Image: MSI
Among my preferred patterns in desktop PC style for the last number of years has actually been what we call “The War on Cables,” in which all the interior power and information cable televisions are concealed on the behind of a case. It makes a desktop appearance oh-so-clean, which's excellent when PC home builders nowadays are everything about discussion. At CES 2025, the newest version of MSI's Project Zero takes things too far.
Spy out the brand-new develop MSI is flaunting on the CES flooring. Upon very first glimpse, it's precisely what home builders imagine for this type of “conceal whatever around the back” technique– all the much better to flaunt those shining white and aluminum elements with a curved glass (or polycarbonate) enclosure. Look a little closer and you may see that things are a little … off. 90 degrees off, that is.
MSI
See, this Project Zero X motherboard has its I/O board pointed directly down, out of a recessed hollow in the bottom of the case. Ditto for the graphics card (customized installed through a PCI extender cable television). That indicates that all the power, video, and information cable televisions will require to be routed out of the bottom of the case, too.
I believe this style may have been influenced by the Power Mac G4 Cube desktop from method back in 2000. Which thing was notorious for a number of factors, not least of which was that you needed to link all the cable televisions to the bottom of the device.
MSI
I have a couple of other notes. If you utilize a blower-style GPU with the Project Zero X, it's not going to be a terrific setup for the graphics card, shooting hot air to that bottom chamber just to let the heat increase throughout all those parts. (But I expect it a minimum of does not need a particular suitable card, like some Asus styles.) It's likewise an enormous case, committing what appears like majority its overall volume to additional area for the surprise power supply and area for cable televisions, internal and external.
To be reasonable to MSI, this does not look like it's prepared for a retail release. The CES presentation does not even note out the parts concealing under all those shrouds. Chalk this up as a speculative masterpiece.
We'll most likely see some more improvement on the concept (perhaps at Computex later on in the year?) before we see it in any kind that's prepared for purchasers. In the meantime, you can attempt something a little less severe with MSI's present Project Zero parts and cases.
Additional reading: The finest PC and home tech of CES 2025
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of innovation journalism, covering whatever from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut,
