Systems

MSI Trident A Review

vortez
August 19, 2019 10 Min Read
3 0

The MSI Trident A offers SSD storage, a 9th Gen. Intel Core processor and Real-Time Ray-Tracing capabilities all crammed into a compact form factor, but is that the whole picture? Let’s find out.


Product on Review: MSI Trident A
Manufacturer: MSI
Street Price: £1,349

Almost a year ago, the NVIDIA RTX graphics cards dropped, pushing us into an era of real-time ray-tracing, at which point MSI upgraded their Trident systems to adopt the latest and greatest that graphics technology had to offer. We reviewed the Trident X with a price of £2,899 in the UK, making it infinitively expensive for most, however today we look at its less-powerful brother, shoehorned into the same beautiful chassis but with a much more palatable price-tag.

The MSI Trident A, despite the big drop in asking price, still packs a hell of a punch with a 9th Gen. Intel Core i5 9400 processor, rocking 6 cores at up to 4.1GHz with a relatively small 65W TDP for, hopefully, quieter operation. Bolstering that performance is 16GB of DDR4 memory, a 256GB SSD and a 1TB HDD for larger storage requirements.


For graphics output, MSI have equipped the Trident A with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060. The 2060 is equipped with 1920 CUDA cores, 30 Ray-Tracing cores and 6GB of GDDR6 with the aim of providing excellent 1080p performance.

Despite the high performance components locked inside, the chassis is tiny when compared to many tower systems, occupying a volume just over 10L, while remaining stylish and definitely worthy of a spot on any gamer’s desk.

With MSI asking £1349 for the system, we’re keen to see some serious performance from the machine, certainly exceeding what any console can offer, but does the small chassis increase noise and hamper speed? Let’s find out.

MSI on the Trident A:
Trident A is the first compact desktop PC to incorporate an SFX power supply and the breathtaking latest MSI GeForce RTX™ graphics card, into a case only 10 liters in volume. Trident A series targeted gamers who demand the highest game performance from PC. With the Intel® 9th Gen Core™series processors and MSI GeForce RTX™ graphics card, Trident A can provide impressive performance for any task including gaming and video editing.i]

Technical Specifications

Operating System:
Windows 10 Home

CPU:
9th Gen. Intel Core Processors

Chipset:
Intel B360

Storage:
2x M.2 SSD (1x Auto switch and 1x PCIe (or Intel Optane))
Up to 2x 2.5″ SSD/HDD

System Memory:
2x DDR4 2666MHz Long-DIMMs, up to 32GB

Graphics:
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 / 2060 Graphics Card

Sound:
7.1 Channel HD Audio with Nahimic Audio Enhancer (ALC892)

I/O Front:
1x USB 3.1 Gen. 1 Type-C
1x USB 2.0
1x USB 3.1 Gen. 1 Type-A
1x Mic-in
1x Headphone-out

I/O Rear:
1x DVI-D
1x DP Out (1.2)
1x PS/2 Combo Port
1x USB 2.0
1x RJ45
2x USB 3.1 Gen. 1 Type-A
2x USB 3.1 Gen. 2 Type-A
5x HD Audio Jacks
1x Mic-in

Wireless LAN:
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 9462

Bluetooth:
5

LAN:
Realtek RTL8111H-C

AC Adapter/PSU:
Modular 450W 80 Plus Bronze Certified PSU

Cooling System:
Fan Cooler

Volume:
10.36 Litre/21.89 Pints

Dimensions (WxDxH):
129.74 x 382.73 x 396.39mm/5.1″ x 15.06″ x 15.6″

Weight:
6.55KG/9.5KG

Accessories:
1x Manual
1x Quick Guide
1x Warranty Card
1x Power Cord

Software:
Drivers & MSI Utilities
MSI Dragon Centre
Anti-Virus (60 days trial)

Packaging & Bundle

Our review sample has been around the block a little, so the packaging is battered and bruised but still funny intact; this goes to show the strength of the outer protection. The large, dense foam inserts inside also add to the robustness to ensure your Trident reaches you in tip-top condition.


The machine comes wrapped in a thick material outer with a Velcro closing. No scratches will occur here.


In terms of a bundle, the only included item is a power cord, so nothing exciting to show you there. Let’s move onto the machine.

Closer Look

Starting with the right of the machine, the small stature of the tower is immediately apparent, as is its relative lightweight feel at only 9.5KG.
There’s a small Trident marking above the CPU vent and an MSI Dragon sticker in the top-left.


Tucked behind the vented section is a small CPU cooler with a downward blowing fan.


The opposite side clearly houses the MSI RTX 2060 GPU, being enabled to draw cooler air from outside the case to help reduce thermals as much as possible.
The lower vented section allows the 450W 80 Plus Bronze power supply to breathe cool air.


Moving to the top of the case, we have enough vented region where heat can escape from the case and be moved away from any of the system’s intake vents. At the front is a huge power button which should be nice and easy to find in the dark. No reset button though.


