MSI MEG Trident X 10th price & review – what are the specs?

What is the MSI MEG Trident X 10th price? It is Small Form Factor Gaming Desktop that comes with Intel Core i7-10700K, GeForce RTX 3070, 32GB Memory, 1TB SSD, WiFi 6, USB Type-C, Thunderbolt 3, VR-Ready, Windows 10 Home. Is it good for gaming? Find details in MSI MEG Trident X 10th price & review.

Pros & Cons – MSI MEG Trident X 10th

PROS

• Sleek and compact
• Quiet cooling fans
• Reasonably priced
• Support for both Thunderbolt 3 and Wi-Fi 6
• Better-than-average bundled keyboard and mouse

CONS

• Complicated disassembly for upgrades
• No AMD Ryzen version

Specs – MSI MEG Trident X 10th review

• Processor Intel Core i7-10700K
• Motherboard MSI MEG Z490I Unify (Mini ITX)
• Memory 32GB Samsung DDR4 2933 MHz
• Graphics MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Ventus OC (11GB GDDR6)
• Storage 1TB Western Digital PC SN730 PCIe NVMe SSD
• Networking Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200, Bluetooth 5.1
• Front Ports USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type C, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A, USB 2.0 Type A
• Rear Ports (Motherboard) 2x USB 2.0 Type-A, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A, Thunderbolt 3, 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A, RJ45 Ethernet, 5x Audio jacks, Optical S/PDIF out
• Video Output (GPU) 3x DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4
• Power Supply FSP FSP650-57SAB 650W SFX
• Case MSI MEG Trident X
• Cooling 120mm RGB CPU fan
• Operating System Windows 10 Home
• Dimensions 15.6 x 15.1 x 5.1 inches / 396.2 x 383.5 x 129.5 mm
• Other Clutch GM11 Mouse, Vigor GK30 Keyboard
• Price As Configured $2,799.00

MSI MEG Trident X 10th price

The MSI MEG Trident X starts at $2,300 for a model with an Intel Core i7 processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super GPU, 32 GB RAM and a 1 TB HDD. A mid-range model features an Intel Core i7 processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GPU, 32 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD, and retails for $2,800. The highest-end model, which we reviewed, contains an Intel Core i9 processor, an Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Ti GPU, 64 GB RAM, a 1 TB SSD and a 1 TB HDD, and retails for $3,200.

Compare MSI MEG Trident X 10th vs HP OMEN 25L – Intel Core i7

MSI MEG Trident X 10th review

Build

MSI includes a second right panel made of tempered glass for an edgier, reflective look. (We didn’t swap it in for the photos.) It further emphasizes the tower’s four-zone RGB lighting. The zones (one on each side, and two on the front panel) are customizable within the MSI Dragon Center app, shown below.

Design

The Trident X is essentially a rectangular box, although it has some unexpected angles on the front, top and sides, making it look a little like a modern art piece. On the front, there are two triangular LEDs. The case is just 15.6 by 5.1 by 15.1 inches (HWD) for a volume of just 10 liters. A mid-tower gaming desktop can encompass more than 30 liters, so this is quite the slimming-down.

When compared to its competitors, the Trident X is more compact than it seems on first glance. For instance, the Corsair Vengeance a4100 is 17.7 x 15.6 x 8.3 inches and the HP Omen Obelisk is 17.1 x 14.1 x 6.5 inches. The boutique CLX Ra is 20.5 x 20.5 x 9.5 inches.

Ports

The MSI MEG Trident X has plenty of ports. On the front, you get a USB-C ports, two USB-A ports and two 3.5 mm audio jacks: one for mic, one for audio. On the back, you get five USB-A ports, one Thunderbolt USB-C port, five audio ports, one optical audio port, three DisplayPorts, one HDMI port and an Ethernet port

While I wish there were more ports on the front and fewer in the back, the overall number is generous, and all the important ones are accounted for. My only big complaint was that if you plug in a USB-C dongle in the front, it will block access to one of the USB-A ports, which can be inconvenient, depending on your setup.

Motherboard

The mini-ITX motherboard is an MSI MEG Z490i Unify that supports a full range of processor overclocking controls when paired with an unlocked chip like the Intel Core i7-10700K in my review unit (model 10SF-863US). The chip isn’t factory overclocked. A large heatsink and an RGB ring fan keep the chip cool enough; I didn’t see it top 85 degrees C in my stress testing.

Storage at MSI MEG Trident X 10th price

Most of the components are accessible on one side of the system; only the graphics card and some of the NVMe SSD are on the backside of the motherboard on the other side. It’s about as expandable as you’d expect for a PC its size — two 2.5-inch bays, two dual-channel RAM slots, an NVMe slot — and everything is relatively easy to reach. It’s got four lighting zones, visible on the side fans, the front strip and through the top vent.

