Msi infinite s review in Spanish (full analysis)

The Infinite family increases with this MSI Infinite S, a desktop gaming computer, which could very well be portable, since its minimal dimensions make it practically a laptop without a screen. The performance is more than remarkable with an Intel Core i5-9400 6-core processor and a whole MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus inside. MSI always bets on small equipment and good hardware inside for users who do not want to go looking for pieces of equipment.

Very close in performance to the MSI Trident A, we will see that it is able to offer us this Infinite S. Let's get started!

First of all, we thank MSI for their trust in giving us their product for our analysis.

MSI Infinite S technical characteristics

Unboxing and design

We have a new member in the Infinite family adapted to the new times with a 9th generation processor and RTX 2060 GPU for the gaming world. Little by little we will see what the interior of this MSI Infinite S offers us, but let's start with its external appearance.

Well, this desktop PC comes fully assembled and inserted in a neutral cardboard box with a sketch of its outer lines and its brand and model, making it clear that it is a gaming PC.

Inside the box we find two huge polyethylene foam molds that perfectly hold the PC and keep it at a more than considerable distance from the cardboard sides. We hadn't seen a better hold in a long time, really. Inside the box we will find the following elements:

PC MSI Infinite S Three pin power cable Instruction books Graphics card mounts 3x screws to install more RAM and storage Warranty card

We do not have in this case any SATA cable to install hard drives, although there is still room for a 3.5 ”drive inside. And another 2.5 ”which already has a built-in connector.

In this new Infinite S model we clearly have a smaller chassis than the other available versions, although the finishes are not as aesthetic as in the others. The manufacturer has opted for a small box in an ITX format based on sheet steel throughout the external area with the occasional relief gorma decoration and ventilation grills.

The measurements of this equipment certify are 435 mm long (depth), 245 mm high and 128 mm wide. In this tiny space all the hardware fits and we still have some other space for the components to breathe.

We will start with the left side area, where we simply have a steel sheet with some details in relief. This sheet cannot be disassembled independently, since it touches the external area forms a single block and is completely removed, as we will see later.

The front area of MSI Infinite S is made up of a glossy black PVC plastic shell with a couple of shy edges, the MSI dragon logo standing out in the upper area and also a small grille in the lower area that will provide us with lighting LED when we have the equipment started. It will not be manageable by software.

The second area that is divided by this grid is still plastic, although it has a matte finish similar to brushed aluminum.

The right area is undoubtedly the most interesting, since here is the front I / O panel and also the ventilation grille that introduces fresh air directly to the RTX 2060 Ventus that is hidden inside and that is timidly visible.

It will be this area that must be visible to the user, since it will need a clear area for the correct air intake.

We take a close-up of the MSI Infinite S connection panel and we find a fairly familiar configuration already. We have:

Blank backlit PC start / stop button LED hard drive activity indicator 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A with fast charge capability 3.5mm Jack connectors for audio output and mic input

And it would be. We did not find more USB, another USB Type-A would have been a nice detail, even if it was 2.0.

At the top we find absolutely nothing, it is a monoblock sheet next to the sides without any vents. It would not have been a bad idea to place some die-cut area here to allow hot air to escape, even if it were by convection.

Or else, a handle to easily transport the tower, since it is so small, this would facilitate its portability.

In the lower area we also did not find any central grille, only a shy opening in the front that we doubt its effectiveness. Of course, we must say that the small rubber feet provide excellent grip on the ground and great noise insulation. In short, the only air intake we have on MSI Infinite S is the one offered on the right side.

Another very interesting area will be the rear panel, as we can all understand, here is the main connectivity of the MSI Infinite S. In this part we see that the power supply is located, which in this case is of the server type to get into the small space.

In this panel we will find the following connections:

Motherboard:

2x USB 3.1 Gen 22x USB 3.1 Gen 12x USB 2.0RJ45 LAN Gigabit5 Jack connectors for HD audio S / PDIF connector

Graphic card:

3x DisplayPort 1.4a1x HDMI 2.0b

It is not a secret that the MSI Ventus does not have USB Type-C for virtual reality glasses, or data transfer. But hey, each manufacturer opts for their own connectivity settings. The important thing is that both DisplayPort and HDMI provide us with an 8K @ 60Hz resolution video source with no problems.

