MSI Pre-Built Bends SSDs & Boils CPUs at 100°C ($1700 Aegis R Review)

The MSI Aegis R pre-built PC is one of the worst systems we've ever looked at. It's impressive how MSI combined software and hardware incompetence to create this abomination.



TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - MSI Aegis R Review
02:44 - Tearing Down Something Almost OK
05:35 - Component Selection in the Aegis R
10:38 - Poor Little NVME SSD
12:32 - Catastrophic Thermals
15:31 - Gaming Performance: Cyberpunk 2077
16:54 - Red Dead Redemption 2 Benchmarks
17:08 - Rainbow Six Siege (1080p & 1440p)
18:13 - Power (Blender & Gaming)
19:21 - Setup & Instructions
21:10 - XP-Era Bloatware
25:28 - Conclusion

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Host, Writing, Test Lead: Steve Burke
Testing, Writing: Patrick Lathan
Video: Keegan Gallick, Andrew Coleman

[thedarkness]

Thank you so much for reviewing this and warning everyone. I bought one of these unfortunately - there were a few limitations to what I could buy, long story. Has a 10700k and RTX 3090. When it arrived, the CPU jumped to 100 C with any task. I took the PC apart and found the "Please Remove Before Install" sticker still on the water cooler block (I have pics...). Took that off, repasted, temps improved, but not great. Found the same problem you found - the BIOS settings were pushing it to maximum clock without fail. Tweaked, temps again improved, but not great. I pulled off the front panel, temps were much better. I contacted MSI and bought the mesh equivalent of the front panel (from the Gungnir 111M or something similar). Temps were finally manageable. Then the computer started crashing consistently during every machine learning or gaming session. Turns out the 750W PSU could not handle the power spikes from the 3090. MSI tried to replace the PSU with the same one - same problem. I got sick of it and replaced it with a much better 1200 W one. After all that, my CPU temps returned to 100C. Realized the water cooler was no longer pushing water. Replaced that... Now I finally have a working computer, months and hundreds of dollars later.

[darkzak]

Steve, after buying my last computer pre-built four years ago, I ultimately decided to finally learn how to build a PC. There’s no question I’ve made more than a few mistakes pricewise, but in the end I’m sure that the last two computers I’ve put together for my kids and my wife, combined, were cheaper than any pre-built I’ve ever bought previously.

Not to mention it’s very satisfying when you hit that power button and it posts. I’ve learned a lot from watching your channel as well as Jay and Paul.

To all new builders out there, it’s not as hard as you think! If I can do it anyone can

[MafiaboysWorld]

Ahh, the "It's Better Than Dell" series. On this episode, MSI shows us that it can build a computer and BBQ in the one unit. 😁👍

[Andrew-hgem]

Rookie mistake installing an M.2 heatsink on top of one of those Adata M.2s.
They come with an aluminum heatspreader installed from factory (which is very difficult to remove due to an adhesive thermal pad being used), that adds height and most motherboard included heatsinks will crush it even if not tightened all the way.
This is worse than just over-tightening, it's reckless and could cost the customer time and money should it kill the part.

[shana_dmr]

It's so baffling that company that actually has enough R&D to manufacture their own hardware couldn't figure out how to assemble few off the shelf parts competently.

[iancalandro]

Msi: "OH we'll just mess with the software so it won't say it's thermal throttling. They'll never know."

Steve: "I know."

[BlindBison]

The lack of quality control on prebuilt PCs is just astounding.

[talkashie]

The first M.2 SSD I ever installed I ended up installing incorrectly. I didn't know the little standoff was a thing and I had never seen one of these drives installed before. The drive ran for about 3-4 years installed at a ~10 degree angle until it finally died. When I repaired the computer and replaced the drive, I was shocked that I did something so dumb.

[pcbuilderlover]

MSI took "Compress this drive to save space" to a new level!

[ryandodrill]

I'm always amazed by these because you can put parts in a case, leave everything at default never touching the bios or any settings and end up with a perfectly workable computer. Sure that's not optimal but it works, yet here we are.

[pladimirvutin]

I work for a small computer repair shop and recently had one of these come in. They forgot to take the plastic sticker (that says "please remove before mounting") off the bottom of the cpu cooler and it cooked the cpu. Brilliant.

[GenDrag]

As an old diehard MSI customer, their quality has dropped tremendously over the last decade. I remember when I had issues with some monitors and 1000 series GPUs and, while they didn't reimburse you for the shipping costs, made up for it by upgrading your current product. I remember having a 60hz 1080p monitor that they replaced with a 90hz 1440p monitor, or a 1070 with no display output that got shipped back as a 1080 ti. It didn't cost the company that much more, as they only lost $100-200 USD when they upgraded you, your defective product can be fixed and sent to another gamer instead of to a landfill, and you felt satisfied with the result as an end user.

Nowadays, their customer service and product quality is a shell of its former self. You can definitely tell that there are great workers in the company, but the air is just so intoxicated with corporate bs that it undermines what they used to stand for less than ten years ago. Hope they go under new management and go back to doing things because they made sense, not cents.

[Mord_Vi]

'Unlike Ibuypower they put foam inside'. Having moved at least 20 of these boxes to clients, I never saw a single one that didn't have ample foam protection. The fact they sent YOU guys one without, is stunning to me.

[RP-dymu]

Woah woah woah buddy, "Boil CPU at 100 degrees"? I don't think that's accurate, because you see, I contacted Alienware about a decade ago about a laptop I had which was going at 105-110 degrees, and they assured me that these processors were made for gaming. According to these specialists, it's totally normal for them to be hotter than the boiling point of water.

[Garage]

The really sad thing is, by simply using a case with airflow, correctly installing the SSD, and not adding bloatware, this system would actually make some sense.

[Jsteeeez]

Hearing you say its one of the worst computers you have worked on in the first minute of the video.
Me: wow this must be bad.
Dell: so we technically win the its better than dell award? 🥇

[dashcamandy]

Here's a fun idea: take all the internals and throw them in a generic tower case, and see how the thermals stack up in the "basic beige behemoth." It would be interesting to see if some el-cheapo case has better airflow...

[robertedmonson]

The more I see you guys review these PC's, the more glad I am I decided to put together my first build in September instead of going with a pre-built! 😆

[wysockisauce]

Would be cool if you guys did follow up videos for these prebuilts where you fixed all the shortcomings (keeping the original hardware). Then do a comparison to how it shipped from the factory.

[docferringer]

That plastic backplate is good for one thing only: Keeping screws and other metal bits from falling onto the GPU unnoticed and causing a short. Or water from a leaky water block connection.