One among my favourite tendencies in desktop PC design for the final couple of years has been what we name “The War on Cables,” whereby all the inside energy and information cables are hidden on the bottom of a case. It makes a desktop look oh-so-clean, and that’s nice when PC builders as of late are all about presentation. However at CES 2025, the newest incarnation of MSI’s Undertaking Zero takes issues too far.
Spy out the brand new construct MSI is exhibiting off on the CES flooring. Upon first look, it’s precisely what builders dream of for this type of “hide everything around the back” strategy — all the higher to indicate off these gleaming white and aluminum parts with a curved glass (or polycarbonate) enclosure. However look a bit nearer and also you would possibly discover that issues are a bit… off. 90 levels off, that’s.
MSI
See, this Undertaking Zero X motherboard has its I/O board pointed straight down, out of a recessed hole within the backside of the case. Ditto for the graphics card (customized mounted through a PCI extender cable). That implies that all the facility, video, and information cables will have to be routed out of the underside of the case, too.
I feel this design may need been impressed by the Energy Mac G4 Dice desktop from method again in 2000. And that factor was notorious for a number of causes, not least of which was that you just needed to join all of the cables to the underside of the machine.
MSI
I’ve a number of different notes. For those who use a blower-style GPU with the Undertaking Zero X, it’s not going to be an excellent setup for the graphics card, capturing scorching air all the way down to that backside chamber solely to let the warmth rise throughout all these parts. (However I suppose it at the least doesn’t require a selected appropriate card, like some Asus designs.) It’s additionally an enormous case, dedicating what appears to be like like greater than half its whole quantity to additional house for the hidden energy provide and house for cables, inside and exterior.
However to be honest to MSI, this doesn’t appear to be it’s prepared for a retail launch but. The CES demonstration doesn’t even record out the components hiding beneath all these shrouds. So chalk this up as an experimental showpiece.
We’ll most likely see some extra refinement on the thought (possibly at Computex later within the yr?) earlier than we see it in any kind that’s prepared for patrons. Within the meantime, you may attempt one thing rather less excessive with MSI’s present Undertaking Zero components and circumstances.
Additional studying: The very best PC and residential tech of CES 2025
