A Closer Look

Taking a look at the front, it seems relatively plain for an MSI system at first glance; however, once the system is turned on, the plastic front is illuminated via RGB LEDs. Minor venting has also been put at the bottom front, near the USB and audio ports. Due to the system's size, no options for an optical drive exist, but that's not really a problem in this day and age. Moving on to the left-hand side, we find the graphics card and power supply, which both have direct venting for air intake. Although much more appealing to look at than a standard rectangle, the angular design of the vents offers nothing from a performance standpoint.


The back of the system shows off an inverted design with the motherboard at the bottom, below the graphics card and behind the power supply. Meanwhile, the right-hand side has an angular vent for the CPU heatsink fan that acts as an exhaust. An MSI badge is in the top left, near some more air vents.


The top of the case is where the power button is located. Large air vents take up the majority of this part of the chassis and serve as an exhaust for the graphics card. As for the bottom of the case, it is lifted via plastic feet and skirting with rubber pads. A fine mesh vent here serves as an air intake for the CPU cooler.


As for I/O, the system offers 1x USB 3.1 Type-C, 1x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1x USB 2.0, 1x microphone jack, and 1x headphone jack up front. Meanwhile, the motherboard offers 5x audio jacks, 1x optical S/PDIF out, 1x RJ45, 1x PS/2 combo port, 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, 2x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A, 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C, 1x DisplayPort 1.2, and 1x HDMI 1.4. Finally, the MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ventus has 3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 1x USB Type-C outputs. All combined, the system has a decent array of I/O with the motherboard being a bit more entry level in that regard compared to more premium offerings.


RGB effects work perfectly, with no odd colors or strange behaviors. The RGB is also fairly well done in that it is not exceedingly over the top or flashy, which could have been the case considering the amount of lighting in comparison to the system's compact size.