MSI MEG Trident X 10th Upgrade

Adding more storage is, fortunately, much easier. There are two 2.5-inch bays in right side of the tower plus an empty M.2 slot behind the left panel. MSI provides SATA cables and screws in the box. The graphics card is also accessible through the left side. Nvidia’s flagship 11GB GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in this unit is nicely showcased through the left panel’s cutout.

Software

The MSI MEG Trident X has plenty of ports. On the front, you get a USB-C ports, two USB-A ports and two 3.5 mm audio jacks: one for mic, one for audio. On the back, you get five USB-A ports, one Thunderbolt USB-C port, five audio ports, one optical audio port, three DisplayPorts, one HDMI port and an Ethernet port.

While I wish there were more ports on the front and fewer in the back, the overall number is generous, and all the important ones are accounted for. My only big complaint was that if you plug in a USB-C dongle in the front, it will block access to one of the USB-A ports, which can be inconvenient, depending on your setup.

Keyboard

The MSI Vigor GK30 keyboard’s borderless edges give it a stylish look. It doesn’t have any special features besides its colorful lighting.

Mouse

The mouse, the Clutch GM11, is better, with a 1000 Hz polling rate and two side buttons. It’s symmetrical (except for those side buttons), so you could really use it with either hand. It’s not the most premium mouse I’ve ever felt, but it’s better than most pack-ins.

Gaming performance at this MSI MEG Trident X 10th price

On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (highest settings, DX12), the system ran at 119 fps at 1080p and 44 fps at 4K. That’s just above the HP Omen Obelisk (Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti) at 100 fps and 37 fps, respectively. The CLX Ra (RTX 2080 Ti) won out in 4K at 48 fps. Unsurprisingly, the cheaper Corsair Vengeance a4100 (RTX 2070 Super) scored last here.

On Far Cry New Dawn (ultra), the Trident X hit 102 fps at 1080p and 76 fps at 4K. The Omen did better in the former resolution but worse in the latter, while both the Vengeance and the Ra weren’t as fast.

The three RTX 2080 Ti-equipped machines sparred again on the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark (very high settings). The Trident X hit 129 fps at 1080p and 44 fps at 4K, tying the Ra at the former resolution and falling just a few frames behind in the latter. The HP Omen Obelisk was single-digits less in both 1080p and 4K.

We stress tested the Trident X by running the Metro Exodus benchmark 15 times on a loop, which comes out to about half an hour of simulated gaming. The average of those runs was 85 fps, and was consistent within a fraction of a frame between each.

The Trident X makes Red Dead Redemption 2 just playable at 4K on medium settings. On the benchmark, it reached 84 fps at 1080p and 32 fps at 4K. The Vengeance, with its RTX 2070 Super, ran at 59 fps and 21 fps, respectively. The Omen and the Ra were tested prior to this game being added to our test suite.

MSI MEG Trident X 10th Performance review

Cinebench R15 stresses all available processor cores and threads while rendering a complex image, while in our Handbrake test, we transcode a 12-minute 4K video down to 1080p.

The MEG Trident X’s eight-core Core i7 chip wasn’t destined to win awards here, but it had no trouble keeping pace with the same-core-and-thread-count Core i9-9900K in the Falcon Northwest and HP towers. The Ryzen 9 chips in the Alienware and Corsair boast double the cores and threads, so their astronomical relative scores make sense.

The final test in this section is photo editing. We use an early 2018 release of Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud to apply 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG image, timing each operation and adding up the totals. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bringing the performance of the storage subsystem, memory, and GPU into play.

As this test tends to reward high CPU clocks over core and thread count, the blistering 5.1GHz turbo boost of the MEG Trident X’s Core i7 chip, the highest in this group, helped it achieve the lowest time.

Graphics Tests

We use two benchmark suites to gauge the gaming performance potential of a PC. In the first, UL’s 3DMark, we run two DirectX 11-driven subtests, the mainstream Sky Diver, and Fire Strike, which is more suited to gaming rigs. Our other graphics benchmark is Unigine Corp.’s Superposition, which uses a different rendering engine to produce a complex 3D scene.

The MEG Trident X continued to score as it should in these tests, matching the HP though predictably coming up a tad short next to the Alienware and Corsair since it doesn’t have as much CPU grunt.

These real-world benchmarks narrate in the MEG Trident X’s favor. It was borderline dominant at 1080p, a largely CPU-limited resolution where its high-clocked Core i7 paid dividends. The 1440p resolution was less CPU limited, and UHD/4K even less so. Given gaming performance generally doesn’t scale over eight CPU cores at this time, the Core i7 chip, which happens to be the least expensive one here, is the most you’d need.

Last but perhaps most important, we’ll test some real games. We use the built-in benchmarks in Far Cry 5 (at its Ultra preset) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (at its Very High preset) at 1080p, 1440p, and UHD/4K resolutions. Far Cry 5 uses DirectX 11, while we flip Rise of the Tomb Raider to DirectX 12. The results are measured in frames per second (fps); we look for at least 60 for smooth playability.

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