Announcing the Tom's Hardware AMA and Gaming Giveaway with MSI!

[MSIDavY]

Does MSI have plans in the future to support total system-wide LED control?
For example; having a system based on MSI hardware that can utilize a single control mechanism for configuration of LED patterns or RGB schemes across the entire system. GPU, motherboard, case, etc all sharing the same LED profile patterns and colors from a single MSI application?

Yes to both questions!

We are already working closely with partners who share this goal with us by opening the MSI Mystic Light control panel to them. Expect a unification of system wide lighting in the future.

 

[MSIGeno]

Are there any perks to being an MSI employee? Do you all get suped up rigs with 1080s in SLI? Can you send me one? :lol:

One of the best perks to being an MSI employee is for sure being able to play with the latest and greatest tech before the general public even gets an eye at them.

We don't get free parts from the company, but after experiencing first hand MSI products, im a firm believer in the products we sell.

I dont have 2 1080's, but heres my rig specs:

Case: Inwin 303 (white)
MB: MSI z170a Krait 3X
CPU: Intel i7 6700k (4.7 stable)
Cooler: Corsair h100i v2
GPU: MSI GTX 980Ti x2 in SLI
PSU: Corsair HX750i
SSD: Samsung 950 Pro m.2 NVMe 512GB
Memory: Klevv CRAS DDR4

http://imgur.com/a/OyXNC

 

[MSIDavY]

My question is:
Should we expect a "Lightning" or similarly very high-end card for this Pascal series? If so, can we know which GPU will it be paired with?

We always want Lightning to be the best of the best. That means we need to give time to R&D so we can push the GPU to its maximum. For your second question, we only release Lightning to use the top of the line GPU. I believe that should answer that question.

 

[MSIGeno]

My question,
Will MSI eventually design computer cases like the vortex in larger form factors for pc builders and enthusiasts?

The Vortex launch was a great success. We saw a lot of media endorsements as well as many positive users feedback.

Of course, how to make it even more attractive by slightly modifying the existing size or shape is definitely a discussion internally at our product management team.

We currently are already manufacturing and selling our desktop line, which includes a wide array of barebone and full system models to choose from in the Aegis and Nightblade gaming desktop series.

 

[Ravi_Singh1900]

HI, I had used MSI gtx 960 and its quite a good overclocker and the temps are pretty good. But I found all MSI GPU have only 2 fan, are you guys planning any GPU's with 3 fan like the Gigabyte G1.

 

[MSI Scorpion]

I have two questions.

The first is this: In the past few days, you, MSI, have teased and then announced the coming of new VR-ready laptops, set to launch on 15 August, 2016. However, I myself am a first-year college student who has class starting on 6 September, 2016. Will dealers such as Newegg have them in stock in time to buy one before classes begin?

My second question deals with the same laptops: As a student, long battery life is key to success (or at least peace of mind). Have you made any significant improvements in this field? In years and models past, your models have been noted to have sub-par battery life, even for gaming laptops.

Yep! As of today, many of our resellers already have most of our models in stock . You can find them, along with all the details of our newly launched line up here: http://event.msicomputer.com/nbpascal/

As far as battery life is concerned, with the newest GeForce® GTX 10 series, you can expect longer battery performance over previous generations. Additionally, we also have different performance modes in our SHIFT feature to toggle different levels of performance, including an eco mode to save battery.

 

[MSI Scorpion]

Are there any perks to being an MSI employee? Do you all get suped up rigs with 1080s in SLI? Can you send me one? :lol:

One of the best perks to being an MSI employee is for sure being able to play with the latest and greatest tech before the general public even gets an eye at them.

We don't get free parts from the company, but after experiencing first hand MSI products, im a firm believer in the products we sell.

I dont have 2 1080's, but heres my rig specs:

Case: Inwin 303 (white)
MB: MSI z170a Krait 3X
CPU: Intel i7 6700k (4.7 stable)
Cooler: Corsair h100i v2
GPU: MSI GTX 980Ti x2 in SLI
PSU: Corsair HX750i
SSD: Samsung 950 Pro m.2 NVMe 512GB
Memory: Klevv CRAS DDR4

http://imgur.com/a/OyXNC

GET OVER HERE

 

[MSIGeno]

My question is: How does MSI determine how to design and market their products to address user preferences and market trends? Do you solicit feedback from the user community and if so where and how?

MSI is a global company and we sell to many different regions in the world. We take valuable feedback from many different communities (Casual, beginners, enthusaists, hardcore, etc) as well as from events such as big and small LAN's, tech conferences, business trade shows, etc to gain as much knowledge and feedback that we can take and put it into our R&D to eventually create products that are designed for the people we created it for.

