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As someone who believes in the ideal of the trim, tidy PC interior, I do applaud the intent behind MSI’s Project Zero X. Currently on show at CES 2025, it’s a prototype desktop build that uses clever geometry and an unconventional motherboard I/O layout to hide practically every single wire in the joint, for a clean design that’s housed for your viewing pleasure within a four-sided glass chamber. It’s the closest PCs have come to the simple Victorian pleasures of a nice terrarium, and honestly, good on it.
The problem is that if Project Zero X’s components ever actually go on sale, there becomes a non-zero percent chance that I will come into possession of that see-through case. And there is a one hundred percent chance I will ruin it.
I can’t remember if I’ve ever confessed this before, but I absolutely fucking suck at cable management. Just, abysmal. I can’t get them straight. I can’t get them bending where I want them. I can’t figure out what to do with the slack except stuff it under the PSU shroud like a bundle of old Christmas lights that just barely fit back in their box. I almost considered begging Liam (RPS in peace) not to shoot that video of me bumbling through the process because I knew it would out me as some kind of hardware fraud, a Frank Abagnale with zipties. Remember, it’s not imposter syndrome if you’re genuinely an imposter.
Point being, it doesn’t matter what MSI have done with the Project Zero X case, even if they have gone to such ginnard-concealing lengths that it’s somehow got the GPU outputs pointing out of the side. If I try to build a PC with this, it will be full of stray cables, and its entire purpose will be undermined. I don’t know how. But I’ll find a way.
Still, for less deficient PC builders, this could make for quite the statement piece. Provided, anyway, that the still-traditional blend of glass and metal remains within the boundaries of Your Kinda Thing. Opinions on chassis designs can of course vary, even in the relatively tiny sample size of the current RPS team: per a meeting this morning where I brought up the Project Zero X, it turns out Graham wants to see as little of his PC’s insides as possible, Edwin dislikes anything painted black or with lights, and Nic wishes his was made out of wood. Maybe not the case for us lot, then.