without having to screw or using any tools. The bottom is the grille for the CPU. The glass is thick enough, sturdy and modern, but depending on your preference, the box comes with a metal door that you can replace.
Open the tempered glass door and we will see inside is the mainboard, power and storage. Trident X Plus 9SE-256XVN is equipped with a 1TB HDD, you can install an additional HDD or SSD as long as they are in the size of 2.5.
Below is an Intel Core i7-9700K processor, located on MSI’s Z390 Gaming Edge AC Mini-ITX mainboard. I7-9700K is a huge performance chip and generates a lot of heat, especially when overclocking, I would normally advise users to use water cooling, but obviously, that solution will not suit the machine which is as compact as the Trident X Plus. Instead, MSI uses a 4-copper-copper air cooling system with a 120mm RGB fan. More details about CPU temperature when operating will be mentioned at the end of this article.
Right next to the CPU cooling system is the source of the system. MSI equips Trident X Plus with the FSP 650W SFX 80 Plus Gold power supply, a commendable move in the context that this is often a component that has been cut to just barely fit the system. With this power supply, you can upgrade to the RTX 2080Ti graphics card if you need it without any problems.
The left side of the Trident X Plus is metal, not tempered glass, with exaggerated cutouts for the graphics card and power. Our star, of course, is the MSI RTX 2080 Ventus graphics card. The card has a large 2-fan design with 30 divided blades, which are curved to give high aerodynamics, thereby cooling the air from the outside faster and more. At the same time, the fan system features a new Frozr Heatsink Design with dual ball bearings that enhance longevity as well as minimize the noise level emitting the lowest level during intense work.
To ensure air circulation, at the top of the case is a large heat sink, accounting for three-fourths of this top surface. However, the large mesh makes dirt very easy to get inside, and with a compact case like Trident X Plus, we will want to limit the removal of the machine to clean. Above is also where is the location of the power button, cut slightly sink to prevent accidental pressing.
Due to the design characteristics, the Trident X Plus mainboard was reversed, resulting in the connectors being pushed all the way down to the bottom (in fact, MSI had to use the extension cable for the power and the PCIe riser for the graphics card). art). MSI is very generous about the number of ports on the device.
The base of Trident X Plus is made of plastic, detachable if the user needs to place the machine horizontally on a gaming console or is dependent on the desk space, as long as the machine is sufficient exothermic space. The weight of the machine is about 6.5 kg, only equal to the GT75 Titan laptop that I have ever reviewed plus the charger, very impressive.
Like most of MSI’s current gaming products, Trident X Plus has built-in RGB lighting in three regions: CPU cooling fan, GPU and two front LED strips, all customizable via the ecosystem as known as Mystic Light of the brand.
When it comes to software, Trident X Plus also comes pre-installed with MSI Dragon Center. This can be called a “brain” that allows you to monitor system situations such as clock speed, temperature, … as well as change performance profiles (silent, OC, two custom profiles) and more.
where can you get a MSI TRIDENT X PLUS online
MSI Trident X Plus 9SF-040US High-End Small Form Factor PC Intel Core i7-9700K RTX 2080Ti Ventus 11G OC 16GB 512GB PCIe NVME SSD+2TB HDD, Black: Buy it now
CUK MSI Trident X Plus Gamer Desktop (Intel i9-9900KF, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Ventus 11GB, 64GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD + 2TB HDD, Windows 10 Home) Gaming PC Computer: Buy it now
CUK MSI Trident X Plus Gamer Desktop (Intel i9-9900KF, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super 8GB, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD + 2TB HDD, Windows 10 Home) Gaming PC Computer: Buy it now
MSI Trident X Plus 9SE-464US (i7-9700KF, 16GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD + 2TB HDD, RTX 2080 Super 8GB, Windows 10) Gaming Desktop: Buy it now
Great performance, better heat dissipation than expected but no room for overclocking
First, to evaluate the performance of the Trident X Plus, I used the four most popular benchmark tools available today: PC Mark 10, 3D Mark, Cinebench R20 and Unigine Superposition. In particular, PC Mark 10 is a tool to simulate real-life situations with two tests Express and Extended; 3D Mark simulates gaming in different situations allowing custom resolution and graphics settings; Cinebench R20 scores CPU performance when rendering images, while Unigine Superposition is a benchmark tool that requires the ability to handle the entire machine on both graphic libraries, DirectX and OpenGL.
Next, it is the ability to play Trident X Plus games. My selection criteria are games with heavy graphics, built-in benchmarking tools in my setup. Therefore, I selected four titles: Far Cry 5, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy XV and Total War Three Kingdoms. All will be set to the highest graphics level, and except for Total War Three Kingdoms, the remaining games will be measured in Full HD (1920×1080) and 4K UHD (3840×2160) resolutions.
Through testing, Trident X Plus can “handle” neatly every game in Full HD 1080p resolution. With such a high FPS, it is likely that 2K resolution (2560×1440) will not be a big obstacle. However, perhaps playing games at 4K resolution is a big challenge for the RTX 2080 Ventus card if you want to push the graphics settings to the highest level. Accepting lower quality graphics will make the gaming experience much smoother.
Data storage on Trident X Plus includes a 256GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. Tested by the Crystal Disk Info tool, this SSD is Samsung’s PM981 model, with sequential read/ write speeds of 3000/ 1300 MB/ s, while the HDD is Barracuda Pro of Seagate with a speed of 160MB/ s. Fast measurement with Crystal Disk Mark tool for results close to data published, ensuring fast data access speed.
In terms of operating temperature, putting the machine in an air-conditioned room at 28 degrees Celsius, when the machine is idle, the i7 9700K processor records the temperature of 34 degrees Celsius, while the GPU RTX 2080 Ventus is 28 degrees Celsius. With maximum power, i7 9700K at 4.6 GHz with all-core skyrocketing to 86 degrees Celsius, while the GPU is still quite cool at 72 degrees C. The Trident X Plus’s heat dissipation speed is also very fast, the temperature continuously downgrades quickly after turning off the benchmark. While 86 degrees Celsius with a CPU like the i7 9700K is still acceptable, you won’t have much ground to play if you want to overclock even higher.
Summary
Nestled in a small body, MSI’s Trident X Plus is a true beast, thanks to the power of the Core i7 9700K and RTX 2080 Ventus. The high mobility allows you to work or play anytime, anywhere, and the Silent Storm Cool 3 cooling solution is a plus for Trident X Plus to operate smoothly in daily use.
However, this machine still has weaknesses. Trident X Plus is only equipped with 16GB of DDR4 2666MHz RAM. MSI could have used higher RAM bus kits, for example, 3200MHz, so that CPU-consuming tasks like compression or rendering become faster. In addition, the default storage capacity of Trident X Plus is not too abundant because games (especially AAA games) are increasingly larger in size.
It can be said that MSI has well balanced the price and performance of Trident X Plus. Of course, you would argue that you can build the same PC set yourself for the same price, but MSI is giving you an all-in-one experience, no need to worry about components, wiring, radiators or anything.