People posting to forums such as Toms hardware is definitely one of the places we read through for user feedback. We're always on the look out to see why a product was good or not, and use that to improve on the next iteration.

 

[Ravi_Singh1900]

You have water cooled GPU range by name of Seahawk. Are you guys planning to make upgrade kits, i.e cooler only so that normal user with gaming or armor GPU use them as an updgrade.

 

[Onus]

As someone who likes smaller systems, I'd really like to see some more powerful half-height single slot (including cooler) cards; right now the most powerful available seems to be the GT740. Does MSI have any plans to release some more powerful cards in this form factor? Even a GTX950 would be a huge step up.

 

[Ravi_Singh1900]

Although MSI has global warranty but in India we still need to ship product to Taiwan for rma, if the product is not locally purchased in India i.e its from another country. Are you guys planning to have a special rma center here in India in near future to support global warranty.

 

[MSIGeno]

My Question: Have you; or do you have plans to investigate the feasibility of electrostatic or thermo-electric cooling? Have never seen any manufacturer address cooling outside of fans and the occasional water block and more silent cooling tech would be more than welcome.

We are always looking for new and improved ways to cool our hardware. As we see new cooling tech surface, we will find ways to implement them into our products.

 

[MSIGeno]

Will MSI make other new brands? like wi-fi router or sound card.

We are always looking at new opportunities. If we move into a new product space, we'll be sure to let the community know 😀

 

[MSIGeno]

Are you going to offer any pre-built PCs? You already make laptops why not build desktops?

Someone asked a similar question. See the response below:

How to offer a solution that gamers really want instead of a combination of assembled general PC components is the question we brainstorm internally. We are always looking to find ways to add great value and features to our desktop products. The MSI Gaming laptop line represents not only latest & greatest CPU+GPU's that are available, but also features and designs that benefit gamers and their experiences. This same DNA will be transformed to our gaming desktop products.

 

[Ravi_Singh1900]

I recently read about a skylake motherboard with onboard GTX 1070, are you guys planning to do something like this in future.

 

[SephirothCloud]

I dont have 2 1080's, but heres my rig specs:

Case: Inwin 303 (white)
MB: MSI z170a Krait 3X
CPU: Intel i7 6700k (4.7 stable)
Cooler: Corsair h100i v2
GPU: MSI GTX 980Ti x2 in SLI
PSU: Corsair HX750i
SSD: Samsung 950 Pro m.2 NVMe 512GB
Memory: Klevv CRAS DDR4

http://imgur.com/a/OyXNC

GET OVER HERE

FATALITY

 

[Ravi_Singh1900]

Is MSI planning to make CPU coolers in near future.

 

[MSIGeno]

Which do you prefer: air or water cooling?

Water cooling for sure.

 

[MSIDavY]

Hey MSI ,

1- Since most (not all) of mini ITX motherboards users fit it in a dual slot case any ways , how about making the motherboard wider by adding another slot ? it will fit in 2 slots cases , give us 2 slots...

and for some , they can get 3 slots itx case and add a card + GPU card as well using such mobo.

something like mini-DTX mobo .. can you make a Gaming Mini-DTX please with 2 slots ( The same screws places in Mini Itx , and same depth but wider) .

2- When are you planning to release mini-ITX/mini-DTX X99 Motherboard ? The only one in the market is Asrock and we need Competition , add 4DIMMS/SoDimms please and multiple u2 slots ..

3-How about adding an empty mini slot in all motherboard as a standard so we can add WIFI/BT module ? it is a lot better than using standard slots because they block Airflow aroung the GPU cards . make it standard like any PCIe x1 slot ?

4- Usually motherboards with external 19V power plug are designed to take 65 watt CPU and do not support High level Graphic cards .. Given external 300 watts power supplies exist , and that we can make easy a System with GTX 1070/1060 run on Total 300Watt only by selecting 65 and 35 W CPU .. can you please consider making motherboards with external 19v plug that can take in 300 watts , and put a 6/8 pin header on the motherboard to connect it to the GPU card ?

5- Given most people have problems when upgrading GPU cards in regard of Changing the power supply and figuring out the wattage , and many cant change the power , how about adding an external 12v plug to your GPU card that is shared/switched with the internal 6/8 pin connectors ? so in case some one does not want to bother about power supply changing , just plug in external power ? you could sell those external as optional as well .. 60 watts for GTx 1060 (75 from mobo) and so on ? this will cost you nothing just the external 12V / 19V plug .. but would help a lot people who don't want to change power supply , just put the card in , connect external power , done . also will make people with non standard power supply buy the card as well . and if some don't want to use external power , the internal plug is still there .

