I have a fair bit to say when it comes to MSI's Nightblade MI2. Having spent time with the unit, it has impressed me more than I have been in some time. The fact is that it is limited by the power supply, which limits which GPU you can install into the Nightblade MI2, though that doesn't really bother me since having the fastest you can isn't what the Nightblade is all about. It's about engineering elegance, which I found all over the place.

When it comes to devices that have the gaming moniker attached to them, I take personal notice. Being a gaming enthusiast, I don't want to see any products fail to meet the demands associated with PC gaming, which makes me a bit critical of MSI's Nightblade MI2. Although MSI put careful thought into things like how the wiring is managed and how it all fits together neatly and efficiently, the installation process could be a bit better. You do have to remove quite a few screws in order to complete assembly, and the large amount of bare metal you have to touch will leave your hands dry and nearly cracking if yours are like mine. Yet all that bare metal also means it is solidly built and ready for you to use in your LAN adventures. Had there been no M.2 slot, I would not have been happy, but that slot and the two 3.5-inch bays mean you can have both an ultra-fast main drive for your OS and a couple 4 TB drives for all your games and other data. Add the GTX970 and any Intel 6th Generation Core i7 or i5 CPU and you've got a very capable gaming rig that isn't going to pull more than the 350W the PSU can supply from the wall. To me, that is very impressive indeed. I did find some issues that really need to be addressed, though. The front panel's audio I/O producing as much noise as it does isn't impressive at all, but perhaps a better cable to the plugs at the front can fix that. DDR4 SO-DIMMs are still a bit hard to find, and as such, there is not a single set to be had at my local retailers, and while we are talking about memory, let me say that being limited to DDR4-2133 is something I would like to change this instant, B150 chipset or not. I can overlook the lack of overclocking support due to the PSU's low capacity, which also makes Intel's B150 chipset the most obvious choice, and memory performance ultimately only has a small impact on overall performance anyway.

With all that on my mind and the Nightblade MI2 on my desk powering my old 2560x1600 screen in Battlefield 4 without a hitch, it just suddenly made complete sense to me. Why do I really need any more as a gamer? The only reason not to be more than happy with the MSI Nightblade MI2 were if the ultimate in performance in pursuit of 4K 60 FPS gaming is the goal, which a GTX 970 just isn't capable of. But it did pretty well at 2560x1600 and 1080p, which is where most gamers are going be at with their monitors. A GTX 970 is more than enough to push most titles at 60 FPS with details set to their maximum at those resolutions. And then I went to Newegg and looked at the price. This thing costs $300. You get a decent PSU, case, motherboard, and cooler for that price, and that's hard to beat no matter how you look at it. Got one yourself and need some help getting it set up for the first time? Let us know in the forums!