MSI Outdoes The Cylindrical Mac Pro With Ultra Powerful Vortex Small Form Factor PC
On the graphics front, you have two choices: you can go with either a dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 GPUs (6GB) or dual GeForce GTX 980 (16GB). The graphics subsystem is 4K-ready and capable of simultaneously outputting to up to six displays. Storage duties are handled by dual PCIe 256GB SSDs in conjunction with a 1TB 7200RPM HDD. Other niceties include four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports and Dual Killer Gaming Network E2400 interface. A 450W 80 plus Gold power supply provides enough juice to handle the potent hardware lurking underneath.
Keeping the temperatures inside the Vortex is taken care of by MSI’s 360-degree Silent Storm Cooling technology, which delivers a vortex-shaped channel of air (hence the PC’s name) that directs heat from the base of the machine and expels it upward. MSI says that this arrangement allows for superior cooling performance and lower acoustic levels.
“The revolutionary Vortex gaming tower shatters the misconception that bigger systems deliver more power and performance,” said MSI Pan America President Andy Tung. “The groundbreaking system maximizes space and heat dissipation to unlock the power of its components for truly astronomical performance in a Subwoofer size.”
The first system to cross our minds when we saw the Vortex was Apple’s Mac Pro, even though it’s definitely not a gaming rig and is a billed as a professional machine. That machined has languished for years with little to no updates to speak of and commands a hefty starting price of $2,999. The Vortex, on the other hand, starts at $2,199 with the GTX 960 SLI configuration and 16GB of system RAM. Stepping up to the GTX 980 SLI config with 32GB of system RAM takes the price tag to $3,999.
