Rating: 8.0.

1. Introduction 2. MSI Nightblade (1) 3. MSI Nightblade (2) 4. MSI Nightblade (3) 5. MSI Nightblade (Super High Res Gallery) 6. Testing Methodology 7. PCMark 8 8. 3DMark Vantage 9. 3DMark 11 10. 3DMark 11. SiSoft Sandra 12. Cinebench R11.5 64 bit 13. Cinebench R15 14. Media Encoding 15. SSD Performance 16. USB 3.0 Performance 17. Tomb Raider (1600p) 18. Tomb Raider (Ultra HD 4K) 19. Metro: Last Light (1080p High) 20. Metro Last Light (Ultra HD 4K) 21. GRID 2 (1600p) 22. GRID 2 (Ultra HD 4K) 23. Batman: Arkham Origins (Ultra HD 4K) 24. Battlefield 4 (Ultra HD 4K) 25. Thermal Dynamics 26. Acoustics Performance 27. Power Consumption 28. Closing Thoughts 29. View All Pages

In the last year we have seen a rising demand for smaller chassis such as the excellent Bitfenix Prodigy and Aerocool Dead Silence. With this in mind MSI are launching their MSI Nightblade – a barebones configuration to target the demanding enthusiast audience who feel that ‘smaller is better’. The barebones includes the case, an MSI Z87I gaming motherboard, a Dragon Fan and 80 Plus Gold certified Silverstone 600W power supply. MSI say that this diminutive 16 litre case can house the most powerful components available … so today we put their claims to the test.

MSI will be selling the Nightblade chassis in a barebones configuration however some of their partners such as Scan, Overclockers UK, Yoyotech, Cyberpower UK and MESH will be selling in a fully configured state. This makes sense, because while many people like to build their own system, some just don’t want to deal with the hassle, especially when working in the confines of such a small chassis.

Today we will be testing the MSI Nightblade with some of the highest specification components we can use – including an Intel Core i7 4770k, two Plextor Solid State drives in Raid 0, and an MSI R9 290X graphics card. MSI bundled their optional custom CPU cooler so we include that in the mix.



Can the case handle the heat?





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