6- Can you please Make some Nvidia cards without the DVI all together , Eliminating the need of 2 SLOTS in case we add a water block and use it in one slot only ? the DVI forces us to use 2 slots even that the waterblock is using only one slot ... this will allow us to use more cards in Micro ATX motherboards ..

7. Can you please give us shorter Micro ATX motherboards ? MATX are 245x245 , how about making them 245x170 ? (like a mini ITX with 4 slots) .. The point of this ? adding a radiator infront of the motherboard and freeing more place for a power supply at the front , and giving us more place in a compact MATX case ... The screws mounts are there and ready . The only thing that we will miss in it is the 4 slots DIMMS , will be 2 slots DIMMS only (look at it as mini ITX with 4 slots.

(1) Extending the dimensions of what was an ITX design brings it up to microATX. Also miniITX commands too small of a market share to warrant the attention.

(2) Although it might sound like a good idea, the real sales out is very small. Putting the X99 PCH on a ITX board kills most of the benefits of the otherwise feature-rich X99 chipset. You lose the benefits of the 28 or 40 PCI-E lanes, you are limited to one PCI-E slot, and you lose the 8 dimm quad channel memory since the tiny board only has space for 2 DIMMs. An ITX board belongs in a small chassis which will get hot and noisy.

(3) That new "mini slot" already exists in the form of M.2

(4 & 5) We probably won't do that because desktop PSUs are in a pretty good place right now. Besides, the design as you propose would likely exacerbate the issue by introducing more failure points instead of easing the upgrading process.

(6) Eliminating the 2nd DVI connector is possible for entry-level and low-end cards which don't produce much heat (comparatively) and can get away with single slot coolers and brackets. The exclusion of DVI all-together is unlikely, given how ubiquitous the DVI connector is and the current state of displays.

(7) Possibly, but we also have to follow the microATX form factor standard. If spacing inside the case is a concern, I would direct my attention to the case, not the motherboard.

 

[MSIGeno]

How did you get into computer hardware enthusiast industry? Do you all build your own PCs? What is your biggest PC building mistake?

For me, i had an interest in PC's ever since i was a kid due to my dad being in the industry as well. All the people that work here that loves PC's all build their own. In our team, we talk alot of our builds and like to show each other anytime we make any additions or changes.

My build is the best, just saying.

 

[MSIDavY]

will msi gpu's ever adopt swappable/removable fans.

on the subject of fans can we please have some fluid dynamic bearing fans rather than ball bearing.
there just so much quieter. (i like quiet and performance 😉 )

thanks

It is unlikely as it raises concerns for users damaging their board.

Ball bearings are better rated for longevity even when the environment is hot as can be the case for high-performance video cards. The efficiency of the Twin Frozr VI cooler as well as the Zero Frozr feature where the fans do not spin up until the GPU reaches a certain temperature help to minimize noise as much as possible.

 

[MSIDavY]

MSI, I bought MSI GTX 1070 and saw RX 460 with the same color design. Made my purchase look less interesting. Why not put different color pair for other brand/model of graphics card or have customer pick color combinations to match their case led lights.

Check out my reply here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3150117/announcing...

What can be said about the colors we choose for our motherboards can be applied to video cards too.

 

[MP5_shooter]

Which do you prefer: air or water cooling?

Water cooling for sure.

I was thinking about upgrading to an AIO cooler, but I'm worried about having water around my precious PC components. Do you not worry about leaking? What are the long term consequences of having a water cooler? Could it ever run out of liquid?

 

[MSIDavY]

Loved my MSI Afterburner Radeon HD 7850, although out of date it delivered countless of hours of entertainment!

Q: What is your take on USB legacy I/O on MSI motherboards? ie Will you consider a "future-proof" design that excludes USB 2.0 and possibly even USB 3.1 out of future designs to make room for the robust USB Type C?

We already have enthusiast motherboards that eschew USB 2.0 ports.

 

[MSI Scorpion]

Will there be a VR ready, thin and light MSI laptop with a GTX 1080, or will we have to wait for the next generation? If there is one coming, what approximate price range? Thanks!

Our newly launched thin and light laptops (GS63 & GS73) are equipped with the GTX 1060, which is VR Ready.
As of now, we don't have any GTX 1080 in our GS Series laptops.

You can find all the details here: http://event.msicomputer.com/nbpascal/