Interior and components

We made an excursion inside the MSI Infinite S to get a closer look at all the hardware we have. The procedure will be as simple as removing two screws from the rear, pulling the chassis back and then lifting upwards so that it disengages from the fixing tabs. Please note that on one of these screws is the warranty sticker.

Without a doubt an experience for the eyes is to see how in such a small space we have the components so well distributed, even leaving space both in the lower area and between the card and the motherboard. The distribution of this chassis is well worked, although we miss more ventilation inlets.

In the case of a gaming device, the first thing we should pay attention to is the graphics card. MSI follows the trend of the Trindent A by installing an MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus which is the base range of the brand's RTX family. In any case, we have a large dual-fan aluminum heatsink and nickel-plated copper heatpipes that will take care of cooling the 1920 CUDA Cores Turing GPU, 240 Tensor and 30 RT with Ray Tracing and DLSS capability. It is completed with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory working at 14 Gbps.

We will get a great gaming experience at 1080p and 2K resolutions and notably at 4K resolutions.

Let us now take a closer look at where the main hardware is located, such as the CPU and the MSI MS B9181 ITX Motherboard with an Intel H310C chipset. In it, a 9th generation Intel Core i5-9400 Coffee Lake processor is installed, which is provided with 6 cores and 6 processing threads at a frequency of 2.9 GHz. It has a 9 MB L3 cache and a TDP of only 65 W. It is a blocked processor and will not allow overclocking.

Focusing on the heatsink that is mounted, it consists of a block of copper and aluminum from which two bulky copper heatpipes come out to an aluminum dissipation block that connects directly to the outside. A turbine-type fan is installed in it, which expels air. It is correct, but we consider it insufficient for optimal ventilation. In that space it would fit something of greater volume and dissipation capacity, so we will see how this is reflected in the temperatures.

A weak point of this PC is that it only installs a 2666 MHz Samsung 8 GB DDR4 RAM memory module in a SO-DIMM slot. But we should not worry, because the board includes another slot to increase up to 16 GB, or if we prefer to install a total of 32 GB with two modules of 16 GB each, thus taking advantage of the Dual Channel's capacity.

A very good sound card with Realtek ALC S1220A chip with S / PDIF digital audio output is also mounted on this MSI Infinite S board. Network connectivity is also notable with an Intel I219-V Gigabit Ethernet chip and an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168 Wi-Fi card .

We go on to comment on the storage that we have in this desktop unit. As SSD storage, we have a Western Digital PC SN520 unit with 128 GB of storage, under an M.2 PCIe x2 interface and NVMe protocol. Clearly it is neither the highest capacity nor the fastest, a 256 GB would be more acceptable. The section is completed with a 7, 200 RPM 1 TB Western Digital mechanical hard drive.

Be careful because we have enough space to install another 3.5 ”drive right next to the previous one, and also a 2.5-inch SATA drive on top with a built-in connector. The screws will be available in the accessory pack.

The graphics card connection system consists of a motherboard extender with a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot just above the CPU cooling. That said, we will now turn to see the performance results that this MSI Infinite S offers us .

Test bench and benchmarks

As it is a gaming PC, we will carry out a complete test with both benchmark programs and games. We will not forget the temperatures and performance of the M.2 storage unit.

Testing bench:

Device: MSI Infinite S Monitor: ViewSonic VX3211-4k-MHD

characteristics

Using the CPU-Z and GPU-Z programs we can know for sure the internal hardware of this MSI Infinite S.

Storage:

We continue with the CristalDiskMark 6.0.2 software to see the read and write results of the Western Digital M.2 SSD.

We see that this is clearly not an ultra-fast drive, we have values of reading less than 1000 MB / s and writing are also lower. We must bear in mind that we are dealing with a unit that works on PCIe x2, not x4. In any case, the performance will be superior to a SATA III SSD.

RAM and cache memory benchmark

With the Aida 64 software we are going to list the speed results of the RAM memory that this equipment installs.

