I'm not sure if MSI's MPG Trident 3 still qualifies as a console form factor, because looking at the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, traditional designs have gone right out the window. What I am sure of, however, is that this prebuilt PC for $949 is a good deal (it's roughly comparable to building your own).

This small form factor gaming rig usually lists for $1,299 but is on sale for $1,099 at Newegg, which is a decent price. However, applying coupon code 93XQB48 at checkout knocks $150 off, bringing it down to $949, making this is a solid bargain—it touts an 8-core, 16-thread Intel Core i7 10700F Comet Lake CPU with a 4.8GHz max boost clock, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU with 6GB of onboard GDDR6 memory.

MSI MPG Trident 3 | Core i7 10700F | GeForce GTX 1650 Super | 8GB RAM | 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD | $1,299 $949 at Newegg (save $350)
 This would make a great HTPC or midrange gaming PC, with enough horsepower to pull 1080p gameplay at high settings. It also has a small footprint. Be sure to use coupon 93XQB48 for the full discount.View Deal

That's a solid foundation for a midrange gaming PC, and should be capable of playing games at 1080p at high settings, as well as some games at 1440p. You don't get dedicated hardware for ray tracing, but that is not unusual at this price point.

I'm not quite as stoked at the 8GB of RAM. Fortunately, RAM is affordable these days, so you could upgrade to 16GB of 32GB and still be well ahead of the game. And for storage, you get a fast 512GB NVMe SSD paired with a 1TB HDD (7,200 RPM) for bulk storage.

Other features include the latest wireless standard (Wi-Fi 6, or 802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.1, and both USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A and Type-C ports. This PC comes with a keyboard and mouse, too.

Not digging this? Check out our roundups of the best gaming PCs, and cheap gaming PC deals.




December 14, 2020 at 02:32PM
from PCGamer latest
Source