Review: MSI Infinite A 8th

by Parm Mann on 27 July 2018, 09:00

Tags: MSI, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qadvtv

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Conclusion

What's missing is the attention to detail we would expect from a system designed to showcase a selection of MSI components.

MSI has produced some intriguing gaming PCs over the years, but the Infinite A 8th is neither as inventive as the Vortex nor as versatile as the Trident.

The goal, it seems, is to appeal to a wider audience, and with that in mind there are some good ideas on display. Having a choice of windowed or solid side panels is a nice option to have, using Intel Optane Memory to accelerate the secondary hard disk makes good sense, and the combination of an 8th Gen Intel Core processor and GeForce GTX 1060 graphics is a good fit for high-quality gaming at a full-HD resolution.

What's missing is the attention to detail we would expect from a system designed to showcase a selection of MSI components. The primary SSD is basic, the use of single-channel memory is an oversight, the chassis design is an acquired taste, and the £1,399 price point is at odds with the underlying specification.

Bottom line: RGB lighting, a windowed side panel and a vertical graphics card might be in keeping with recent trends, but MSI needs to tweak the specification and adjust pricing for Infinite A 8th to become a noteworthy gaming PC.

The Good
  
The Bad
Intel Optane acceleration
Ships with a choice of side panels
RGB Mystic Light, if that's your thing
Runs cool at all times
  
Pricey at £1,399
Single-channel memory
Basic 128GB primary SSD
Lots of bloatware


HEXUS.where2buy*

A Core i5 variant of the MSI Infinite A 8th desktop is available to purchase from Currys PC World.

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At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.



*UK-based HEXUS community members are eligible for free delivery and priority customer service through the SCAN.care@HEXUS forum.


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HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH - Fri 27 Jul 2018 14:45
This is our first experience of the 65W Core i7-8700, and at first glance, MSI's implementation falls a tad short of expectations. The 4.6GHz chip is suitably quick in single-threaded PiFast, but the multi-threaded Cinebench and Handbrake benchmarks are a little off the pace. We'd expect this CPU to score around 1,400 in Cinebench, and perusing our log files reveals that the below-average score can be attributed to throttling, with the hexa-core part dialling down to 3.2GHz when the going gets tough.

Or it could be down to MCE - lots of the reviews of the Core i7 8700K and Core i7 8700 have been in Z370 boards which have functional MCE which boosts past the TDP. Since it is a B360 it probably is remaining strictly within TDP.
Posted by Sunderas - Mon 30 Jul 2018 09:25
Why would someone buy this when you can get the Cyberpower Ultra 7 GTX for less money and better performance?
Posted by Wolfclaw - Mon 30 Jul 2018 16:14
Just spent less, for a R5-2600, Asus X470, 16GB DDR4-3200, 500GB NVME, 500GB SSD, EVGA 8GB 1070, Define C, water cooling, headset, no fancy RGB or other useless bling.Yes it's prebuilt, but what fun is there letting a production line do that for you, with less care and attention to details. Would need a big drop in price for me to even consider it.
Posted by Strawb77 - Mon 30 Jul 2018 18:50
i suppose hexus are too polite to call it a dog`s dinner- so i`ll do it for them.