CPU and GPU benchmark tests

We continue with benchmark tests with the Cinebench R15 program both in OpenGL, and in Multi Core and Single Core rendering. Then we will list the results obtained in the 3DMark Time Spy, Fire Strike Normal and Fire Strike Ultra benchmarks .

Performance in games and temperatures

Finally we come to what we are all waiting for. How will this MSI Infinite S behave in games? Well let's see it, for this we have used the following titles:

Shadow of the Tomb Rider: Ultra TAA Far Cry 5: Ultra TAA Doom 4: Ultra SMAA Deux Ex: Mankind Divided: Ultra SMAA x2 Final Fantasy XV: Ultra Metro Exodus: Ultra + Ray Tracing Alto + DLSS

We have tested in the three main resolutions, Full HD 1080p, WQHD 2K and UHD 4K. To do this, we have used the FRAPS software, always taking three measurements for 180 seconds of play and taking the average.

The results we expect, with good gameplay in some games in 4K resolution, comfortably exceeding 60 FPS as in the case of DOOM4, and in others such as Deux Ex not exceeding 20 FPS, which is quite normal.

The Full HD resolution performance is more than satisfactory, exceeding in all cases the 60 FPS for Full HD resolution and also in 2K, although in some titles such as Final Fantasy XV and Shadow of the Tomb Rider the FPS have suffered compared to previous analyzes for raising the graphic quality. Obviously it is about results with the graphics to the maximum, if we go down we will get better FPS, here each user will be able to customize the graphic quality until they reach the values they consider optimal.

For its part we have tested Metro Exodus in Ultra graphics and with RTX and DLSS activated and we must say that the graphic demands are very high, although the gameplay will be good in Full HD and acceptable in 2K.

We continue with the temperatures, collecting measurements with HWiNFO in a period of 1 hour with the stress mode of Aida 64, both in GPU and CPU. The ambient temperature in the tests is 18 degrees.

They are certainly high temperatures for the CPU, reaching peaks of up to 84 degrees. In any case, the temperature maintained most of the time is 80 degrees, and the Thermal Throttling had not been activated at any time in any of the cores. They are not low temperatures, we must say, but at least we are not reaching the limit.

In the case of the graphics card, everything falls within the normal range, obtaining peak values of 69 degrees, which are identical to other MSI equipment with this same card. The custom heatsink of the MSI Ventus is very good, despite the fact that it is the brand's RTX 2060 “base” card.

Final words and conclusion about MSI Infinite S

As always we start with the most remarkable of this MSI Infinite S, and it is the little space it occupies and the great performance and gaming experience that it has given us. It is a team that is located in the mid-range of PC gaming, with a chassis that does not stand out for its appearance, but for being very compact and ITX size, which we can even transport without effort.

Its main hardware is quite balanced with the exception of RAM, a bit short with only 8 GB DDR4, although we can easily expand it to 32 GB. We have a 9th generation Core i5-9400 and 6 cores along with a powerful MSI RTX 2060 Ventus that gives us a great playable experience in Full HD and 2K full of graphics.

We recommend our guide to the best monitors on the market

The mechanical storage capacity is as expected, with a 1 TB HDD, although the SSD is a bit short with 128 GB and also working on PCIe x2 instead of x4. Let's understand that you have to cut capacity to adjust the price. The cooling system, both the processor itself and the chassis vents, is also upgradeable.

One more positive aspect is the fact of bringing abundant Gen 2 USB connectivity and good connectivity both Wi-Fi and Ethernet, being at the height of most affordable boards on the market. The sound card is also outstanding and one of the high-end of Realtek even with S / PDIF output for Hi-Fi system.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ VERY COMPACT ITX EQUIPMENT	- 8 GB OF RAM MEMORY
+ EXPANDABLE IN HARDWARE	- IMPROVABLE VENTILATION SYSTEM
+ GREAT PERFORMANCE IN FULL HD AND 2K WITH RTX 2060	- SMALL AND LOW PERFORMANCE SSD
+ USB TYPE-C AND TYPE-A GEN2
+ GOOD SOUND CARD AND WI-FI CONNECTIVITY