Onto the front, MSI have placed the front I/O low down, but have equipped it well. Starting from the top, there’s the following:
1x USB 3.1 Gen. 1 Type-C
1x USB 3.1 Gen. 1 Type-A
1x USB 2.0
1x Mic-in
1x Headphone-out


Then finally, we’ll have a look at what the rear of the system has to offer in terms of connectivity:

The MSI GeForce RTX 2060 is home to:
3x DisplayPort 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0

With the motherboard further supporting that with (from top to bottom):
5x HD Audio Jacks
1x Mic-in
2x USB 3.1 Gen. 1 Type-A
2x USB 3.1 Gen. 2 Type-A
1x RJ45
1x USB 2.0
1x PS/2 Combo Port
1x DP Out (1.2)
1x DVI-D

Closer Look (Internals)

Tearing off the sides, we can get a look at how well MSI have packaged the system.
Pulling off the right-side panel we can see the 450W PSU from FSP with wires neatly routed all around the system to the various components, including a couple to the two 2.5” drive bays at the top. The left bay is empty but has been provisioned a SATA power cable to make future upgrades that little bit easier – a nice touch from MSI.


We can see the Mini-ITX motherboard tucked away into the corner, stuffed full of components such as 16GB of DDR4 memory and a 256GB NVMe SSD.
Plugged into the single PCI-E x16 slot is a riser card, allowing the GPU to sit vertically. MSI claim that this reduces stress on the slot and prevents bending of the GPU during transport.


Swinging the system around we get a good look at the VENTUS cooler on the MSI GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, standing vertically. The auxiliary power cable plugged into the corner is concealed nicely.


The tiny fan on the PSU can be seen much more clearly now the side is removed. This fan doesn’t spin while the system is under low loads which helps to reduce noise.
The back of the Mini-ITX motherboard is also visible here. If you look above the CPU socket, you can see a 2nd M.2 NVMe slot for future expansion options.

Benchmarks: Temperatures & Boot Time

For our first benchmark test we observe the max. CPU/GPU temperatures of the system while allowing Unigine Heaven 4.0 to run on a 30-minute loop. To report back on the temperatures we use RealTemp and GPU-Z which provide the peak figures.




In this test we observe how fast the boot into Windows 10 is by using a digital stopwatch.


Benchmarks: Cinebench R20 & Handbrake

Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 20 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user.




HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. We run an x264 benchmark through HandBrake to measure the system’s video processing speed. Results are delivered in a first pass and second pass format.


Benchmarks: PCMark 10, Unigine Heaven & 3D Mark

PCMark 10 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 10 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.




Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for gaming PCs running Windows 10. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, built from the ground up to support new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal benchmark for testing the DirectX 12 performance of the latest graphics cards.




Extreme performance and stability test for PC hardware: video card, power supply, cooling system. Check your rig in stock and overclocking modes with real-life load! Also includes interactive experience in a beautiful, detailed environment.


Benchmarks: Gaming (1080p)

The Trident A uses the MSI GeForce RTX 2060 for graphics delivery, in this section we test the latest gaming titles to see how effective the 3D capabilities are. We report on the average framerate using FRAPS.


Conclusion

The MSI Trident A seems to offer any budding PC gamer a viable option into the minefield that can be component selection. With an Intel Core i5 CPU, an NVIDIA RTX GPU and plenty of RAM, performance all round is respectable.

Perhaps the biggest selling point for a machine of this kind is the relatively small real estate that it requires on the desk. The tiny chassis occupies roughly the same space that three 2L bottles of fizzy pop would, to give you a rough idea of its size. Typically, downsizing a PC increases temperatures or volume levels to maintain performance but MSI, with some clever use of grills in strategic places and intelligent fan curves, have managed to negate both of those issues fairly well. System noise really wasn’t a problem at all and temperatures were kept inside manageable levels at all times.

The sharp angles mixed with matte surfaces and glossy panels might not be for everyone but we like the different approach MSI have adopted. It serves its purpose well, maintaining good volume and temperature levels while also looking good; that, in our books, is a win.

Gaming performance is clearly aimed at the 1080p segment, with the inclusion of the Intel Core i5 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060. We found the GPU performance remarkably well and allowed high refresh rate 1080p gaming without much fuss.

Having said that, the Intel Core i5 processor lacks any real oomph when it comes to intensive workloads. The Cinebench and Handbrake results, both of which focus heavily on the CPU, lacked somewhat when compared to similarly priced options.

When compared to the Trident X, they really are completely different beasts but each definitely sits in its own market segment nicely.


At £1349, the 16GB of RAM, 6-core CPU, RTX 2060 and a mixture of SSD and HDD storage all tied together into a small but quiet chassis seems like a very good buy.

Pros
+ Cool and quiet
+ Great for 1080p gaming
+ Upgradeable in many areas
+ NVMe storage enables fast boot times

Cons
– Can’t be laid flat
– Core i5 isn’t the best at intense workloads such as Cinebench R20


Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.

Stay connected with the Vortez Social Media pages:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Join in with the discussions on Discord

Tags:

MSI

Share Article

vortez