Specifications / Chassis

CPU	Intel i5-4670K @ 3.8GHz / OC 4.0GHz
Cooler	Tower Cooler
Motherboard	MSI Z97I Gaming Nightblade
Memory	ADATA 2x8GB 2133MHz CL 11-12-12-30
Graphics card	MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G
Hard drive	Seagate Barracuda 2TB
SSD	2x Plextor PX-128M6M 128GB RAID0
Power supply	600W 80Plus Gold
Connectors	2 x e-SATA 2 x HDMI 1 x Display Port 1 x S/PDIF 1 x PS/2 1 x CMOS 1 x WiFi Antenna 6 x Audio jacks/li>
Dimensions	345.8 x 277.3 x 175.7 mm
Weight	8 Kg
Drivers	NVIDIA ForceWare 344.75
OS	Windows 8.1 x64

MSI Nightblade is a mini PC system based on an ITX form-factor, and made to be carried easily during various events and LAN parties. At the moment, the MSI Nightblade is available on the market in two versions, one based on the Intel Z97 chipset and other based on the Intel B85 chipset. Both systems are also available as a barebone version, with only the power supply and motherboard while other components can be chosen by the end user.

The case measures 345.8 x 277.3 x 175.7 mm with a total weight of 8 Kg, and is made of high quality steel with good thickness. As you can guess from the size, the MSI Nightblade is a very compact case without any special openings or windows. Only the front features a handle that will allow easier transport. The bottom features a generous dust filter that allows a high airflow to the internal components like the graphics card. Regarding the connections, you can find four USB 3.0 ports at the front panel, painted in red, two standard audio jacks and a cool OC button that pushes the CPU up by additional 200 MHz. The cooling of the components is assigned to a 92 mm fan placed at the rear of the case and which is able to reach 3600 RPM.

Regarding the hardware, our version of the MSI Nightblade is based on a Z97I Gaming Nightblade motherboard, which has all of the most common connections, including both WiFi and Bluetooth. Combined with the small MSI Gaming motherboard, we have Intel's Core i5-4670K 3.80 GHz CPU cooled by a heatsink tower CPU cooler. Despite the ITX form-factor, MSI equipped this version with a powerful MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card powered by a not very clear 600W 80Plus Gold power supply . As for storage, on this model, we found two mSATA Plextor PX-128M6M 128GB SSDs in RAID0 and a standard Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD for storage. Often, on systems which are compact, you must give up the daily comforts such as DVD burner, but with the MSI Nightblade, company found space for a thin slot-in reader, in other words MSI Nightblade has all the comforts that you can find on a normal PC gaming system.

On the following pages we will check the performance with some benchmarks and games.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 10 - WinRAR
Page 2 - Preview	Page 11 - Frybench
Page 3 - Specifications	Page 12 - Games
Page 4 - 3DMark	Page 13 - SSD
Page 5 - UCBench	Page 14 - Overclock
Page 6 - XTU	Page 15 - Power Consumption
Page 7 - Cinebench	Page 16 - Temperatures / Noise Levels
Page 8 - HWBot Prime	Page 17 - Conclusion
Page 9 - Blackhole