MSI Launches Limited Edition of Its Trident 3 PC - The Trident 3 Arctic

[Raevenlord]

MSI has been doing the round with its Trident line of "console-sized" PCs. After upgrading its original model to a Kaby Lake-based platform, the new, limited Arctic edition of the Trident 3 features a bolster to its GPU computing power, RGB lighting - and a price hike to boot. MSI has also included an HDMI port on the front of the Trident 3 Arctic, gearing it up towards the VR market.

The new Arctic variant features a GTX 1070 graphics card in an ITX format, which is fed by a Core i7-7700, on the H110 chipset. The memory subsystem delivers 16GB of 2400MHz DDR4, expandable up to 32GB. A 256GB M.2 SSD (SATA) and a 1TB spinning HDD handle storage. MSI claims the system only reaches 32dB at full load, taking power off a 330W adapter. For the hardware specs and the neat, icy, small-sized package (346.25 x 232.47 x 71.83 mm), MSI is asking for a neat $1500.



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[wurschti]

$1500 is a damn good price for a custom build with the size of a console.

 

[diatribe]

I wonder if it's semi-passive cooling in order to hit those extremely low noise levels.

 

[jabbadap]

MSI has been doing the round with its Trident line of "console-sized" PCs. After upgrading its original model to a Kaby Lake-based platform, the new, limited Arctic edition of the Trident 3 features a bolster to its GPU computing power, RGB lighting - and a price hike to boot. MSI has also included an HDMI port on the front of the Trident 3 Arctic, gearing it up towards the VR market.

The new Arctic variant features a GTX 1070 graphics card in an ITX format, which is fed by a Core i7-7700 (under-clocked to 3.6GHz on account of thermals and noise output, one would think), on the H110 chipset. The memory subsystem delivers 16GB of 2400MHz DDR4, expandable up to 32GB. A 256GB M.2 SSD (SATA) and a 1TB spinning HDD handle storage. MSI claims the system only reaches 32dB at full load, taking power off a 330W adapter. For the hardware specs and the neat, icy, small-sized package (346.25 x 232.47 x 71.83 mm), MSI is asking for a neat $1500.

Spoiler: those pics.

Source: MSI

3.6GHz is the base clock for i7-7700. Do you mean there's no turbo frequency for that processor?

 

[Air]

Gotta love their choice of stuff for noise level comparisons. Glad to know it will not be as loud as my chainsaw, i was worried about that.

Also, sound pressure measurements are useless without distance form the source. Corsair claims its "Corsair One" PC is at 20 dBa at idle for example. Did they and MSI measure the noise at same distance? I doubt it, but the "25 dB" number alone makes MSI look bad if one doesn't know better.

 

[HopelesslyFaithful]

3.6GHz is the base clock for i7-7700. Do you mean there's no turbo frequency for that processor?

No K means no overclocking.

 

[jabbadap]

No K means no overclocking.

Yes I know, but Raevenlord used phrase "Core i7-7700 (under-clocked to 3.6GHz on account of thermals and noise output, one would think)". So does it have turbo disabled or just plain i7-7700 with base clock 3.6GHz and 4.2GHz turbo clock?

 

[Captain_Tom]

All these boutique builder and pre built options continue to skimp on the RAM speeds...

 

[HopelesslyFaithful]

Yes I know, but Raevenlord used phrase "Core i7-7700 (under-clocked to 3.6GHz on account of thermals and noise output, one would think)". So does it have turbo disabled or just plain i7-7700 with base clock 3.6GHz and 4.2GHz turbo clock?

ah. I see.

All these boutique builder and pre built options continue to skimp on the RAM speeds...

They also use really bad latency RAM.

 

[cadaveca]

They also use really bad latency RAM.

Not the best timings for sure, but there are those that argue that doesn't matter that much anyway, and I'd be inclined to agree.

Gotta love their choice of stuff for noise level comparisons. Glad to know it will not be as loud as my chainsaw, i was worried about that.

Also, sound pressure measurements are useless without distance form the source. Corsair claims its "Corsair One" PC is at 20 dBa at idle for example. Did they and MSI measure the noise at same distance? I doubt it, but the "25 dB" number alone makes MSI look bad if one doesn't know better.

With only two fans present in this unit, and a GPU fan that might not spin at all at idle, you'll have a hard time finding any noise at even 12 inches. AT max speed, you don't really even hear the fans at all, you hear the airflow.

3.6GHz is the base clock for i7-7700. Do you mean there's no turbo frequency for that processor?

Personal opinions shouldn't be added to press releases, especially if they are wrong. You'll find my review of the Trident3 with a 1060 here:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/Trident_3/

I'll quote myself:

The Intel Core i7-7700 CPU is a 65 W model, and it offers 4 cores and 8 threads with a base speed of 3600 MHz and a boost clock of up to 4200 MHz for single-core loads. There is also 16 GB of 2400 MHz DDR4, with rather modest timings of 17-17-17-39. The Intel Core i7-7700 is the top-dog locked CPU for this generation, so you really can't get much better than that. It uses a standard Turbo profile, since overclocking is not supported on the MSI Trident 3 GAMING PC.

 

[Air]

With only two fans present in this unit, and a GPU fan that might not spin at all at idle, you'll have a hard time finding any noise at even 12 inches. AT max speed, you don't really even hear the fans at all, you hear the airflow.

I know, I'm just expressing that I'm a little annoyed by these sound pressure measurements without informing the distance of the source. They are both probably silent at idle, but MSI claims 25 dB while Corsair claims 20 db. An uninformed person could be led to believe that the corsair is a lot quieter, while the truth is that probably their measurements where done at different distances.

 

[Raevenlord]

Yes I know, but Raevenlord used phrase "Core i7-7700 (under-clocked to 3.6GHz on account of thermals and noise output, one would think)". So does it have turbo disabled or just plain i7-7700 with base clock 3.6GHz and 4.2GHz turbo clock?

I see. I mixed up the two clockspeeds, my mind actually thought "what, 3.6 GHz from a base 4.2??". So no underclocking there. Already edited the original, and sorry about that confusion.

Personal opinions shouldn't be added to press releases, especially if they are wrong. You'll find my review of the Trident3 with a 1060 here:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/Trident_3/

Not a personal opinion :/ my frame of reference wasn't correct. From an imagined 4.2 base clock for the 7700K, one would always conclude that 3.6 GHz is an under-clock. My bad, though.